Chapter 24

K endra is gone for the second day in a row. It's got me worried. It's not like her to miss work. I'm supposed to be focusing on my newest date, Becca, but all I can do is speculate on where my producer is. I know I pissed her off with that interview, but she rarely ever misses a day. Today's shoot feels different without her buzzing around, delegating and juggling a million tasks.

I push some of the broccolini around on my plate, wondering if she's home sick or if something happened. What if she was in a car accident yesterday? No, somebody would have said something. Shit, what if that interview shit got her fired? She said something about it, but I didn't take her seriously. Fuck… Rachel doesn't seem concerned, and she would say something, right? People would be talking about it.

"Do you like to travel? Is there anywhere you want to visit you haven't been yet?" Becca asks, taking a sip of wine. I've been avoiding my glass. I'm not in the mood.

"Yeah, I love traveling. Somewhere I haven't been?" I do my best to give her my focus. "I'd really like to visit Vietnam someday. What about you?"

"What?" She looks at me funny. Maybe she didn't hear what I said.

"Vietnam."

"Oh, I thought we were talking about traveling."

Am I having a stroke?

"We are? Vietnam is where I'd like to visit. What about you?"

She tilts her head to the side and furrows her brow. "Vietnam was a war, it's not a country."

I almost choke on my bite of salmon. "Pardon?"

"It was a war. It's not a place you can go. Unless you plan on time traveling, but even then, why would you want to visit a war zone?"

Wait. She doesn't think… No way. She's got me speechless. My eyes find the film crew. Several are staring at the interaction wide-eyed. One of the audio assistants has his back turned, his ears are red and shoulders shaking like he can't keep it together. I can't believe Kendra is missing this. How do I respond to her without making her look like an enormous idiot in front of everyone? I ignore her comment and continue the conversation.

"Where do you want to travel?" I ask.

"Somewhere tropical. I love the Caribbean, but I'd like to go to Hawaii or Alaska."

One of the crew coughs to cover their laugh.

"You mean somewhere tropical like Hawaii… or Alaska, which is not tropical, right?"

I don't mean to offend her, but after the Vietnam thing, I have to check.

"Huh?" She drops her fork on her plate. "No. Both are tropical… they're right next to each other on the map.

"No." I quickly shake my head. "Alaska is not an island. It's along the Canadian border. It's not tropical. A quarter of it is in the Arctic Circle."

"Nooo… They're both islands." She actually laughs at me ! "They're right next to each other on the map."

"That's not—" I glance around the restaurant. This is a prank, right? This is all an elaborate joke at my expense to see how I react.

She turns her head, following my gaze. "Whatare you looking for?"

"Ashton Kutcher…" I murmur.

"Oh my God, I love him!"

I snap my eyes back to her. I can't do this. "Okay"—I look over at Jeremy—"Hey, can we take a break?" I toss down my cloth napkin and head to the restroom to get a little privacy.

Pulling out my phone, I send a text off to Kendra. I'm annoyed.

You told me there wouldn't be scripted conversations.

Was Becca some kind of test? Next time, be less obvious.