I don’t know how Lyle can stand it. Well, I do, actually. Marcella isn’t as fake as she’s acting. That was the worst part when I found her literally and metaphorically in bed with my boyfriend. She was my friend. And she had been a good one. She knew my secrets. She loved me, or so I thought. But she’s also one hell of an actress and chock-full of ambition. My stomach still twists uncomfortably when I remember how she said to me: “You don’t want him, anyway, Shelb. Not really. And you aren’t good enough to cut it out here. So, let him go. Let me have him.”

And she was right. Well, maybe not the part about not being good enough. I was damn good at what I did. My heart just wasn’t in it.

“Out,” Lyle answers with a broad smile that flashes all his teeth. “Marce and I want to treat you two to a night out on the town. You’ve been working too hard!”

I meet Cameron’s eyes over the top of Marcella’s head. He looks as resigned as I feel. There’s really only one way to handle this. We’ll have to play into Lyle’s hands, which means pretending I’m not annoyed by them showing up out of the blue, flirting with my secret-boyfriend costar, and effectively cockblocking us again.

In other words, we’ve got to act.

We always were better actors than Lyle. Cameron gives the tiniest nod of understanding and flashes an easy grin at Marcella, deftly removing her hand and walking over to pull me close and tuck me under one arm. “I know just the place. My friend owns a bar not too far from here.”

I can see it already … a night out at a bar … Lyle, plying us with drinks; Lyle, playing the happily married man to our restless and wandering single selves; Lyle’s generosity as a showrunner providing this spectacular opportunity for his oldest friends.

A real philanthropist, that Lyle.

I don’t love it, but I don’t see how it can be helped. There’s too much at stake with our pilot, not the least of which is Cameron staying. He told Nat Geo to give his project to another documentarian. He put himself out on a limb for this and I need to do the same. I only wish it didn’t come with the feeling that Lyle is giving us just enough rope to hang ourselves on camera.

Cam turns to the rest of the crew. “Shut it down early, fellas! The weekend begins now!”

Decision made, I raise on my tiptoes and press a quick kiss to his bearded cheek, mindful of my mic, and offer a blinding smile at the camera, waggling my brows. “Think they have karaoke? I’ve been dying to get this guy on a stage!”