“Jesus Christ, I am not kidding.” Nicole fanned herself.

“I get it,” Anna said. Luckily, Nicole didn’t pick up on everything that went into that sentence.

“You work with him. Do you think he’d want an on-set hookup?”

Honestly, Anna had no idea. Would he? Everything in the past few days showed he could put the job first when he had to. Anna could too. But she’d never even imagined—

“They usually aren’t my thing.” Nicole sighed. “But I would make an exception for him.”

Of course, Nicole wasn’t talking about Anna and John—she was talking about herself and John. I need more sleep.

“What you do in your spare time is your business, but I need to know you’re serious about this shoot.”

“I am serious.” Nicole narrowed her eyes. “I would’ve thought you didn’t believe every rumor you hear about a woman on set.”

“I don’t,” Anna said. “Besides, I know there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything the press has suggested you get up to.”

Nicole had a wry smile on her face. “I’m not that good a multitasker.”

“None of us are,” Anna said.

Nicole tilted her head. “How did you end up on this picture?”

“Same as you,” Anna said. “It was the only job I could get.”

Nicole looked incredulous.

“If you tell me not to marry the most powerful agent in town, I will say lesson learned.”

Nicole cocked her head. “I was going to tell you not to divorce him.”

Anna laughed. It’d bubbled up unexpectedly as if she hadn’t laughed in so long, her body wasn’t sure how to do it anymore.

“How bad was that divorce?” Nicole asked.

Others had asked before—the gaggle of wives in Los Angeles whom Anna knew but was never friends with. The women had accepted her because of her husband and dropped her after he was gone. Whenever the press or her colleagues asked, she had a carefully rehearsed, bland script about two busy people and not enough time to make it work. Perhaps she had recited the script so many times, she believed it herself.

“I thought it was amicable,” Anna admitted.

“Seriously?” Nicole made a face like she had when Derek had leaned in for a kiss.

“I might have been wrong.” As out of practice as she was, Anna needed to broach the subject. Less-experienced actors dealing with more-sophisticated material was an unusual situation, and she needed to find a way to help them through it.

“What’s going on with Derek?”

“Nothing,” Nicole answered, sipping her water. “Nothing at all.”

The actress picked up her phone and wandered away. Well, that could have gone better. Anna pulled her cap down, considering her options.

“I don’t want to tell you how to do your job,” John said quietly.

Anna startled, not realizing he was standing next to her. “That always goes well.”