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“Relax,” I tell her at the same time that Mark starts to talk. He stops when he hears me, waiting to see if I have more, but I don’t. I just listen to what they say and abide by it.
I motion for him to go on and he says, “I know you’re new to this Miss May, but everything’s going to be just fine. We’re here for precautionary reasons.”
Nancy nods her head and adds, “We’re paid to prevent the bad times from ever happening.”
“What’s the story between you two? You need to tell us if anything could be revealed that would cause … issues,” she says, making small circles with her hand in the air.
Hally’s quiet, so I answer for her.
“We had a rough breakup.” That’s as simple as it gets.
The room is quiet for a second too long, the tension growing.
“So, it was rough seeing him again,” Mark prompts Hally, but then Nancy cuts him off.
“You could quit right now on this set and there’s so much buzz around this that I could get you another gig like that,” Nancy says to Hally and snaps her fingers, although I’m sure it’s solely for my benefit, since it’s obvious the two of them have already talked.
“How are we spinning this?” Mark asks and it pisses me off. They’re blowing everything out of proportion.
“It was just one shaky interview,” I say and I don’t hide the irritation in my voice.
Nancy tosses a stack of pictures down in front of me, several taken throughout the last two weeks. She straightens one in front of me so I can see it clearly. It’s at eye level, obviously taken with a cell phone.
“And it’s just a picture, right?” she asks rhetorically as I take in a long breath. My fingers itch to touch the edge of the picture. Hally’s eyes stare at my back in the photo, every emotion on her face visible. I scan the rest of the photo, but it wasn’t taken on set. That’s more than obvious and my blood freezes as the easiness of my posture hardens.
She’s terrified.
“Pictures say a thousand words, and this one says that he broke your heart … for a reason,” Nancy says.
“And that reason doesn’t matter,” Mark says and sits straighter in his seat. “Everyone loves a second chance.”
Nancy’s smile turns coy and then she looks at Hally, who’s focusing on the picture that’s sitting in front of me.
She’s been telling me she wants to talk. I know she has, and yet, I’ve put it off.
Why can’t she just forget? Why can’t she pretend it didn’t happen?
I nod my head at Mark’s suggestion, waiting for Hally’s reaction. She’s quiet and unresponsive.
I sit up in my seat as Mark and Nancy talk about how the two of us dating is the gossip that everyone will want. They go on about planning dates and discussing where exactly we should be seen. They’ll plan it all out and give us the script.
We can handle that much. But the longer I sit here, willing Hally to look at me, the worse and worse the sickness in my stomach gets.
“So, what happened in high school that made you break up?” Mark asks and the question rouses Hally, but she doesn’t answer. Instead, she looks back at him with something that shatters my heart. Guilt.
I’m a dick for doing it, but I give her an out. I hand it over to her, ready to let her be free of all of this shit. “Why don’t I let Hally tell you?”
Hally’s lips turn up into a small smile as she wipes tears from the corners of her eyes. Nancy pulls on the crook of her elbow and whispers in her ear, but Hally shakes her head. I watch it all like a bystander, as if I can’t help what’s about to happen.
“Did you know Nathan’s the only person to ever call me Hally?” she says softly as Nancy lets go of her. She looks at her fingers as she wipes a bit of black from them, I’m guessing from her mascara.
“I’ve noticed,” Nancy says, eyeing Hally and waiting for more.
“I made him,” she says and then lets out a sad laugh. “I didn’t want him to call me the same name everyone else did.” She forces her tears back and takes in a steadying breath. “I knew there was something between us instantly.”
“Love at first sight?” Nancy says as she jots something down on the back of one of the papers.
“Some would call it that,” Hally says.
