Page 80 of If the World Was Ending

“Hi. I’m Greg Law,” he said as he stepped inside Hunter’s room and stared at the screen. “You must be Margo. Nice to finally meet the woman who is making my son’s dreams come true.”

“Dad, this is a business meeting. You can’t?—”

“I’m just guiding him. He’s making it happen. Talented kid you’ve got,” Margo replied with a friendly smile.

“He’ll be at the film premiere,” Greg announced. “Don’t worry.”

Margo sighed in relief as Hunter gawked angrily at his dad. “No. I won’t!”

Greg turned his hazel eyes on his son and frowned. “How about I tell your mom about this and see what she thinks you should do?”

Hunter glared. Of course, his mother would want him to go. She didn’t even want him to stay for her diagnosis, let alone be here for the last six weeks. But he wasn’t abandoning her. She picked him when he was a baby, and no one wanted him, and he would always pick her. Greg glanced at Margo again on the screen. “He’ll be there.”

“Great. I’ll send him the flight info and the hotel booking. He’s staying at the Four Seasons.”

Greg’s salt-and-pepper eyebrows shot up. “Fancy! You really have made it, son.”

Hunter just kept glaring. Margo ignored him the same way Greg did. “Nice meeting you, Greg. I have to go now. Bye, Hunter.”

Once his screen went black, Hunter rose up from his desk chair and turned to face his dad. Before he could say a word, his dad put a hand on his shoulder and spoke. “Hunter, you have to go. You worked for this moment. I can stay the weekend with her. It’ll be fine. I promise.”

“You have your own family, and Giselle is probably already furious about the time you’re spending with us,” Hunter replied.

Greg smiled, but it wasn’t a happy one. “Giselle asked for a divorce about three weeks ago, so her opinion on this doesn’t matter. And Frank is off to college in the fall. He’s never home anyway, and he definitely doesn’t care if I am.”

Wow. Hunter blinked as he absorbed all that new, not-so-great information. “Dad, that’s… a lot.”

“Yeah. But it’s fine.” Greg shrugged. “Now back to the topic at hand. Let me help out with your mom while you go enjoy this moment. She’d want you to.”

“I…” Hunter exhaled in defeat. “Yeah. Okay. But I’ll be back in forty-eight hours.”

“And you should tell Margo you’ll go to the Los Angeles event too,” Greg said as he walked out of the room, leaving Hunter’s door open. “Because it’s your job and she wouldn’t want you to skip work when it’s so hard to find it in your field.”

He made it sound like getting acting digs was something you hunted down like easter eggs. If only it were that easy. But his dad was right. It was part of his job to promote the movies he worked on. And he was proud of this film, even if it didn’t live up to the buzz it was getting. He couldn’t imagine it would be a huge deal, but he hoped it would make enough of an impact on the industry that, when casting agents saw it in his demo reel, it would sway them a little. If it didn’t, he may never have another big premiere, so he really should go to this. “Okay, fine. Yeah. I’ll tell Margo I can do both. But if she gets sick again or something else goes wrong, I’m canceling.”

Greg nodded. “She won’t. It’ll be fine.”

Friday evening, Hunter held his breath as the final scene of Platonic Planet faded to black. There was a beat—a single quick beat—of silence, and then the applause was deafening. Mikayla, sitting beside him, grabbed his hand. People all around them started standing up. But not because they were leaving. They kept applauding. It was a standing ovation. Holy shit.

Eugenie leaned over from her seat next to Mikayla. She was smiling, and her eyes were gleaming. “Stand up! This is for you two!”

She waved her hand at them. Mikayla looked at him, her eyes reflecting the same amazement Hunter knew was on his own face. He squeezed her hand, and together they stood. The crowd roared. Holy shit. They liked it! They liked him!

The applause went on for so long that Hunter was uncomfortable. Makayla leaned into him, laughing. “This is insane!”

He nodded and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Holy shit.”

It was the only thought that ran through his head. Finally, it all died down, and people began to slowly filter out of the cinema. Eugenie stood up and grabbed them both in a hug. “Your lives will never be the same, and neither will mine. Thank you.”

They made their way to the after-party, and Hunter spent the entire night being praised by strangers, reporters, and everyone who was at the event. By the time he made it back to his hotel room at three in the morning, he was exhausted, but way too amped up to sleep. Hunter Facetimed Colby, who was back in Los Angeles, so it was only midnight there. He answered immediately.

Music blared around him, and he looked sweaty and tipsy. His hair was growing like wild. It was still a golden brown, but the ends were long enough now to try and curl. It was cute, Hunter thought and smiled. “Where are you?”

“Chateau Marmont,” Colby replied. His eyes darted to something. “Shit. Hold on.”

The phone went black, but he could still hear the music. As the music became more distant, Hunter wrapped his head around the fact that Colby was in the exclusive hotel with a renowned lounge and restaurant that had no issue refusing entry to anyone who wasn’t someone. Then Hunter heard a door click and footsteps echoing on tile, and then Colby’s face came into view. Behind him was black wallpaper with glittering tropical images in vibrant colors. “I snuck into one of the bathrooms. You aren’t supposed to use your phone in the restaurant. Protects the privacy of the customers. Don’t want to be the douche that thinks he’s above the rules his first time here.”

“You’re at Chateau Marmont? Do you realize how cool you have to be to get in there?” Hunter asked as he drank in Colby’s face. God, he missed him so fucking much.