“I thought you said taking pictures of people was cheap,” she says when she’s swallowed.

“I said hot girls.” Ryan smirks. “And anyway, you looked so fucking pissed, I had to. I was just shooting these guys.” He gestures to the lounge chairs that have been assembled out in front of The Hotel’s doors. They make the driveway look like an ersatz pool deck. “They just got delivered.”

“So they won’t stay here?” Lulu sits down on one and stretches her legs out in front of her.

Ryan, mercifully, puts his camera down.

“Nah, I just haven’t gotten them moved yet. I’m kind of into it, though, right? The surreality of it.”

Lulu stifles a groan. She knows so many dudes like Ryan. They take one art history class and think it makes them deep.

“I bet you’ll be pretty bummed when this place opens for real,” Lulu says. “And it isn’t yours to play around with anymore.”

“If it does,” Ryan says. “Cass didn’t tell you about the curse?”

Lulu laughs.

Ryan shrugs.

“A curse? For real?”

“I mean, it’s not like my ancestors killed a Gypsy woman’s child or anything,” Ryan says. “But you know, this place has kind of a history.”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to use that word anymore,” Lulu says. “Gypsies.” It’s one of those things her sister Naomi is always on about.

“Well, listen, don’t tell any Gypsies I said it, okay?”

“I don’t really think that’s the point,” Lulu says.

“What’s the point?”

“Why not call people what they want to be called?”

“Why should I have to?”

The answer to that is Because it would at least make you look like less of a dick, but she can’t say that to Ryan, not and have it come out right. Instead, Lulu says, “Maybe if you did, your family wouldn’t be cursed.”

Ryan laughs. “There are people who actually believe that,” he says. “I mean, the people who believe in the curse believe it’s our fault. My great-great-grandmother was an actress.” Right. Lulu read about Constance Wilmott. “And she was only in one film, and then she stopped acting. Probably because she was busy having kids, but some old conspiracy theorists got obsessed with the idea that it was her husband who made her stop which could be true too. Apparently he was mad possessive.”

Lulu does not make fun of him for saying “mad possessive.” She hopes Cass shows up soon, before she runs out of self-control.