Page 30 of Take Two

‘Childhood friends,’ she mused. ‘Those are always complicated. I had one. She stole my eyelinerandmy girlfriend. I still think about her every time I see a cheap smoky eye.’

Callie gave her a look. ‘Not everything is a drama,’ she said.

‘You work in television,’ Isabella said. ‘If that’s not true, no one gets paid. Turn your head.’

Callie turned. Isabella leaned in to do something to her left side, Callie thought. But she merely wanted access to Callie’s ear. ‘Did you two… youknow,’ she whispered and made a short, suggestive gesture with her fingers that made Callie choke on nothing.

‘Isabella!’

‘I’m just asking,’ Isabella said, utterly unbothered. ‘It’s my business to know which direction my clients’ tears are going to roll.’

‘There will be no tears,’ Callie muttered. ‘This is a baking segment.’

‘You’d be surprised.’ Isabella dabbed at the corner of Callie’s eye with a cotton bud.

The door at the back swung again. Callie’s eyes flicked to it. Just crew.

Isabella followed Callie’s line of sight, then back at Callie.

‘So it’s that bad?’ she said. ‘What happened? She leave you at the altar? Burn your house down? Nick your bike?’

Callie’s laugh came out jagged. ‘Man, you don’t quit.’

‘You don’t have to tell me,’ Isabella said quickly. ‘I’m nosy, not a therapist. I’m just trying to work out if I should go waterproof on the mascara.’

‘Maybe for Sam,’ Callie said, because jokes were easier than anything approaching honesty. ‘He cries at the drop of a hat.’

‘Oddly dry though, usually,’ Isabella noted.

‘He’s not here yet, is he?’ Callie asked, twisting to look at the front door.

‘Relax,’ Isabella said. ‘Schedule said he’s ten away. Which means twenty. Minimum. You’ll have time to suffer through whatever the fuck this is before you need to be on.’

‘You’re a cold comfort, Iz.’

Isabella smiled faintly. ‘Part of my charm.’

She shifted around Callie again, working on her eyes. Callie shut them and inhaled. For a moment, it almost worked. She could pretend this was just another studio, another day, and not the epicentre of every unresolved thing she’d shoved into a box labelledHere Be Monsters.

‘Deep breath,’ Isabella said. ‘In… and out. That’s it.’

Callie exhaled slowly. ‘I’m notnervous.’

‘You’re vibrating like a phone on silent, but okay.’

‘I just…’ Callie swallowed. ‘I haven’t seen her in a long time. That’s all.’

‘Uh-huh. And you coincidentally ended up filming a segment in her bakery,’ Isabella said. ‘Wild how life works out.’

‘It wasn’t my idea,’ Callie said quickly. ‘It was Neil’s. He thought it’d be good TV.’

‘He’s not wrong,’ Isabella said. ‘Do you know how many people are going to be screaming at their tellies when they find out you left your hometown sweetheart behind? They live for that.’

Callie’s eyes popped open. ‘She’s not my hometown sweetheart!’ she snapped.

‘Oh, sorry,’ Isabella said mildly. ‘Your childhood acquaintance with whom you have no unresolved anything and certainly did not…’ She wiggled her eyebrows.

Callie pinched the bridge of her nose, careful not to smudge anything.