Page 48 of If the World Was Ending

Jesse walked away.

What the fuck was happening? Hunter wasn’t actively into manifesting. He knew Leandra strongly believed in that—the power of positive thinking, manifest destiny, and willpower, and all that. But he’d never tried to manifest anything, like, intentionally, but yet at this very moment, everything he’d ever hoped would happen for his career was happening. It. Was. Fucking. Happening!

Eugenie walked up to the bar at that exact moment. She was a thin, chain-vaping, mousy-haired French Canadian woman with big bright blue eyes and the quickest, driest wit Hunter had ever known. Tonight she’d dressed up compared to what Hutner saw her wearing every day on set, which was sweats or leggings. She stood at the bar in jeans and a crocheted rainbow sweater. Her hair was down for the first time in the last two months. Hunter had no idea it actually reached halfway down her back because at work she always wore it up in two space buns on her head. “Hey, superstar.”

“Hey, best director ever,” Hunter countered, and she winked.

“I wanted to thank you for coming in last minute and making this thing as good as it is. You were a pleasant, unexpected surprise, Hunter.” She reached over and hugged him quickly before turning to the bartender and ordering a “San Sebastián.”

“What is that?”

“Strawberry gin and sparkling lemonade. It’s the best, as long as you have no obligations tomorrow because oof guele de bois!” Hunter smiled as she said hangover in French.

“Eugénie, j’ai une question.” His eyes scanned the room to make sure Jesse wasn’t watching him. He wasn’t. He was talking to the AD on the other side of the dance floor, with his back to Hunter.

“Dis-moi.” Eugenie prompted, and he inhaled sharply. Was he wrecking his entire career by doing this? Should he just shut up? Did he owe any loyalty to this movie now that it was done? It wasn’t like the president of Magenta would do anything improper with the footage… would he? I mean Jesse wouldn’t, like, hurt the movie just because he was working elsewhere now… right?

He didn’t know, and that was the issue. “Do you worry about Dailies? I mean them leaking or?—”

Eugenie put a hand on his arm that lay on the bar. “Jesse talked to you?”

Hunter nodded. Eugenie’s smile got bigger. “Good. He’s going to try and get me a studio film to direct too.”

Hunter’s shoulders sagged in relief. The bartender came back with Eugenie’s drink, and she ordered another. Picking up her beverage, she took a sip and groaned with happiness, and then she turned her attention back to Hunter. “You’re too honest for this business, kiddo. You could have kept that to yourself.”

“I could?”

She laughed. “Yeah. I was. But I do appreciate your honesty. It’s refreshing. Don’t worry. The movie is finished. We’re going to release the promo next week anyway. It’s all good. I wouldn’t let Jesse, or anyone, fuck this.”

Hunter nodded. This was all some high-level mind games he wasn’t at all used to. Hunter loved straightforward honesty. This type of purposeful deception made his anxiety worse. He was still sweating even though everything was seemingly resolved. “This is a whole new level for me.”

Eugenie nodded. “You’ll learn. And you’ll probably hate the politics of it all as much as I do. But you’ll deal with it because it’s worth it. When this business is your only dream, it’s worth it.”

The bartender reappeared with another of the slightly pink drinks in a fishbowl-style glass. Eugenie thanked him and handed the drink to Hunter. He took a sip, and wow, yeah, that was amazing. “Told you. But only have two… three tops or tomorrow you’ll wish you were dead.”

“Geule de bois,” Hunter repeated, and she smiled and left him at the bar to enjoy his beverage.

He was about to pull his phone out and send a text to Margo, and then another to Colby, so they could ground him and talk him out of this anxiety that he was about to drown in, when Mikayla appeared in front of him and grabbed him by his arm. Without anything more than her trademark sexy smile, she started dragging him to the dance floor.

He danced with her to whatever the DJ played —rap, country, pop, rock. They danced and laughed, and when Hunter finally bowed out, after almost an hour, he was sweaty and exhausted but happy. He knew Mikayla could go all night, so when she ran off to get a drink, he ducked into a table near the back, as far away from the dance floor as possible, so she hopefully wouldn’t find him too quickly. He loved her, but he was still in a borderline depression because of the news that he’d be heading home to an empty apartment. He pulled out his phone to text Colby about the meeting Jesse wanted when Chris put a hand on his shoulder. “Can we join you?”

Hunter’s brown eyes lifted, and he saw Chris and another man about the same age as him. He had salt-and-pepper hair, cut short, wide-set brown eyes, golden skin, and a build that said he worked out. His smile was warm as he looked down at Hunter. “Yeah. Sure.”

Chris squeezed his shoulder before letting go and motioning for the guy to sit. As the mystery man did, Chris said. “Hunter Law, this is Marc Cordova. Marc, meet the best young actor I’ve ever worked with.”

Hunter’s lips curled up at the compliment, and he put his phone down on the table to reach across and shake Marc’s hand. “It’s good to finally meet you. Chris has been going on and on about how great you are.”

“He’s been an absolute dream to work with,” Hunter said. “He made our scenes so easy, and he’s been so gracious with his industry knowledge.”

Hunter went on to explain some of the things Chris helped him with on set and how often he’d make himself available to debate dialogue choices and actions. When he was done, Marc shot Chris a look so adoring that Hunter had to fight to keep his eyebrows from lifting. “He loves acting and being on set. I’m so glad I convinced him to try for work again.”

“You weren’t trying for roles?” Hunter asked, and Chris’ smile slipped a little. He glanced at Marc, who seemed to reach for Chris under the table for a second. Now Hunter’s main question in his head was Who is Marc? Why was he here with Chris? Was it his agent? Margo had never squeezed his thigh under the table, or anywhere else but… Colby had. Was Marc Chris’s best friend?

“I gave up on acting about seven years ago,” Chris said. “In the fifteen years before that I’d landed like maybe ten parts, and most were one-liners and guest spots on shows people didn’t even really watch.”

“Wow. But why? You’ve been doing this successfully since you were a kid,” Hunter said in shock. “My mom said she had posters of you on her bedroom walls, and you were the lead in a bunch of movies she still has on Blu-ray. Was it like the child star curse or something? People had trouble putting you in adult roles?”

Clearly, it wasn’t that he grew out of his cute phase because Chris was definitely what Hunter would have called a silver fox. He still had a chiseled jaw, thick hair, and a smoldering stare. He was still top-tier attractive.