Page 49 of Take Two

Callie had just settled on her bed, walled in by boxes of her mother’s unsold beauty products, when her phone buzzed.

She glanced at the screen. Neil.

Please fuck off.

Then she remembered that ignoring producers was the quickest route to career death. She answered.

‘Callie, love,’ Neil said, more hassled than she’d ever heard him, and that was saying something. ‘I need help only you can give me.’

Callie prayed this wasn’t a drunk call demanding she describe her knickers. She’s had that from a producer before.

‘What’s up?’ she asked tentatively.

‘Mae.’

Callie’s stomach dropped like a knackered life. ‘What about her?’

‘She’s refusing to let us shoot tomorrow.’

Callie rubbed her forehead. ‘Of course she is.’

‘You said that like you knew it was coming.’

‘I didn’t,’ Callie said quickly. ‘But she wasn’t exactly thrilled today.’

‘Thrilled?’ Neil spluttered. ‘She’s the most difficult person I’ve ever had to deal with. Even that woman whose prize-winning geraniums got trampled by a grip the other day had somehumanityabout her.’

That description of Mae made Callie oddly nostalgic. But there was no time for it.

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘So… what do you want me to do about it?’

There was a pause. A pause she didn’t like.

‘Well,’ Neil began, ‘I was hoping… since the two of you seem to have some kind of… history… that maybe you could talk to her?’

Callie shut her eyes. ‘Neil.’

‘I’m desperate,’ he said. ‘We can’t scrap the segment. We got all that stuff today that needs a bookend. The date part of the date. I can’t just chuck it. The execs will have my hide.’

‘Mmm,’ Callie murmured with fake sympathy.

‘But she might listen to you,’ Neil pushed.

Callie let herself laugh long and loud.

‘Justtry,’ Neil said helplessly.

Callie groaned. The very last thing she wanted was to march into Mae’s space and beg her to open the bakery for another day. But the alternative was letting the whole shoot collapse, which she couldn’t do. Professionally. For what little that meant.

‘Fine,’ Callie said eventually. ‘I’ll try. But don’t expect anything.’

‘That’s all I’m asking.’ Neil exhaled, relieved. ‘And I owe you.’

‘Goodnight, Neil.’ She hung up before he could grovel more.

Callie went through her contacts, and it was still there, never deleted.Mae Morgan.

She tried it. ‘Hello?’ said a hassled woman.