Phoebe had to get back out there and see what she could salvage of her chances, if she wasn’t thrown out of the party altogether. Were there giant sweat stains on her dress? Probably. She lifted her arms and looked in the mirror—a little damp, but fixable. Phoebe pulled two towels from the basket on the counter and tucked one in each armpit. She washed her hands and touched up her lipstick. Then she threw out the towels and went back to the party.

When she came out of the pool house, Scott from Netflix was waiting for her with a glass of something golden.

“Tequila. Thought you could use a drink after that.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“So. Warrior Bride. Talk to me about where this story came from.”

The class clown was gone, and in his place was a dealmaker with a real question about her work. This might be Phoebe’s only chance to say anything of substance to someone like Scott.

Smile, Umma told her, and she did.

“My mother used to read to me every night from a book of Korean myths, and my favorite was about a soldier who turns bits of silk into butterflies. I used to imagine that I was the soldier and I had magic in my hands—only I didn’t turn my sewing scraps into butterflies, I transformed them into flaming arrows. Warrior Bride started out as this harmless fairy tale I dreamed up about a girl who uses her magic to fight back against an evil governor. Then I got older and I found out that evil men aren’t just characters in stories. And this fairy tale wasn’t harmless. It was literally the only thing that kept me going. I always knew this girl was magical, but her real superpower is she’s relentless. You can try to break her, but she’ll fucking end you.”

“Whoa. Sounds like it’s autobiographical?” Scott said.

Phoebe knew what he wanted. He wanted to hear about Ted. He wanted his piece of the gossip, but she wasn’t here for that.

“Well, I can’t make fire out of fabric.” She laughed. “Yet!”

“Phoebe!” a woman’s voice called. Phoebe peered over her shoulder and saw the VP of Streaming at Amazon making her way toward them.

“Listen,” Scott said, while he still had her to himself. “I want to put you in front of our team tomorrow. I’m really excited about Warrior Bride, and you are exactly the kind of talent we want to work with. We want to be in the Phoebe Lee business.”

“I’d love that. Dana has my card. She’s great, by the way!”