Katya arrived with a rolling cart bearing a bowl of vegetarian chili for Thursday lunch.

“Let’s put it in the screening room, thanks,” Zanne said, and she followed Katya’s long braid down the hall. Katya wore a tank top and the same pair of jeans every day, wide-legged, cropped, frayed ends, like a culinary Tom Sawyer. She knew an ungodly amount about ancient grains and wanted to work her own farm. It made no sense that she was here, except, like everyone else, she had made a calculation—do this to make that possible.

“Hey, did you hear about the ad?” Katya asked.

“Yeah, James mentioned something on InsideScoop. Why?”

“It went viral. People are having a field day with it. They’re calling them the Hollywood Couple and trying to figure out who they are.”

“Oh shit.” Zanne should’ve realized when James said it was on InsideScoop that it would be a prime target for meme-ification. This was what they all bent over backward to avoid, the press finding out how many minions the humble genius and his sweet-as-pie wife had working for them. They were all under NDAs, forbidden to quit and tell, and Ted and Holly took precautions, limiting the number of staffers who appeared in public. Only a select few were allowed to go to his premieres, for example. The advance team who scouted out new hotels and restaurants were more stealthy than a Times food critic. At the party tonight, no one would notice the personal staff, not with the costumed servers blanketing the terrace, the animals, the games, the booze, and if they did notice all the extra hands, they’d assume it was a temporary staffing surge, one night only. Still, if the press understood how many staffers Ted and Holly employed on a daily basis...well, at least there was always the Sea Org to make the Stablers seem normal.

“What are they saying?” Zanne asked.

“That they’re narcissistic bullies, and we’re dirty whores for cashing their checks,” Katya said.

“Anything about Stockholm Syndrome?” Zanne said, trying to play along. On an ordinary day, she would’ve found this minor PR scare amusing, but today she felt caught in the crosshairs. It was her job they were talking about. Ted had just offered it to her. So why even post the ad to begin with?

“Ha, good one,” Katya said, pushing the rolling cart back down the hall.

Zanne cued up the pilot of a Witches of Eastwick reboot Ted was producing and then popped her head back into his office.

Before she said a word, he looked up at her, his eyebrows two question marks.

“Yes?” he asked. And then he smiled, as if he were genuinely seeing her for the first time, not just her blue eyes and her wild hair, but everything she did for him. Zanne, who made it possible for him to do his best work. A true partner, his Zanne.