“Where is he?” I asked.
“Um, I think with legal? They are trying to figure out if...” Raissa grimaced, giving me the familiar face of “I don’t want to tell you” that I’d grown to recognize.
“Do you want to press sexual assault charges, Ms. Reyes?” the medic asked matter-of-factly.
“What?” My mind went completely blank. Sexual assault?
“He tried to rape you.”
Rape? My mouth dropped open. That was a startling accusation. I wasn’t sure what everyone else in that room had seen, but it was far from rape.
I shook my head vehemently. “No, no, that’s not what happened. This is all a mistake.” I pushed them away and shifted, putting my feet on the floor. “I need to fix this. He shouldn’t be punished. We just got too—”
“Oh jeez, let me get Dante.” Raissa rushed down the stairs and out of my trailer.
The medic stepped aside and turned to give me privacy as I grabbed my clothes and began to change. I had just finished pulling on my shoes when there was a knock.
“Come in!” I called.
Dante came in, followed by a group of men and women I didn’t recognize. They all wore business suits, causing a ball of dread to form and drop into my belly. He excused the medic kindly, and after she closed the door on her way out, he turned back to me.
“Evie, this is our legal team. We... How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay. You guys can sit if you want.”
I put my hands in my lap and watched them eye the couch with uncertainty, then sit.
“Should I have my lawyer?” I asked. Although now that Antoinette was gone, I wasn’t sure I had one. She’d been my agent and my lawyer.
“Do you want one?” Dante asked quickly. “We can get you one if you need. Sebastian has already called his. Jesus Christ, this—we shouldn’t have—” His lawyers gave him a stern look, shutting him up. “Fuck!”
He put his head between his hands, tugging on his hair and rubbing his short beard.
“Well, I think if you’re going to fire me, it’s fair I have representation,” I shot at him.
“Fired?” Dante stopped rubbing his face and looked up. “We’re not firing you, Evie. We’re worried you’re going to sue us.”
“Why would I sue you?” I looked around, trying to understand.
“Sebastian wasnotsupposed to do what he did.”
“And neither was I,” I reminded him. “I was just as complicit as he was in that room.”
They stared at me as if I wasn’t getting it.
I clapped and brought my hands to my temples. “Look, I’m not suing anyone. I just want to keep my job.”
They exchanged looks and nodded. “Fair. No one is losing their job unless you want Sebastian off the project.”
I sighed deeply. “No, I do not. Can we finish the day out? What time is it?” I looked for my clock. “How much time did we lose because of this?”
Dante scoffed. “We can’t go back to set today. Even if I wanted to, all the studio executives are losing their minds. We’ll be lucky to get on set tomorrow. Take the rest of the day off. Get some rest.”
I sat there for a moment, replaying everything that had happened today and how it led to this moment. I was keeping my job—but was Sebastian going to be punished?
“Do you have any questions or concerns for us?” one of the lawyers asked.
I pressed my lips together, my belly churning with nerves. “Actually, yes. Sebastian mentioned simulated and unsimulated sex scenes... What if we tried unsimulated…”
