“The original idea was a jungle-styled nursery,” Zanne said. “Maybe we go back to that.”

“The servers could wear animal print shirts. Zebra and tiger stripes, giraffe and leopard spots,” Erin said.

“Too literal,” Zanne said. Holly nodded. “More like...the man with the yellow hat.”

“Yes!” Holly clapped her hands. “I like that.”

“Sure, we could do one of those,” Erin said.

“No, they all wear it,” Holly said. “It works better if all the servers are wearing the same thing. Can’t you just picture it? Fifty waiters—or however many there are—passing around...” She snapped her fingers.

“Moscow mules?” Erin said. “It doesn’t really go with the theme, but you said everyone would want one.”

“Right! Fifty men and women in yellow hats passing out drinks, and then you have a monkey for Curious George, and now Sophie the Giraffe works, and we’ll get a crown for the elephant so he’s Babar. Oh, it’s perfect.”

“It’s a pretty specific costume,” Zanne said. “I don’t know if we can get fifty with this much notice.”

Holly wasn’t twenty-two anymore. She wasn’t that girl from the mountains who went along with everyone, who let people tell her something couldn’t be done, only to watch it be done for Ted. No, the hard part was getting to the good idea, and she’d done that. The staff could take care of the rest.

“Sure you can,” she said. “Yellow pants, yellow shirt, boots. Doesn’t sound that hard to me. Talk to the costume department. Are we good here? I need to study my speech. Oh, and Zanne, have someone look at the Wi-Fi in the gym. It kept cutting out during my workout. If we can get a signal strong enough for Ted to make a movie, I should be able to watch one while I ride.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Zanne said, looking at her notebook. She wrote everything down and underlined it twice. Holly took the leather portfolio Erin handed her, opened it in her lap, and settled in to prepare for the day ahead.

3

Phoebe

Phoebe had laughed when the location of the Producers Guild breakfast was announced. Of course, the conference would be held at Stabler Studios this year, the year she finally had a finished film to sell. Of course, Ted’s shadow would loom over her career, as it always had. But she wasn’t laughing now, on her way in a Lyft from the airport. Her mouth was dry and she felt cold all over. It had been one thing deciding to go, clicking the button on the website that said register here; it was another thing entirely to speed along the freeway while the miles between her and Ted evaporated.