“It wouldn’t be easy, but it’s possible. First, I’d have to go back to school and get a bachelor’s in film.”

“How long would that take?”

“The standard four years.”

“How would you get into the industry once you graduated?”

“There’s more than one way, but I’d probably try to become an assistant to an established director.”

Lightning flashed in the sky, and thunder boomed a few seconds after. The temperature was dropping, but it was so warm inside the car, the windows were starting to steam, so he switched on the defroster. “How hard is that?”

“Very hard.”

“Do you think Maxi would put in a good word for you?”

“I hope so, but I’m not convinced it’d be right to even ask him. No doubt he’s got enough people at him for those kinds of favors.”

“Maybe he’d be happy to do it. He knows you’re a talented actress. He told me you deserve an Oscar for your performance in Expect the Worst.”

That drew her attention away from the window. “Maxi said that?”

“He did.” Seth stopped at the light at one end of town. “The nominees will be named shortly, won’t they?”

“In January.”

“Are you excited?”

“Not really. I’m sort of dreading it, to be honest.”

“Why?”

“If I’m nominated, I won’t feel comfortable showing up to see if I win. And if I’m not nominated, I’ll feel like that was my only shot.”

“Maybe as an actor. But you could get one for directing. A lot of actors go into directing, right? Angelina Jolie, Kevin Costner, Bradley Cooper, Denzel Washington. There have to be others.”

She sent him a sly glance. “I thought you didn’t know much about the movies.”

“I don’t. If you’ll notice, those names have been around for a while,” he said with a chuckle.

“True.” She began playing with the ends of her scarf. “Your mother thinks I should give the paparazzi the picture they want. Arrange it beforehand and make whoever I choose pay me for it.”

After he’d taken a moment to consider the idea, he nodded. It wasn’t hard to see Aiyana’s wisdom. “Sounds like a good idea to me. Are you leaning that way?”

“I am.”

“Right away or after Christmas?”

“After Christmas. I need a little more time.”

She’d already been through so much. That she had this on the horizon made him feel protective of her. Maybe people wouldn’t be mean to her face, but he could easily guess that some of those on the internet would be cruel. No doubt there would be many jokes at her expense—probably quite a few memes, too.

Sadly, there wasn’t anything he could do to stop all that. He might be able to hold off Kouretas for a while, but she couldn’t hide forever.