Chapter 30 ZACHERY STAVES OFF THE DEMON
Chapter 30
Z ACHERY S TAVES O FF THE D EMON
Yeah, I saw the whole thing.
Kelsey didn’t make any ball jokes, which was probably a good call. I think she had to rein herself in, though.
When Randy leaves, she races up the stairs, then stops short when she sees me leaning on the rail. “Hey.”
“Phase two initiated?” I ask.
“He’s coming for me in the morning.”
“Good. It’s what you wanted.”
“It is.” She swirls her skirt absentmindedly. She’s giving Doris Day vibes.
I back away from the rail. “Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t make any plans for today, because Desdemona sent a ridiculous amount of work. Jester couldn’t get through to you, so he wrote me.”
“Oh! I left my phone upstairs.” She hurries toward her room.
“Let me know what I can do to help.”
She twists the knob. “If she has someone she wants you to take out, will you go back to LA?”
That’s a good question. “She hasn’t asked. I might tell her I’m in Ibiza.” Desdemona knows that is my no-work zone.
“Okay, good.” She disappears inside her room.
My phone buzzes.
Jester: Find her?
Me: She’s coming.
Jester: How is the trip going?
Me: She met a local. They’re going out tomorrow.
Jester: Is he a serial killer?
Me: Unlikely.
Jester: You doing all right?
I hesitate. Am I?
Apparently, I wait too long to reply.
Jester: I’m worried.
Me: Don’t be.
Jester: When are you going to stop this nonsense and tell her how you feel?
Me: A half an hour after never.
Jester: It’s not right. She should know.
No way. If I can’t play this straight, she’ll feel guilty, particularly after the night we had.
Me: We’re all right. She’s happy.
Jester: And you’re miserable!
He might be right. I’m going to have to find some way to distract myself with all this going on. I’ll lose my mind.
Jester: I knew it!
I hesitated again.
Me: I’ll live. Forward any of the work you have that I can take off K’s plate. She’s got plans.
Jester: All right, honey bear. But I think you should nip this misdirection before you go plumb crazy.
Me: Not my story here. It’s hers.
Jester: Can’t blame me for worrying.
I hear Kelsey’s voice in the other room. She must be talking to Desdemona. It’s late afternoon in France. I fully intend to help out if her workload gets in the way of her husband plan.
When my phone buzzes again, it’s Kels.
Help!
I hurry to her room. She stands in front of the tapestry she normally hangs on the wall behind her desk to make a pretty video background.
“He’s right here,” she says.
She wants me on the call?
I’m not dressed for work, which I realize is a grave error. Desdemona will call it out. I’ve never once worn shorts to the office.
“Hold on,” Kelsey says. She sets the phone face down on the desk. “Get a suit jacket on!” She waves me off.
I race to my room, grab a jacket, thankful the collarless shirt look is back. When I return, she says, “He had to finish a call. Oh! He’s done.”
I take the phone from her, careful to keep it angled above the waist and with the tapestry behind me. “Hello, Desdemona.”
She’s sitting on a veranda, the Riviera in the background. “What is your availability?”
“I’m heading to Ibiza in about four hours,” I say. “What’s your timeline?”
She waves a hand. “Nothing pressing. But Catalina Ferrig will be in town at the beginning of June, and I want her to accept the lead role for a Romeo and Juliet remake.”
“I’m sure she’ll be interested in that without my help.”
“Luigi Casperra is directing.”
“Oh.” Catalina made clear on a late-night talk show that she’d rather go blind than take direction from Luigi.
“I want her to be absolutely swooning when we approach her. Give her the full work. Make her want to be someone’s Juliet.”
I catch Kelsey looking away, her lips tight. “Understood.”
“Give me back to Kelsey.”
Kelsey slips in close so I can hand off the phone in front of the narrow background. It’s tight, and her body brushes against mine.
I quickly step away, but not before everything ignites. Maybe I should go back, return to my old game. Plunder the future Juliet.
But the idea doesn’t appeal like it once did.
Instead, I find myself watching Kelsey bend over to take notes on the pretty paper left on the antique side table she’s using as a desk.
Desdemona barks out rapid orders. “We’ll need to contact our usual BG for a cattle call of three hundred extras under thirty.”
“Call the BG for background extras. Got it.”
“Contact a few hot models in trashy clothes for close-ups. They can be SAG. It’s a big-budget concert scene, and they don’t want to CGI the floor, only the mezzanine.”
Kelsey scribbles madly on the paper.
It makes me smile, watching her handle the Demon’s demands so easily. Kelsey was so green at the beginning, with no idea that BG stood for background extras or that SAG meant actors who were part of the professional acting guild. She’s good now. She’s competent. More than that. She’s fantastic.
But she’s not mine . I have to tear my gaze away.
Desdemona hasn’t paused for a breath. “Make sure the BG is fully represented on the set. No rando assistants. I want brass. We’re using them for that soccer movie, right?”
“Yes, they gave us the extras for the arena.”
“I’m thinking about coming back to watch that one to make sure everything’s good for the big one.”
Uh-oh.
Kelsey stops writing. “You’re going to come in person?”
“That’s what I said.”
“That’s in two weeks.”
“I know. I hate it, but I should probably be there.”
Kelsey looks up at me. I can see the panic she’s trying to tamp down. “I can handle it. I really can. I can take Jester. Zachery, even.”
There’s silence for a minute, and Kelsey watches me, trying to hold her neutral expression for Desdemona.
“Maybe. Tell me how the conversation goes when you book the concert-scene crowd.”
“Okay. I’m on it. We’ll handle it beautifully.”
Then her phone goes dark. Desdemona isn’t one for polite sign-offs.
“Two weeks?” Kelsey wails. “That won’t be enough time.”
I walk over to her and drape an arm over her shoulder. “You’ll totally convince her you’ve got this. She doesn’t want to come. Show her she doesn’t need to.”
“But I have to be there. Why is this happening? I just got a great new possibility!”
“I can be there. Jester can be there. We’re babysitting a company babysitting a herd of extras. It’s going to be fine.”
“You think it’ll be all right?”
“I do.”
“Okay.” She lets out a long, slow breath. “I guess I better get to work.”
I leave her sitting on a vintage chair, furiously tapping on her phone.
I wish I could let Desdemona come, force Kelsey back to LA midromance, and take my own shot.
But that’s not what I’m here for.
This is about Kelsey.