“Six Six!” she replied.
I bit my tongue to avoid joining her in the joke. This was her moment, and I wanted to make sure she shined. I was just her arm candy for tonight, nothing more.
“I love your necklace. Where did you get it?” a journalist asked.
Evie lifted the charm off her chest and glanced my way, causing me to flush.
“Sebastian gave it to me during the filming.”
I leaned into her and gave her a quick, tender kiss. I then spoke to the reporter, giving her a good sound bite.
“She’s my forever Final Girl.”
The paparazzi went wild, and they started shouting questions at me as well.
“What about you? You are nominated for Best Actor. Do you think you’ll win?”
We moved on down the carpet, and Evie beamed as they snapped photos of her. I was dragged in for a few, but we all knew who the real star was tonight. We were joined by Bryce and Skye and some others who worked on the movie and then were shown our places inside the venue.
We were seated in a relatively good spot. Horror wasn’t a genre often honored or respected in Hollywood. However, she and I both had names that got us recognition. Bryce and Skye sat with us, and the ceremony started soon after. These things were pretty boring, in my opinion. I’d been to so many of them, it was just part of the job now. We all pretended to be excited about dressing up and having our photos taken, but most of Hollywood would gladly receive their awards from the comfort of their homes.
I’d take a movie night with the dogs and Evie over this any day.
That was the plan for after this. I kept that in mind as award after award was handed out, none of them really interesting. Oftentimes, it was obvious who would be winning what.
Finally, someone familiar walked onto the stage. It took me a moment to recall her name, but Evie leaned over to remind me.
“That’s JoJo Perkins. She interviewed us for the movie ages ago.”
Oh, right.
JoJo did her speech and then listed off the women nominated for Best Breakout Actress.
“And Evie Reyes, for her role as Lucy inSimon Says Six!”
“Six Six,” the table muttered low so only we could hear. The cameras panned to us as we laughed. Evie waved, then watched as the woman who was nominated for a romantic comedy took the award.
I squeezed her hand under the table. We’d known she wasn’t getting it. This woman had already taken four other awards before this one, but that didn’t make it sting less.
A few more awards were handed out, and then finally, they got to my category. An actor I couldn’t stand in real life came out to present. I gave my professional smile when he said my name and they flashed the cameras to us, and then I stared at the stage until he opened the envelope.
“Sebastian Shaw for his role inSimon Says Six: Six Six!”
I stood, honestly a bit surprised. Horror hardly ever won awards like these. Applause exploded as I hurried to the stage to receive my trophy. I grabbed it and went to the podium.
“Wow. I mean, I know I showed my ass a few times this year,” I paused for awkward laughter. The scandal regarding me sleeping my way to the top hadn’t gone unnoticed. I’d been dropped from a few projects, but people had started calling again, so the town was moving on. “But who knew one of those times would get me an award?”
I looked around the room and zeroed in on my table. “I just want to say thank you to my girlfriend, Evie, for staying with me through all of it, on screen and off. This would have been a lot worse if I’d gone through it all solo. Evie, can you come up here?”
The room began to whisper as the cameras went to her. She looked confused and mildly embarrassed, but Skye and Bryce encouraged her to get up, pushing her toward the stage. Slowly, she joined me.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
“I’m your number one fan.” I slipped into our secret language, offering her an apology as I dug into my pocket and dropped to one knee, holding a black velvet box.
Her mouth fell open as I lifted the lid, revealing the most expensive ring I could afford.
“I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubblegum. Evie Reyes, will you be my forever Final Girl?”
