After his shower, he collapsed on his bed and flipped through the delivery apps on his phone to try to decide what to have for dinner.

He woke up hours later, phone still in his hand, and squinted at the text on the screen.

Someone took a picture of me in the hotel lobby here and put it on their Instagram. The dress looked great—nice job.

 

He grinned. He owed Maddie big.

Oh ye of little faith. Didn’t I say you could count on me?

 

Still smiling, he turned over and went back to sleep.

Nine

On Saturday morning, Anna ended the call with Simon with a big smile on her face. She immediately called Penny.

“Do I have a story for you,” she said as Penny answered the phone.

Penny almost purred.

“Oh, thank God. Yesterday was a deeply irritating day, and I woke up grumpy about the entitled tourists who bugged the hell out of me. I would much rather hear your story than give those assholes any more real estate in my brain. Talk to Penny.”

Anna poured herself some room service coffee as she thought about where to start.

“Well . . . okay, so I did something kind of ridiculous and unnecessary Thursday. I should probably start there.”

“Whaaaat did you do?”

Anna could picture the gleeful smile on Penny’s face.

“First off—everything is okay. I want you to know that so you don’t worry. But Chris called because Dad was in the hospital in Palm Springs—my all-too-stressful parents were in Joshua Tree and my dad collapsed. Don’t worry, he’s fine, it was just heat exhaustion, but I didn’t know that then.”

Penny sighed.

“Thank you for starting off this story by saying everything’s okay. Let me guess, you chartered a plane and flew to Palm Springs, and your mom lost it, right?”

Anna laughed.

“You know me—and my mom—very well, but weirdly, you’re wrong this time. So you remember how I told you about that guy Ben? The ad guy?”

“You mean the backup dancer? Of course I remember, but . . .”

“He drove me,” Anna said. “To Palm Springs.”

“He what???” Anna almost laughed out loud at the sound in Penny’s voice. “From San Francisco? Did you forget about the existence of airplanes? Why, exactly—”

“And then I slept with him,” Anna continued.

“Yessssssss.” Penny let out a cackle, and Anna laughed along with her. “Okay, I’m angry at you that you didn’t lead with that, but wait, now I’ve gotten over being angry and am only thrilled. Tell me all the good stuff, but first tell me that your dad is really okay?”

This was why she loved Penny. Anger and joy and concern about her family, all at once.

“He’s fine—well, maybe not fine, but okay. We got to the hospital just as my parents were leaving; they said he was just dehydrated. And the reason I didn’t fly is the boring part of this story. But I was already in the car with Ben, and he offered to drive, and I was . . . just so worried and anxious about my dad and I couldn’t really think straight, so I said okay.”

Penny knew how her mind worked. Anna knew she didn’t have to say more.

“Anyway, after Ben and I left the hospital, we got to a hotel, and . . .” She grinned. “I basically jumped him. I was so relieved and happy and my God, so wildly horny, and he was so hot, and I have to say, I’d forgotten this, but . . . sex is pretty fantastic, Penny.”

Penny chuckled again.

“It certainly is. There’s the Anna I know and love. And I’m so glad you broke your dry spell with someone worthy of you. Are you going to keep sleeping with him?”

Anna sighed. That would be nice, but . . .

“Oh no, I can’t. It was great, he was great, don’t get me wrong.” She thought back to that last time, right before they left Palm Springs. “Really great. But, that was just a fun, dry-spell-breaking little interlude—like you said, I’m ready for the old Anna to be back. And now she is, and I can move on.” She laughed. “And listen to this! It must have been my good-luck charm, because Simon just called: it turns out they do want me to do a bunch of press for Vigilantes, so I’ll be doing a ton of that as soon as I get back to L.A. No guarantees, but I hope like hell this means something good for what my role turns out to be in the movie.”

“Seriously?” Penny said. “That’s fantastic! I know how worried you’ve been about this. Your good-luck charm, indeed.”

Anna grinned and leaned back in bed.

“I know, right? I can’t believe it. Everything’s turning up Anna: I have a whole plan now for what this summer is going to be like. I’m going to do the press junket for Vigilantes, strategize with Simon so I get that role I’m dying for, get some magazine covers, have fun with men again, all of that.”

“Hmmm.” Why didn’t Penny sound excited for her plan? “That all sounds excellent, and I’m thrilled about Renegades, obviously, but—”

“Vigilantes,” Anna said.

“That’s what I meant,” Penny said. “Anyway—you’re still in San Francisco, right?”

Anna could already tell where she was going with this.

“Yes, for another week or so, but—”

“And you’re currently in bed alone? I mean, I imagine you’re alone; I don’t think you’d be telling me all of this with him there next to you in your bed.”

Anna sighed.

“Yes, I’m in bed alone, but I couldn’t bring him back to my room! And I know what you’re going to say, but no, I can’t keep this going—we’re working together! That would be far too complicated and dangerous. And plus—okay, so I told him about everything that happened last year.” Penny tried to jump in, but Anna kept talking. “It’s a long story, I told him sort of accidentally. And he was lovely about it, he said all the right stuff. But I don’t want to see him make that face. You know that face. The patient, gentle, condescending face people make when they think they have to tiptoe around you. I want to remember everything with him as this good, happy thing and not have it be ruined.”

There was more to it than that, but she didn’t know how to explain it to Penny. She already sort of regretted telling Ben everything, letting him know too much about her, letting him see past the Anna Gardiner public persona. She worried that if she kept this going, even for the next week, she’d reveal far too much of herself to this man who had looked at her in bed like she was the sun and the moon and the stars all together. She didn’t want to have to see that look change.