‘—but also reveal a new milestone. Cece, you can talk about how you and your friends have moved in with Dylan JM. Amanda, maybe talk about meeting Dylan G’s kid.’
They both nodded.
‘Then we’ll wrap this segment by talking about your new show.’ I gestured to the Dylans. ‘We’ve got a thirty-second teaser trailer ready to play.’
The Dylans’ show was the first piece of programming I’d developed in my new role. It was a six-part limited reality series on health and wellness, with vaguely the same sort of feel-good format and vibe asQueer Eye. Juliet-Dylan was focusing on physical health, and Romeo-Dylan on mental health, with an overall emphasis on connection and finding community in the wake of the pandemic. ‘Looks like we get to work together after all,’ Juliet-Dylan had said when we signed the contracts. Romeo-Dylan had laughed and said, ‘And we finally get to tell that story about how people can be friends without falling in love.’
‘After the trailer, you four are done, we’ll move on to focus on teasingWherefore,’ I said. ‘Kumiko, I know it’s going to be hard, but I want you to talk to Z about how there’s a huge twist in your season without giving even the slightest hint of what it is. Can you do that?’
‘Yes,’ Kumiko said. ‘I’m a lawyer, remember? I can mince my words.’
‘Can you telluswhat the twist is, though?’ Juliet-Dylan said. ‘I feel completely out of the loop.’
‘No, she can’t,’ I said. ‘I’m trusting that as a lawyer, Kumiko, you’ll know better than everyone else here how dangerous it is to play fast and loose with your NDA.’
Kumiko gave me a mock salute. Juliet-Dylan rolled her eyes.
‘Then we’ll finish the show by teasing Lily’s season. All good?’
‘Wait,’ Lily said. ‘What do you want me to say?’ There was a look in her eyes I would have read as vulnerability if I didn’t know her better.
‘That,’ I said, ‘you can go over with Suzette. Any other questions?’
There weren’t any.
‘Good. Then my work is done.’
That statement was about eighty per cent true. I still had my earpiece in, so technically, I was still on the clock.
However, the show was live, so Z was driving the bus, not me. Unless something went horribly wrong, all I had to do was sit back and watch.
Nothing went horribly wrong.
As predicted, the women asked a few hard questions of Romeo-Dylan (‘How could you lead us on like that?’Parisa asked, ‘given you already knew who was going to win?’), but he navigated them adeptly, mostly by apologising. The audience cooed delightedly at him and Cece together, even more delightedly at Amanda and Juliet-Dylan together, and reached a fever pitch of delightedness at the four of them together.
‘The four of us are very close friends,’ Romeo-Dylan said, one hand holding Cece’s, the other patting Juliet-Dylan affectionately on the shoulder. ‘There aren’t many people out there who could possibly understand what we went through. Now that we can finally be seen together in public, we’ll probably double date a lot.’
That reveal made the audiencescream.The trailer for the Dylans’ new show was just the icing on the cake.
Kumiko was as good as her word, and was tight-lipped about the events of her season. ‘Oh come on, you have to give ussomething,’ Z said playfully. ‘Please. I’m begging you.’
‘You’re a smart man, Mr Zelig. You’ve worked on these shows a long time. You know what would happen to me if I spoiled the ending.’
He leaned in closer, conspiratorially. ‘It wasn’t… rigged, was it?’
Kumiko laughed. ‘Here’s something I can tell you: if there’s one thing that the ending of my season will make abundantly clear, it’s that it wasn’t rigged.’
‘Tell Kumiko I said good job,’ I murmured into my headset, when we cut away to ads. ‘She nailed it.’
‘Copy that,’ Suzette said.
I meant it. Kumiko might have become the lead ofWhereforeby default, after Cece and Amanda and Juliet-Dylan allso firmly took themselves off the board, but she had been incredible to work with: all the ease and charm and warmth of Romeo-Dylan with only a tenth of his need for reassurance. People were going to go wild for her season. After all the years I’d spent working on this franchise, I was glad to be leaving on a high note.
There was a flicker in my peripheral vision. Lily had moved to her mark on the side of the stage, ready to enter after the ad break. She was looking at the floor, a slight furrow between her eyebrows.
I loved her so much.
I couldn’t be with her. I knew that. I wanted a partner – professionally and personally – but when Jeff had died and she’d drawn that line between us, she’d made that impossible.
