Chapter 42 ZACHERY GETS THE NEWS
Chapter 42
Z ACHERY G ETS THE N EWS
When the plane touches down at LAX after a full week of Italian food and sun, I have to admit that I feel ashamed. I left both of my phones at the house and bought a new one. I’m looking ahead, not back, and only adding contacts as I meet them and decide they’re good for me.
Catalina is definitely one. Our trip to Venice ended up being not for two but three, because on the flight to Italy, she admitted that she had a secret wife, one who wanted to avoid the limelight altogether.
I immediately got Sweta a ticket to join us so that the two of them could enjoy the quieter side of Venice, while I escorted Catalina for the very public ones.
The pair was delightful, and I very much appreciated being let in on their secret. Real friendships were made, something I’ve sorely lacked.
I decide the new phone will be my only phone, since the first two numbers I added were Catalina and Sweta.
I kiss both of their cheeks as we leave the airport, making them promise to join me for dinner soon.
I call for a ride, and only when I’m settled in the back seat do I call the office.
“Desdemona Casting Associates,” Jester answers.
“Jester, it’s Zachery. I switched phones for the trip.”
Silence.
“Jester?”
“I’m not talking to you.”
I suspected he might be upset. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back for the soccer scene. How did it go? Did you go to observe it or let it ride?”
Silence.
“Jester, I just couldn’t come back. I was having the best time in Venice.”
“I bet you were, you slathering hunk of hormones.”
Jester’s never judged me before, but I’m not about to correct him. “I’m in a car to my house, but I can reroute to the office. Catch me up.”
He says, “Desdemona fired Kelsey.”
And then he hangs up.
I stare at my phone.
How did this happen? Jester obviously blames me for not coming back for the soccer filming.
I don’t know how to contact Kelsey. I mean, I know her number by heart, plus her email. But what is the best way? It’s midmorning. She’s probably at the tree farm.
Randy is probably consoling her over the loss of her job.
I picture him, his arms around her. He’ll be happy, I bet. She’s his now. They can open their bed-and-breakfast in the homestead sooner rather than later. Kelsey’s smart. She’ll get it going well enough that even if the tree farm goes down, she can save the house.
Hell, I bet she could single-handedly save the whole farm. Now that’s a Hallmark ending. The family will be eternally grateful. They’ll throw a parade in her honor. Perfect final scene.
She might not even be upset that Desdemona overreacted. It made the decision easy for her.
But as the car pulls up to my house, doubt creeps in.
If she’s happy, why is Jester so upset?
I leave my suitcases inside the front door and head to my bedside table, where my old phones sit on chargers.
I power them both on.
The business one goes bonkers, a beeping, buzzing frenzy.
My private one, less so, although there are a lot of notifications.
I sort through them.
Kelsey wrote me a week ago, two days after I left Wyoming.
Back in LA to prepare for a meeting with Drake Underwood. Jason is doing a live audition with Gayle for Limited Fate!
My body flashes hot. She came back? A week ago? How did it go? She has to be over the moon!
And how did that play into her getting fired?
There’s another message the next day, last Friday.
Everything’s going down. Desdemona must have found out I recast Limited Fate. Are you coming in?
Then she put through a call. No voicemail.
She needed me, and I didn’t even know.
I sink onto the bed.
I wasn’t there for her.
I didn’t cover for her.
I abandoned her.
I scroll through the rest of my notifications, but she didn’t write me again.
By then she must have learned I was in Venice with Catalina.
She would assume what everyone assumed—even Jester, when he called me a slathering hunk of hormones.
I’m sure she’s back in Wyoming by now.
Writing her would probably help nothing. She stopped contacting me after talking to Desdemona, which means she doesn’t need my help and maybe even doesn’t want to hear from me.
Jester acted out because he loves her and blames me for her firing, but the truth is, she was already going to leave us. Her intervention on the movie and raising Desdemona’s ire just made it happen sooner rather than later. Maybe that was even her plan—go out in a blaze of glory.
We both know that if Drake Underwood recognizes the brilliance in her pairing, the casting will go through even if Kelsey is gone from the office. Casting directors hold no power to force or prevent a director or producer in making a hiring decision.
I set down my phone.
What’s done is done. I hate that she lost getting credit for her movie casting. But she’s gotten what she set out for on the trip.
I should be happy for her. And despite what happened between us along the way, I’m trying to do exactly that.
Everything worked out exactly as it should.
Just not for me.