I drank a twelve-pack of beer in front of the television that night. After the third can I allowed myself to acknowledge that she was probably right. Religion was practically her whole life, but it had no place in mine. I still didn’t understand why it hadn’t mattered the last couple months, but I didn’t care anymore either. The point was that this was now reality, and no amount of anger on my part was going to change it.

I started shooting Nine Lives two weeks later. It felt good to be on the set again, where I knew exactly what was coming and I always had the right words to say because someone gave them to me. I didn’t have to think on my feet; I just slipped into character and allowed my mind to take a break from reality. It was a very physical role, and I pushed myself in the action sequences like a man possessed. At night I crashed hard, sleeping like the dead until makeup call the next morning.

More than once in the following month I had to stop myself from calling her to try to reconcile or at least figure out what was going on in her mind. I had a hard time believing two minutes of conversation could destroy a friendship and romance and potential long-term commitment. I hadn’t been ready for a relationship in a long time, and then I was not only ready but actually willing to commit—and to someone outside the industry on top of it. I’d felt in my heart that it would have worked, that it had promise. But it turned out it didn’t matter what I thought.

Shoving my hand in my jeans pocket one morning, I found Greg’s card in the pocket. I’d forgotten about his willingness to talk and wondered now if the offer still stood, considering Grace and I were no longer … Well, we hadn’t technically been anything in the first place, so perhaps that wouldn’t be an issue. I stuffed it back into my pocket to be dealt with later.

This was only one of many too-perfect-to-be-coincidental events that occurred that day. In one of the first scenes, shot on a hotel room set, I opened the drawer of the nightstand to make sure my prop was in there and saw a Gideon Bible. “Who put this here?” I asked with far more surprise in my voice than the situation warranted.

The prop guy came over, looking defensive. “I did. What’s the matter?”

“Why is it here?”

“Dude, it’s a hotel, hotels always have Gideon Bibles, haven’t you ever noticed?”