Shelby snaps. “Oh my God, stop. Both of you. You’re embarrassing yourselves.” I sit, feeling guilty, and she rubs at her temples. Finally, she turns to Lyle. “You are narcissistic and delusional, but I don’t have the energy to spell out all the ways you’re wrong. It doesn’t matter, anyway, because you know you’re wrong. You messed up and hurt me and you don’t care. That’s not my problem. What I need to know is: Can you be a goddamn professional and carry this show or am I wasting my time?”

“I can do it,” Lyle says, without hesitation. “But you need him.” He gestures to me.

Shelby turns to me, finally, meeting my gaze straight on. “Tell the truth, did you know I was involved when you came for this meeting? Even presuming you would be behind the lens, did you know?”

I swallow hard, knowing I’m caught. “Maybe.”

Her face softens instantly, and she smiles in a way that feels like a gift.

“Cam.” Her voice is a whisper.

“Fine. I didn’t know about Lyle, but I heard you were involved, and I had some time between projects for Nat Geo, so I took the meeting. My mom’s been on me for years to come back,” I hurry to add. “It’s not just you.” Liar.

“Excellent,” Lyle says, pulling out a slim laptop and, after making a few clicks on the keyboard, spinning it to face us. “You want to know how I know it needs to be the two of you? This is how.”

He’s cued up an old episode of The World According to Jackson and it all comes flooding back, even though I haven’t seen the show in a decade. It was the episode of the final season that went viral instantly, when the writers decided to play with the relationships on the show. They wanted to see if they could pull off a little teen drama.

Their gamble payed off bigger than anyone could have imagined, but it didn’t matter. Shelby and I walked away after that—me to college and Shelby to a short-lived career as a pop star.

On-screen, Makayla and Carter are in Jackson’s bedroom alone, part of one of Jackson’s famous daydream sequences. Lyle’s character was imagining that they had crushes on each other, and we were supposed to be acting out this fantasy as it played out in his head. We were instructed to overact. Pretend to pretend we were in love. Pretend to pretend to want to kiss. Pretend to kiss. It was supposed to be ridiculous.

What they hadn’t counted on was that off-screen, Shelby and I had grown close. Like, really close. At that time, the world and the fandom wanted Shelby and Lyle to be together. Kids had grown up with them together. Cory and Topanga, Miley and Jesse, Makayla and Jackson.