“It does to me,” Phoenix said. “Will deserves the same respect Trent would have received. Also, I don’t like the fact that this sign subconsciously conveys the message that he’s less important than the other actors.” That would never have occurred to me, but okay. He asked if I wanted to look inside, and when I nodded, he took two identical keys from his pocket and handed me one of them. Then he unlocked the door and held it open for me.
The interior was a surprisingly elegant composition of dark wood and earth tones, and it smelled like a new car. A living room with an entertainment center took up most of it, but there was also a small bedroom at one end, plus a miniature kitchen and a bathroom. Riley took a seat on the couch and exclaimed, “This is fantastic! It’s almost as big as my apartment in L.A.”
I ran a hand over the stone kitchen counter and said, “I know the only reason I have this is because Trent’s agent must have insisted on a trailer for him, but I’m really grateful for it. It’ll be so nice to have a place to hide when I’m not needed on set.” That probably made me sound antisocial, but it was the truth.
Phoenix asked some questions about stocking the trailer for Monday, and then he said, “I have the call schedule and your scenes for next week, so we’re ready to go whenever you are. What would you like to do next?”
“Could you please take me back to our rental? I want to start working on my lines.”
We returned to the SUV, and as we drove back across town, I leafed through the pages Phoenix had picked up. They included annotated sections of the script for the scenes they’d be filming in the upcoming week, and when I swore under my breath, Riley asked what was wrong.
“I’m shooting my character’s death scene next Friday,” I said. “I thought I’d have a chance to work up to that. Also, the first scene we’re shooting on Monday is with me and all four of the lead actors, and on Tuesday is my love scene with Harper Royce. Way to get thrown directly into the deep end.”
“I don’t know how you do it,” Riley said from the backseat. “I’d be scared to death if I had to pretend I was having sex with a total stranger while a huge crew filmed me.”
Phoenix shot him a look in the rearview mirror before glancing at me and asking, “Want me to help you run lines?”
“Thanks for offering. I’d love your help in a day or so, but for now I just want to work on them myself.”
“Okay. In that case, I’ll get to work on the social media audit Sylvia asked me to do.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re about to get thrust into the spotlight,” he said, “so I’m going to take a look at your social media presence across all platforms to see what we need to do to fine-tune it. The imagine you portray to your fans is important. Also, when I took a quick look at your Instagram yesterday, I noticed there was a lot of information about where you’ve been living. If you’re planning to return to that resort after filming wraps, you’re really going to want to edit or delete some posts, because right now any overzealous fan could just show up on your doorstep.”
“I really don’t know where I’ll be living when all of this is said and done, but that makes sense.”
When we returned to the house, my cat accompanied me upstairs. I shut the door to my room and changed into pajamas and a bulky sweater, then got comfortable on the window seat with the lines I had to memorize. Instead of getting right to work, I stared out at the turbulent gray ocean while Madame Leota settled in on the center of the bed and did a half-assed job of bathing herself.
As usual, my thoughts drifted right to Lorenzo, so I sent him a quick text and asked him what he was doing. He sent back a photo of himself sitting in the resort’s lobby with a book in his hand and Vee’s little blue parakeet on his head. I grinned and sent a photo in return. He called a few moments later and asked, “Should I be worried that you’re already in pajamas? You only do that when you need to be comforted.”
“I’m fine. Everything went well today. I even found out I’ll have my own trailer on set, which is going to be awesome.”
“That’s great, but something’s definitely bothering you.”
There was no point in pretending with him, not when he knew me so well. “Okay, so I’m worried about what we’re shooting next week, including Alex’s death scene. It’s a lot right out of the gate.”