After they finished their beers, Anna picked up the tattered pages John had set on the table, his 122 pages of a properly formatted, WGA-registered script with bent pages, bearing the evidence of too many rereads and too little real revision. She turned it over.

Anna pulled down the rim of her black cap. A contemplative move that she must have repeated on many movie sets. “A heist movie with a bromance?”

John shook his head, grinning. “Is this what we’re doing?”

Anna’s face narrowed in concentration. “Coming-of-age?”

John shook his head again, vehemently this time. He’d already sold one of those, but the less Anna Kovács knew about that shit show, the better.

“Wait, I’ve got it.” She waved her hands in front of her face. “War movie with a small cast. Probably sad, definitely expensive.”

Anna was right about the sad and expensive, but she hadn’t quite nailed the story yet.

She bit her lip, studying him from under her cap like he was the last puzzle piece on the board that wouldn’t fit. “I give up.”

“So, she isn’t all-knowing,” John said, not bothering to hide his amusement.

“Come on, tell me.”

John wasn’t too humble to admit he liked the pleading note in Anna’s voice. If she wanted to know about his work, he wasn’t going to deny her. Briefly, he thought of using his elevator pitch. After her time in the business, regardless of what she said about her connections, Anna had to know plenty of producers and studios where John could get a foot in the door. He didn’t want this afternoon to turn into a sales meeting, though. It was the first time in a long time he had just talked about movies and not about the business. He didn’t know what she had against Scarface, though. It might have been parodied to hell, but it was still a classic. John let out a breath. “Do you know anyone who’s an addict?”

Anna shook her head. “Certainly, the industry isn’t known for clean living, but I don’t have personal experience with a close friend or family member who suffers from addiction. There were nights with too much wine, after the divorce, when my mom had trouble dealing, but nothing ongoing, nothing permanent.”