Page 22 of When I Picture You

Renee scanned the document. “How closely are you expecting me to stick to this?”

“Veryclosely,” Micah said. “With all the schedules involved, there’s no margin for error. But we’ve calendared out a nice balance of bigger events and intimate moments that will showcase everything fans love about Lola.”

“I should have been involved in drafting this,” Renee said with the kind of bluntness Lola was incapable of.

“As I’m sure you know, Renee, films are highly collaborative.” Gloriana’s smile, familiar to Lola, gently conveyed conversation-ending finality. “We all collaborated on this schedule so you can, as Micah said, hit the ground running.”

“Right,” Micah continued, ignoring the unease scrawled across Renee’s face. “Shooting starts tomorrow. The crew can’t wait to meet you.”

Renee sighed, nodding unhappily. Then she turned to Lola. “If shooting starts tomorrow, when are we meeting? Dinner tonight?”

An awkward silence settled over the conference room. No one ever asked Lola about her schedule. In most meetings like this, only Gloriana addressed her directly.

Cassidy spoke up from the corner. “Lola has a dinner at eight and before that—”

“Before that, please clear my afternoon,” Lola said.

“But you have—” Pink rose on Cassidy’s cheeks.

“Whatever I have isn’t more important than this. The Streamy deadline and all that,” Lola said. “If we want this film done right, I can carve out a few hours to meet with the director.”

THE MEETING ENDED.As everyone filtered out of the conference room, Lola took a moment to study Renee. She was sorting through the various documents she’d been given. Her brows were drawn, and she was chewing the inside of her cheek. There was something comforting in the fact that Renee looked a little out of place in the glossy setting of Lola’s life.

“Are you going to say hi, or just stare at me like a weirdo?” Renee said without raising her eyes.

An easy grin spread across Lola’s face. “Stare at you like a weirdo.”

“That’ll make filming hard,” Renee said wryly. But then Renee did look up. Her gaze shifted slowly down to Lola’s mouth and lingered. “I take it back. If you keep smiling like that, it’ll be a breeze.”

“Smiling like what?” Lola asked.

Cassidy interrupted before Renee could answer. “Your car’s here.”

As Lola and Renee headed for the elevators, Gloriana popped out of her office. “Renee,sonice to meet you. Lola, let me steal you briefly.”

Lola stepped inside and Gloriana pulled the door closed after her.

“We can still pull Chess back in,” Gloriana said.

“I don’t want Chess. That was the point of hiring Renee.”

Gloriana peered at Lola through the bottommost edge of her glasses. In flats, Gloriana was several inches taller than Lola, and she never wore flats. The height difference made Lola feel like a child.

“I’ll only say this once, Lola: don’t let this get messy.”

Lola opened her mouth to protest, then closed it again.

Her first impulse was denial: she had no idea what might be getting messy or why. But that was a lie for everyone else, not for Gloriana, the keeper of the NDAs.

“I won’t,” Lola said. “There’s nothing going on between me and Renee.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Gloriana said. “You can see how that would be really undesirable from our perspective, right?”

“Absolutely,” Lola agreed.

Lola had confided in Gloriana that she was bisexual when her career was just beginning. Gloriana had thanked her for her bravery, then explained, “In this industry, details about your life are currency. You need to manage your wealth, just like you do at the bank.” They’d both felt Lola’s sexual orientation wasn’t information the public needed to know. With Lola always tied to men, it had never mattered.

Then came Ava.