Page 88 of ClickBack

Di comes back to the hotel because she is too awake to go home. We have two queen beds and one armchair, and she tries all three before deciding the bed nearest the window is hers. Trina calls down for fries. Rae goes into the bathroom with her pajamas and tells us not to open the champagne without her.

We open it without her.

By the time Trina goes looking for ice, Di has taken off her earrings and started telling me what went wrong with the sound in the first act. I show her the photograph of the girl backstage. She stops talking.

“Send me that.”

“Already did.”

She studies it, smiling. I check my own messages while she saves the picture. Jarrett is flying home tonight from a work trip. He told me when he was leaving and that the meeting was private. I said I understood, then spent more time than I should have deciding what else I was allowed to ask.

Di looks up. “How is he?”

“Good.”

“That took some effort.”

I put my phone down. “We tried something on video the other night. Or started to.”

She waits.

“I stopped.”

“Did he give you a hard time?”

“No. I was doing that part myself.” I look toward the bathroom door. “I wanted to. Then I saw myself in that little square, and suddenly I couldn’t.”

Trina comes in carrying ice. “Overhead lighting?”

“How much did you hear?” I ask.

“Enough. One lamp. A robe. One thigh. You give him a trailer, not the whole production.”

“Nobody asked you for a campaign.”

“Which may have been the problem.”

Rae opens the bathroom door, takes in our faces, and reaches for her room key.

“I’m going downstairs.”

“I am fully dressed,” I tell her.

“And I’d like to remember you that way.” She points at Trina. “You’re coming with me. You cannot be trusted unsupervised.”

Trina takes the bucket to the little counter and follows her out, laughing. Di moves beside me on the bed.

“You wanted to stop,” she says. “You stopped. You’re allowed to change your mind about a thing you liked yesterday.”

“I don’t want to keep getting in my own way.”

“Then try again when you want to. Or don’t. But he can survive a phone call with your shirt on.”

I laugh. “He did.”

“Good. We’ve established he has endurance.”

When the others return, we make Rae open her own champagne and toast the assignment she has finally submitted. Di tells us about a fall production she swears she is only considering. Trina offers to help with casting and is immediately overruled.