“I wouldn’t say ‘never.’ When I was little and I started watching movies, I wanted to be in them. They seemed magical, and everyone led interesting lives, but as I got older and realised those weren’t real people living real lives, I started to unpack the magic. As soon as I learned the director was the person who pulled it all together, the cameras, the actors, the final cuts, that’s what I wanted to be more than anything.”

“Then why aren’t you directing?”

She laughed humourlessly, her muscles tensing as if for a fight. “We’ll both be pruney and cold before we reach the end of that list.”

“We’ll top off the hot water, and I quite like prunes.”

“You would,” Sophia said, but she settled back, noting how easily all the tension slipped away as Vic’s hand came to rest on her stomach. “I guess it’s not really that long of a list if you break it down to the roots.”

“Which are?”

“Sexism. Classism. Nepotism. Lack of educational access, which I guess throws us back to the first things on the list.” She sipped her wine. “Poor girls from Louisiana don’t have expensive cameras or editing software lying about. We don’t have the leisure time or money to play around or develop a style. Our high schools don’t have film studies courses. We don’t have what we need to apply to high-end film schools, much less pay for them. And I don’t have a last name like Eastwood or Coppola to open doors for me.”

“Which is why you had to find another way to make a name for yourself in the business,” Vic surmised.

“Pretty much.”

“And also, why you hated me the first few times we met.”

She rolled her head to the side and kissed her cheek. “What, you mean your wealth, your unearned position, the über-long and fancy family name you dropped at our first meeting?”

“To be fair, you dropped yours first.”

“I dropped the name of the character I was playing to try to gain access to the world you were born into. I know, I know, your birth is no more your responsibility than mine is.”

“Thank you,” Vic said. “But I also know firsthand the absurdity of those systems and believe it or not I have my own disdain for being judged on anything other than my merits.”

“I know that now, but at first you looked like another one of the people who held power over me without earning it.”

“And now?”

She sat up, creating a few waves as she turned to face Vic, taking in her eyes, the pink of her cheeks, the rise of her breasts near the water’s surface. “Now you have a different kind of power over me, one you earned.”