“I thought I was. For the first time ever. But now I’m wondering if I just wanted to be in love. If I wanted something more permanent. Something that had meaning.” Loneliness had caused her to lower her guard. “I didn’t break up his marriage, whatever the papers may say.” She added that because she was aware this was a sensitive topic in the circumstances, but when she looked at Milly she saw no judgment.

“What happened?”

There was no reason not to tell the whole truth, about this part at least.

And maybe it would be good to talk about it instead of keeping it all inside.

“Justin and I have known each other for a while. We’ve done a couple of movies together over the years. Always got on well. He’s smart and funny. A nice guy.” Nicole paused. She’d thought he was a nice guy, but was he really? “The chemistry was there right from the start, but we never did anything about it because he was married. But then there was one night when we were filming and he just wasn’t himself. We couldn’t get the scene right. And it was a tough one because it was raining and we were freezing, so in the end we took a break and went back to the trailer to warm up. I asked him if something was wrong, and he told me he’d just found out his wife was having an affair. I was shocked because they were supposed to have one of the most solid and envied marriages in Hollywood, but it turns out that was a sham. She’d had at least two affairs that he knew about, but each time he’d forgiven her and taken her back because he cared about her. But she killed that. He told me that there was no way he was taking her back this time. It was over.”

Milly listened closely. “But no one suspected?”

“They’re both actors. They made sure they were seen together all the time and were appropriately loving.”

“So you—”

“No, not then. Through the whole shoot, we were just friends. I provided a listening ear. And I’d never really been friends with a guy before. Not like that. I’m not that great at trusting, as you know.”

Milly nodded. “When did it turn into more than friends?”