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“Would you care to explain why you’re here, but you don’t want Zoey to see you?” the real Anna says, dragging me into the hotel restaurant. I lead us into a tall booth that hides us from the door, and glance over my shoulder to make sure we weren’t followed. I’d prefer Mike not know I’m here till I sort a few more things out about this whole situation.
“How do you know who I am?” I ask.
“Because my sister sent me a photo of you. She likes you. So what the hell is going on?” Anna crosses her arms.
“Why are you here?” The real Anna and Mike didn’t just show up here. Something is going down.
“How much did my sister tell you?” Anna asks, frowning.
“I know everything.”
“Fine, then. If you must know, Mike wanted to meet me at the ship this morning. I flew into town to be here when he arrived, but he followed Zoey to the hotel before I could intercept him. Now I need to come up with a plan to bump into him here, without it being weird. But first, I need to know. Why are you here?”
“I can explain.” I hold my hands up.
“If you hurt my sister, if you do anything at all…”
“I won’t—" But I already have. I pinch the bridge of my nose. This is so trippy. They look so much alike. But they’re different too. Anna’s face has worry lines beside her eyes, which Zoey doesn’t have. Anna looks nervous, and compared to her muscular sister, she’s a little under-nourished and pale. Black isn’t her color, either. But she’s still beautiful, and with a slight almond shape to her eyes, she looks even more uncannily like Meghan Marconi than Zoey does. She has the same sort of flare to her posture Meghan carries on screen too - that same eye-catching way about her movements that makes it hard to look away.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” says a heavy-set man wearing a pair of gray sweat-shorts and a baggy white polo shirt, who walks up to our table. He’s carrying a very venti coffee, and even inside the restaurant he’s wearing dark, enormous, Ferragamo sunglasses. He has a gigantic nose, and curly hair, and I feel like I’ve seen him before.
“Me?” Anna looks confused.
“Yeah, you. I’m Ezra Schwartzman. Grant has been talking up your skills all week. Delighted to meet you.” He sticks out his hand to shake.
“Grant… Kevlar?”
“Yeah, you’re the stunt double, right? The one who has mad car skills, as I understand it from Grant? Zoey Anderson?”
“No, I’m her sister, Anna.”
“Well then, where the hell is Zoey?” Schwartzman’s face falls. Oh, my god. This is what Zoey came here for. To meet with a director. She wasn’t lying about her relationship with Grant at all.
“I have to go.” I slip out of the booth.
Zoey and Grant went down the hall, so that’s the first place to look. I stroll across the lobby, so as not to catch anyone’s attention at the front desk. Something catches my eye.
At the far end of the space, in an atrium, wingback chairs sit beneath tall, stately windows. And behind the chairs, a slim, brown-haired woman and a muscle-bound man are wrapped in a kiss. It looks a lot like Zoey and Grant.
CHAPTEREIGHTEEN
ZOEY
A muggy breezeblows through the courtyard, stifling me with its blanket of warm, moist air. I’m desperate to get rid of Grant so I can find out what my sister is doing with Sebastian.
“Is it Ezra Schwartzman upstairs in your room? Or some other Schwartzman?”
“Of course it’s Ezra. Who else would it be?”
“Wonderful. If you’re such great buddies with him, can you ask him if he’ll come downstairs to meet me?” Grant cocks his head, considering, but he nods.
“I could.”
“Thank you.”
Grant swings open the door to the lobby and strides towards the elevators. I beeline for the restaurant. If Sebastian and Anna are inside, and Mike has found them, this could go sideways fast. Sebastian will be quizzing Anna to see if I’m telling the all-important truth about our identity swap. And while he’s doing that, Mike will flip out seeing Anna with another man in a hotel. And then he and Anna will have a huge fight, and it’ll be my fault.
Maybe I should retrieve Sebastian like it’s no big deal that we’re all here. Anna is just off her cruise, and I’ve been here all week for the big Dirk-Patrick wedding, and we’re all meeting for a nice welcome home brunch with my new favorite guy. I wince. Sebastian is that and more. I wish he didn’t hate my guts. But he made it plenty clear last night what he thinks about my deception. What he thinks of me.
