Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
A nna slept later than usual and when she finally made it downstairs, she was one of the last ones up. Most of the cast, including Billy and Katy, were sitting on the back deck drinking coffee. Eloise and Lauren were in the kitchen, sitting at the table with their laptops open. Anna took Smith for a quick walk, then fed him. She poured herself a cup of black coffee and spread peanut butter onto a toasted cinnamon raisin bagel. Instead of joining the others on the deck, she sat with Eloise and Lauren. They chatted a bit about how much fun the party was the night before and Anna put off her question until she was almost done eating her bagel.
“Did either of you have a chance to go through all the footage from last night yet?”
“We’re looking at it now. We’re just about at the end of the night, before everyone went to bed. Is there a reason you’re asking?” Lauren looked curious.
“Yeah, there is. I wanted to have all the information before I talk to Katy.” She filled them in on what she’d seen.
Lauren and Eloise exchanged glances and Lauren shook her head and looked disappointed. “Let’s find out,” she said.
Anna slid her chair closer to Lauren so she could see as well. Lauren scrolled through the footage until they saw Billy and Sami head into his room. She switched to Billy’s static camera, and they only needed to watch for a few minutes before it was clear what was happening. Sami pulled Billy in for a kiss and he resisted for a moment and then gave into it and kissed her back. Their clothes came off almost instantly, and wearing only their underwear, they climbed into bed and pulled the covers over them. Lauren fast-forwarded to less than an hour later, when Sami slid off the bed with a blanket wrapped around her, gathered her clothes and went into the bathroom. She emerged a few minutes later, fully dressed, and left Billy’s room.
Anna sighed heavily. “Well, I’d hoped that it might be nothing, like maybe she stopped in his room for a quick minute for some reason and then went on her way. But this is bad. I have to tell her.”
Lauren nodded. “Yeah, it’s awful. She needs to know.”
“I wonder how he’ll defend this,” Eloise asked.
“I have a pretty good guess. He’ll say it didn’t mean anything, that it was just sex and that he really cares about Katy. I hope she knows it will happen again? I think it’s just who he is. He’s not mature enough to resist,” Lauren said.
Anna noticed a slight edge of bitterness in Lauren’s voice. She sensed that it had been hard for Lauren to get over Billy, and this was a reminder of what she’d had to deal with. The only good thing was that even though Katy was emotionally attached, she hadn’t gotten physical yet with Billy. Anna knew it would be that much harder if things had gotten more serious with them. But still, she knew this was going to be hard for her.
“When will you tell her?” Lauren asked.
Anna was trying to decide. Part of her wanted to pull Katy aside now and tell her, but she knew if she did that, it would ruin her last day at the house. They were planning on relaxing at the beach all day and then heading to dinner as a group later.
“I think I’ll tell her later when we’re getting ready for dinner. That way, she’ll have one last fun day at the beach before Billy totally ruins it.”
“That’s a good idea. And it will be interesting to see what the dynamic is like today between Billy and Sami,” Eloise said.
Anna wondered about that too.
Sami didn’t come down to the beach until after lunch. She brought a tuna sandwich and a bag of chips with her and a tall thermos of water mixed with electrolytes. She had bags under her eyes and looked as though she felt miserable. Anna wasn’t sure if that was just because she was hungover or if she felt bad about hooking up with Billy. She was quieter than usual and kept her distance from Billy, and also from Katy and Anna. She plopped her beach chair next to Honey and Brett and nodded now and then as Honey chatted on about her plans for some new project when she and Brett got home.
Katy, meanwhile, was well rested and in a great mood. She was looking forward to their dinner that evening.
“I looked them up on TripAdvisor and I know what I’m having.” Katy was such a foodie and Anna found it amusing how excited she got whenever they went to a new restaurant.
“What are you having?” she asked.
“Miso butter-poached lobster and I want to get an order of lobster deviled eggs for the table and a lobster spring roll to start.”
Anna laughed. “I didn’t realize you were that into lobster.”
“Well, I figure I might as well have my fill of it. We have it in New York, but not like this.”
“You have a good point.” Lobster was plentiful and delicious on Nantucket. Maybe she would order the same.
As the day went on, Anna noticed that Billy seemed no different in the way he joked with Katy and with Sami, too. He wasn’t ignoring her and was just acting as though nothing had happened. Anna was fascinated and disturbed at the same time. If she hadn’t happened to see Sami go into Billy’s room, she never would have known. She knew that production would have seen it when they reviewed the film, but she didn’t know how they would have handled it if Anna hadn’t seen it, too. Would they have told Katy or let it play out and see what happened? Anna was glad she’d seen it and that she could tell Katy and let her decide how she wanted to deal with it.
They left the beach a little after four and, as usual, Anna took the first shower. Katy preferred to wait and lounge on her bed watching TV. It wasn’t until they were both almost totally ready, and Katy was just putting the final touches on her makeup when Anna took a deep breath and told her what she’d seen and then what was on the film from Billy’s room. Katy’s hand shook as she finished applying her eye liner then turned to face Anna.
“You really saw her go into his room? And there’s no doubt about what happened?” She bit her lower lip and her eyes looked watery and Anna felt like crying, too. She stood up and pulled Katy in for a hug.
“Yes, and I’m sorry. He’s a jerk.”
Katy pulled out of the hug and assessed her makeup and then half-laughed and half-cried. Her mascara had totally smudged and looked a mess. She grabbed a tissue and tried to clean it up and then reapplied concealer and more mascara. She took a deep breath.
“I’m furious and totally devastated. I really thought it was going well with Billy.”
“It seemed like it was. Lauren put it best. It’s just who he is. The scary thing is if I hadn’t seen him, you wouldn’t have known. I’m just glad you didn’t get too serious with him.”
Katy nodded. “I’m so glad. And it was hard. I’ve been so tempted. I thought it would happen as soon as filming ended. I was looking forward to it.”
“Will you confront him?” Anna was curious about how Katy would handle the news. So far, while she was clearly upset, she wasn’t as devastated as Anna had feared that she would be. At least she didn’t seem to be.
“I’ll definitely say something. But I’m not sure when. I’m too upset to say anything right now.”
“Yeah, wait until the time seems right,” Anna said.