Anna made her way to the head of the table. She needed to get it together. This movie was her comeback, and she wasn’t going to let it be derailed by an attractive man. She wasn’t that kind of woman. Anna reached the table and took the stack of papers Jenny handed her.

But what if he told people they had hooked up? It was her first day, and she was going to be made a laughingstock. He could completely undermine her authority with a few well-chosen words during a drink after a long day of shooting. She didn’t want to believe he would do that, but did she really know him? At the premiere party, he’d demonstrated that he could be petty when he wanted. Granted, his pride had been stung. Nobody liked being a cater waiter, especially when they were waiting on their latest hook-up.

“Have you met the assistant director?” Jenny asked, a little too lighthearted.

She looked over at John moving toward the table, pointedly ignoring everyone around him. He must be so unhappy to be here.

“Why?” Anna asked, wondering if John was watching her, like they were in high school and about to be grouped for a team project. “What do you mean?”

“All I’m saying is he’s very attractive.” Jenny looked Anna in the eye.

Anna hadn’t felt this interrogated since she ate the leftover cheesecake Jenny had brought home from Thanksgiving and stashed in the refrigerator with a note on it that read “anna don’t eat this.”

“No,” Anna breathed.

John kept walking to the table, past where the actors were sitting. He couldn’t be AD’ing this thing. Her life was not that much of a joke. But of course, it was. She read the small hastily written placard set up on the table in front of him: Assistant Director.

“Well, you won’t be able to forget him,” Jenny said, a triumphant smile on her face.

Anna followed her friend’s gaze. She tried frantically to catch up with what was happening. John was focused intensely on reading the script and making notes, and she wondered if he had finished the shooting schedule.

“Has John worked on a shoot this complicated?” Anna’s mind spun. “He mentioned having AD experience at the bar, but this is going to be a mess.”

“Wait a minute,” Jenny said, scowling. “The AD looks like that burning-hot cater waiter, so I thought you could have a fling and get over your screenwriter-slash-bartender.”

“John is the screenwriter-slash-bartender.”

“Hold on,” Jenny announced so loudly that people around them glanced in their direction. “John, our AD, is your bartender-slash-screenwriter-slash-burning-hot-cater-waiter?”

“Yes,” Anna intoned with deep regret.

“How many jobs does he have?”

“Probably as many as we did when we were starting out.”

“Fair, but how could you keep this crucial information from me?”

“I thought you might make a big deal out of it?”