But the reporter had seen them on the Henrys’ boat, and now Holly was getting pulled into their mess.

“Blink a few times and then look up again,” Kelly instructed. Holly did as she was told.

In retrospect, it was clear that the reporter wasn’t conducting a preinterview, she was looking for dirt, with those casual questions about Caitlyn Alvarez and whether she’d suffered unreasonably from industry gossip. The trouble was, gossip so often contained the seed of truth in it. Like Rio said, it’s only tacky if it’s not true. Those lollipops did help some women shed a few pounds, and Caitlyn was difficult. She pushed too hard. She could have let her representation handle things. Confidentially, Holly had heard they were working something out. Nick would go to rehab, they’d finish up the movie without him, and Nick and Caitlyn could film their reshoots separately. Overtures were being made to prove to her that she’d be taken care of and not pushed off the project. She was even invited to sit at Ted and Holly’s table at the Getty Gala last year. But none of that was good enough for Caitlyn. She wanted a public apology and she wanted Nick fired. Forget that it would be impossible to make the film without him, that too much of it had been filmed already.

At the planning meetings for Genders United, Caitlyn’s name came up a couple of times. Holly wasn’t the only one who thought it would be better for the organization to steer clear of Caitlyn’s situation. She’d made $3 million on The Bag Man. Could you really call that suffering? There were worthier causes for Genders United to take up, like the Persistence Fellowship for underrecognized filmmakers and legal aid to the housekeepers union. In the meantime, there would always be a reporter to give Caitlyn’s story a sympathetic angle.

But why had that reporter—what was her name? all Holly could remember now was On Set—why had she brought up Phoebe? She said Phoebe had been sidelined. As far as Holly knew, Phoebe had sidelined herself. After Ted broke up with her, she left town. LA was tough. Some people couldn’t go it alone.

“I love this look on you,” Max said. “So much.”

“Right?” Kelly said, stepping back to let Holly see herself in the mirror.

“Is it supposed to look like that?” Holly asked. “So...” She searched for the word.

“Dramatic?” Kelly asked.

“Young?” Max asked. “Don’t worry. No one’s going to think you’re trying too hard.”

Oh God, but wasn’t she? Weren’t they all? Wasn’t this the definition of trying?

“That’s right,” Kelly said. “Once I’m finished, it’s going to look super lux but sort of tossed off at the same time.”

Beat, that’s the word Flynn would have used. Holly looked beat.