“No,” I said, shaking my head so hard I got dizzy. “No, he is here to fuck with me. To mess with me, because I said no to him.” That could be the only possibility, because anything else would be just...no.

“That’s what he said?” Julia asked with a very generous helping of suspicion.

“No, he claims he’s here because he thinks the show would be good PR.” I made air quotes on the PR and kept the fact that I’d been the one to give him the idea in the first place to myself.

“Albita, this would all be so much easier if you admitted you have the hots for that tall, gorgeous asshole,” Julia, my soon to be ex-bestie, declared in exasperation.

“Well, one.” I held up a finger. “You’re officially the worst best friend ever, and two.” Another finger went up. “Any regular person with seeing eyes would find that much ripped muscle at least somewhat enticing. That doesn’t mean I have the hots for him.”

“I have the hots for him,” José volunteered.

“You’re a thirsty ho,” I retorted, to which he responded with a shrug and toothy grin.

“Name-calling is not going to change the fact that you’re stuck with this man,” Julia quipped. “Because I assume you’re still doing it.”

“I really wish I would’ve made different choices in middle school when it came to my interpersonal relationships,” I said, pressing a finger into one of my eye sockets. “Of course I’m going to do it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance and there’s money, a lot of money.” I sighed, and used my other hand to massage my temple, but Julia smacked it away and started doing something magical to the back of my neck. “Don’t stop. Fuck that feels good,” I groaned, ready to forgive her if she just kept hitting that one sore spot on my shoulder.

“You can submit my name to the Best Friend Hall of Fame later. So what if you have to deal with Theo Ganas while filming this show? You’ve said yourself that he’s always been a professional, and it’s not like he doesn’t know his way around a construction site.”

This was true.

“I just don’t get why he’s here,” I lamented, even as I gave Julia more room to really get into that massage. “Streamflix has been after him for years to do something with them. They would’ve come to him in New York.”

“Maybe he wants to be here,” Julia told me suggestively, as she made muscle-melting circles at the top of my spine. “Maybe he wants to work with you in a different setting. Maybe he—”

“Don’t say it, because it’s not true,” I stopped her. “Theo has no interest in me. He had three years to express that and never did.”

“He was your boss,” José reminded me, but I just could not go there. Theo was here for his company. To keep his father happy. To make his money. That was the only thing he cared about.