Page 24

Cut!

“Cut!” Talia calls, hopping down from her director’s chair.

“What’s wrong?” Ren asks as he sits up in bed. The set is full of chatter now, crew members refilling extras’ drinks with fake champagne and tech hands resetting the lighting and music. “Forget your lines?”

“No,” Marsh says. “I just—”

She scrambles off the mattress and rushes over to the dresser just as Talia reaches her.

“Malvavisca,” Talia says, but Marsh beats her there and snatches up the briefcase.

“Look!” she says, thrusting it toward Talia. “Just look! It’s—”

But then she falters as she stares at it.

“It’s what?” Ren asks, now beside her, too, looking at the case.

It’s sleek, classy, with fancy metal hardware and the smoothest, most supple leather she’s ever seen. But that’s not why Marsh trailed off. Not because of what it is—but because of what it’s not.

It’s not the one that Dylan tried to give her a million times in the first half of this season, after all.

“That was incredible,” Talia is saying to Ren, fully embodying her film director role, as he nods along intently. “But I want us to run it again. I want more! More smoldering looks, more thrill of danger, more passion.” She smacks one hand into the other palm, punctuating her words. “I want perfect .”

LunaMágica: Marsh can definitely do it! She just needs another take

TopFan01: She can have as many takes as she wants—this is All This and More, after all!

As everyone hustles back into place and the set readies itself to redo the scene, Marsh looks down at the briefcase again.

She doesn’t know why she ever thought it was the one Dylan gave her. It really looks nothing like it.

It couldn’t, really. In this life, she may never have even started law school, let alone dropped out of it, and Dylan may never have bought her this gift. When he quit the show at the midseason special, who knows what that changed about their past, in this path.

It’s almost like he doesn’t exist anymore.

SharpTruth17: C:\ATAM\Bubble\directory\main_cast\access

[Automatic security filters have deleted this account]

JesterG: For %@

TopFan01: Hey all, while we work on a more permanent solution, remember our policy—don’t feed the trolls!

LunaMágica: ?Sí, por favor!

Marsh sighs as the comments quiet down. She looks down at the briefcase, which she was sure was Dylan’s, but now is not, again.

Is the Bubble responsible for this? she wonders. A quick edit, to tie up a loose end? To keep things streamlined, once Dylan refused to participate in the season?

But is this really what Marsh wants—to have him completely erased from her life?

Or is it just what the show does?

“There’s our star,” Talia says, appearing beside Marsh. “We’re ready for you.”

Her jewelry tinkles as she takes the briefcase from Marsh and tucks it under her arm.

“Change is never easy,” she says.

Marsh lets herself be guided over to the horse mural where she stands at the start of the masquerade romance scene, and places her over her tiny red X on the floor. Talia fixes a stray curl of Marsh’s luxurious locks, and straightens the hem of her gown’s neckline, admiring how beautiful Marsh is in this scene, how far she’s come.

“But it’s always worth it.” She glances up at Marsh. “Don’t you think?”

At last, Marsh nods.

Talia grins. “Take two,” she says. “Let’s make this one perfect.”

Her host is right, she knows.

She puts her costume mask back on and turns to the mural as Talia steps off the set. Dylan made his choice, and she made hers. She can only worry about her life. She’s only got one chance to make her life everything she wants it to be, and she has to keep going, to do as much as she can before the finale. In Tahiti, she resolved to do just that, and in Iceland, she succeeded at it. She can do it again here in Mexico, too.

And she will .

In her director’s chair, Talia raises the black-and-white clacker.

“Action!”