He was sipping coffee and finishing his toast when she seated herself at their usual booth.

“Am I late, or are you early?” she asked, nodding at the waitress who appeared with her iced tea.

“Neither.” He propped his elbows on the table. “Did Tanya speak to you?”

She cocked her head. “I haven’t seen her. She got in way after midnight and had an early call for some pilot that’s shooting over in Jersey. Seems like Ronnie’s been able to get her plenty of work since she hit town.”

“She’s got a certain look that’s in demand, right now, that’s all,” Evan said. “But you’re keeping busy, right? I mean, with those two new units, I don’t know when you’d have any more time to go on auditions anyway.”

Letty sat up straight in the booth. “What’s this about, Evan? What is it Tanya was supposed to speak to me about?”

He shook his head. “Dammit, this is awkward.”

She thought back to the past few weeks. Ever since Tanya had arrived, she’d had a nagging sense that something was amiss. And now, looking at Evan, as he picked at a morsel of bacon on his plate, she knew exactly what was amiss.

“Oh,” she said slowly. “So what? You’ve been sneaking around, sleeping with my little sister? You want my permission or something?”

“No. It’s not like that.”

She toyed with the packet of artificial sweetener the waitress had tucked under her glass. The girl should have known the packet would get soaked and the sweetener would be ruined. It was true what people said. You really couldn’t get good help these days.

“Not like what? You’re not sneaking around? Or you’re not sleeping with her? Or maybe you don’t actually want my permission. Which is it?”

Evan let out a long sigh. “Admit it, Letty. You like me, but there was never any real chemistry between us. Which is probably why you’d never sleep with me, which, looking back now, was a good thing. Ours is a working relationship, and unfortunately, I let things get … personal. But, as I told Tanya, I want to be honest with you. She and I? We just clicked. Like, right away.”

Letty felt her face redden. “Clicked? Is that a polite euphemism for fucked?”

He wadded up his napkin and threw it onto his plate. “See? This is why Tanya didn’t want to tell you herself. She knew you’d overreact.”

“Overreact?” She leaned across the table. “I paid for her plane ticket up here. Loaned her money to get new headshots and set her up with my agent. Right now, she’s wearing my favorite bra and living in my apartment. So you’ll excuse me if I ‘overreact’ to the news that she’s now sleeping with the guy I’ve been dating.”