“That’s so sweet,” Amanda laughed.

“Oh, there’s more. ‘Um, Amanda McQueen is stunning. Can you say cheekbones? Yas, bitch. Get your man.’ There are a lot of tweets making it clear that I am the type of man people think you should have.”

“I guess the Internet isn’t all bad.”

“It’s not.” He took a deep breath. “This is life now, Cha-Cha. For all of us. People have their opinions and twenty-four hours to just spew them out into the ether, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about you and I hope it doesn’t change the way you feel about me.”

“It does though.”

Sam’s eyebrows shot up as his chest sank. “Oh yeah? Okay.”

“This all felt too good to be true from the very beginning. A nobody assistant dating an Oscar winner—”

“Nah, that’s not gonna work.”

“Oh.”

“You’re more than just your job. We’re not going to sit here and act like you’re less-than ’cause your career isn’t going the way you thought it would. Remember when we were sitting at my grandmother’s table and you were telling me how lucky I am to take risks because I have this amazing safety net?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, you know what I’m looking at right now? The catch of the day.”

“What?” Amanda burst out laughing. “That doesn’t make one damn lick of sense.”

“I know. It sounded way better in my head. I know you don’t want to lean on me and Helene, but I’m saying this right now, not as the man who is going to dick up and down as soon as we finish this conversation, but as someone who genuinely cares about you as a friend and respects you as a writer. And . . . I read your Banker Down spec.”

“Oh God.”

“Nah, oh God. It was good! And I’m saying that as a huge fan of the show and someone who reads a lot of scripts. It’s damn good. So, Ms. McQueen. You have this net. You have the support. What are your dreams and how do we help you achieve them?”

Amanda took a deep breath and looked back at Sam’s painfully handsome face. They’d already shared so much in such a short time. She could be honest with him. She could tell him what was really in her heart and at the top of her career bucketlist.

“I want to show-run a sci-fi series with no less than four seasons on HBO and figure out who we need to bribe to make sure it’s an Emmy winner, every time.”

“Four seasons on HBO and an Emmys sweep. Got it. What else?” Sam asked.