“Imagine. It would be the blockbuster of the year. Her memoir. Big screen. Mateo Garza, starring and producing. And you know her. Like I said, personal relationship.” She emphasizes the p sound at the end of relationship. “You could bring her on tour. You could interview with her.”

A vision of me and Emily sitting on a screen-appropriate couch between fake plants pops into my head. Where is Gonzales getting this idea? “What the hell are you talking about?”

“See? This is the kind of energy you could bring to a major project with Emily. You have the face for it, and you’d be so believable on screen.”

I turn away from the cabin like I’m turning away from the crowd at a party. “This isn’t an act. What are you talking about?”

She pauses. “You don’t know you’re on the news right now? CNN has it. It’s the top story on BuzzFeed. I think you might trend on Twitter on the East Coast.”

Shit. I didn’t help Emily get out of the courthouse for the headline. I find it completely un-newsworthy that I made some paparazzi back the hell up in my own hometown, for a woman I’ve known since we were in high school. The world sees it differently. And it’s a very different world from the one we grew up in. Social media is like tossing a cigarette into a dried-out forest. You’re going to end up with a fire that stretches for thousands of acres.

“You have to shut this down.” The sea breeze cools my face. I wish it would cool my racing thoughts, too. “Right now.”

My agent laughs. “I can’t shut it down.”

“You don’t understand. That wasn’t a publicity stunt. There has to be someone you know who could stop it.”

“Mateo, you can’t shut it down.” She almost sounds sympathetic. “You can only amp it up. Way up. Ride this one all the way to the end. You and Emily could both end up with a nice payday.”

“I’m not concerned with the payday,” I insist. I know she’s used to working with actors who are busy shuffling jobs like cards in a deck, trying to come up with the most cash in their bank accounts. “I don’t want it to happen like this.”

“It’s already happening. Take advantage. This is how you get to the next level, Mateo. You can stop taking those action meathead roles and do something serious for once. And with a producer credit, doors are going to open for you all over Hollywood.”