Page 53 of To All the Men I’ve Killed Before

I’m more impressed than I should be.

‘Wow,’ Antoinette says. ‘That is amazing.’ She’s gushing. But it’s cute. I like seeing her like this. Happy, not spikey.

‘Thank you,’ Agnes says. ‘Actually. I’ve got some quite exciting news.’

‘What?’ Antoinette is all ears. And eyes.

‘My agent called me earlier to say that Richard Stone has asked to see me for a casting!’ She claps her hands together and Antoinette does the same.

‘Richard Stone as in the Richard Stone?’ Travis asks.

I look at all of them.

I am clearly the only one here who doesn’t know who Richard Stone is or the significance of this agent call.

‘He’s a super-producer,’ Travis explains to me under his breath. ‘You’ll have seen at least twenty of his movies, guaranteed.’ He reels off a list of movies and, yes, I have indeed seen most of them.

‘Wow, Agnes,’ I say. ‘That’s amazing. Congratulations.’

‘Thank you,’ she beams. ‘I’m really excited.’

‘When is the meeting?’ Antoinette asks.

‘The day after tomorrow.’

‘He’s keen!’ says Travis.

Agnes nods as she takes a sip of her margarita. ‘My agent thinks it’s a good sign.’

‘Well, here’s to you, Agnes,’ Travis says and we all clink our glasses together.

After we’ve eaten, Agnes and Antoinette decide they’re not ready for their night to end.

‘We should go to The Abbey,’ Agnes says. ‘You can’t say you’ve experienced WeHo nightlife without going there.’

Antoinette nods and looks over to me.

I can tell by the look in her eyes that she’d rather I didn’t tag along for stage two of this date night.

‘You go,’ I say. ‘I’m actually feeling quite tired. I’m going to call it a night.’ I pat my stomach, which is full of pasta and broccolini. ‘I think I should probably walk some of this food off anyway.’

‘Can I walk you home?’ Travis asks and I say yes because it’s never a good idea to walk alone at night as a woman.

Even when you kill predatory men for fun.

Plus I’m way too full to have to activate vigilante mode.

‘You two be careful,’ I say to Antoinette and Agnes as they leave.

Antoinette rolls her eyes. ‘We’ll be fine,’ she says. ‘We don’t have PrivatePool.’

And then they’re gone, into the WeHo night.

Travis, gentleman that he is, helps me slip my cardigan on.

‘Antoinette and Agnes are cute together,’ he says. ‘How long have they been dating?’

I laugh. ‘Oh God,’ I say. ‘They’ve literally just met. Like a week ago.’