Page 42 of Beneath the Fame

“Whaaat?” she whined. “I’m trying to relax, and here you go.”

“Wearerelaxing,” I argued, going as far as to grab her hands to urge her from sitting in her own lounger to joining me on mine.

She obliged.

“It’s not relaxing for you to be asking me about imaginary scripts.”

I laughed as she settled between my legs, laying back on my chest. “Oh, it’s imaginary now?”

“Yes, because I havenoidea what you’re talking about.”

I frowned.

NowI was starting to actually get a little concerned—we played like this, sure, but it was hitting me that this might not be her normal reticence.

“Hey,” I said, shifting my tone away from amusement to genuine curiosity. “Did something happen?”

“Outside of my complete and utter existential crisis at the thought of presenting this to Charlotte?” she asked, looking back at me with a grin.

I shook my head, resting my hands on her stomach. “I think Charlotte would love this,” I told her. “And she might even be able to help you get past any roadblocks you’ve got going on.”

She sucked her teeth. “Now see, this is how I know you’re playing—Charlotte is anaward-winningscreenwriter. I’m sure she has way too many of her own projects going on right now to be picking things up with an amateur. Her schedule is probably already good and full after she finishesKinfolk, with the reception it’s had.”

“I think you’rereallyselling yourself short,” I told her.

“You kind of have to think that,” she said, sitting up so she could face me, and offering a grape. “Whoever I’m fucking has to have complete and utter,delusionallevels of belief in me. I wouldn’t accept anything less, and you’re very good at it, Mr. Everett.”

I chuckled. “The only delusional person here is you,” I insisted, planting a quick kiss on her lips. “That’s why I’m campaigning so hard to get you to let somebody else read your script.Youthink I’m just hyping you up because we’retogether,” I said, correcting her insinuation that we were just having sex. “So it seems to me like you need a neutral party.”

“ButCharlotteis not a neutral party.” She giggled. “She loves me—which means she might say yes just to avoid hurting my feelings.”

“Unlike Nolan, maybe?”

She shook her head. “If I showed it to Nolan first, that might hurtCharlotte’sfeelings, because she might feel likeoh man why didn't she feel like she could come to me?”

“Why would she have to know that you went to Nolan first?” I asked.

Her face pulled into a skeptical frown. “Do youreallythink that if this actually turned into something Nolan would not be front and center taking credit? Making sure everybody for miles and miles knewhesaw it first?Especiallyif he knew it was going to get under Charlotte’s skin?” Vee sighed. “I mean…you see how he’s been about the script changes, right?”

I nodded.

The man was a known asshole, so it wasn’t exactly surprising that he enjoyed getting on Charlotte’s nerves. But now that we were coming to the end of the show, wanting to wrap things up and close all the loose ends, the network was starting to demand changes based on audience reception, which I knew was an explicit annoyance for Charlotte.

And so did Nolan.

Which did make it a little more callous that he seemed to revel in getting to pick apart and manipulate the script in favor of the network’s money-seeking changes.

Was it maybe a little unfair to categorize it that way, when WAWG had long been one of the few true avenues for Black creators to get their work on the main stage?

Maybe.

Since new owners had taken over a few years back, there had been decidedly less of that bullshitmoney-over-everythingattitude. But somewhere along the way,somebodyhad to have gotten hired that didn’t seem to fully understand the network philosophy. Who exactly that was, I wasn’t privy to, but things seemed to be going back to the same way they’d been before, when the network lost a lot of Black talent to pettiness and corruption.

I was willing to hang in there—from a distance—at least for a little while. After all, I wasn’t necessarily tied to WAWG outside ofKinfolkand the show I’d pitched to Nolan. I was an actor—I could go anywhere.

But for people like Charlotte, who had a deal with them for a certain number of projects, it felt a little more obvious that some things were going to have to change.

A buzzing on my wrist pulled me from my thoughts—a buzzing I’d been ignoring in favor of being fully tuned in with Vee. This time, I actually gave it a moment of attention—which proved to be the best thing I could’ve done, since it was coming from my security system.

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