Page 44 of No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding

I smother a laugh. She knows I’m not into all that chi business. “And if I don’t want to be realigned?”

She puts out a fake pout. “You’ll do it for me.”

“What about me?” Harper says.

Emma gives Harper her most charming of smiles. “You’ll do it for me, too, won’t you?”

Harper melts a little. I can’t blame her. Emma’s good at this.

She’s dazzling.

“Which one are we supposed to start with again?” I ask.

“Oh,” Simone says, coming around a corner of the path. “I thought I’d be alone.”

“I guess we had the same idea,” Emma says, but not in a mean way.

She likes Simone, she’s told me, even if she’s a bit harsh sometimes. But some women feel like they have to be in this business or they’ll be dismissed.

“Is she a bitch, or is she a woman?” Emma likes to ask, and it’s a fair question.

The problem is that Simoneisn’ta nice person.

You don’t have to take my word for it. There’s at least oneVarietyarticle where she isn’t named, but the anonymous complainants are for sure talking about how hard she is to work for.

I mean, itcouldbe another South Asian film director who got her start directing a big star’s first film,37but the odds are low.

“Sure,” Simone says, holding on to the ends of the towel shehas draped around her neck. She’s got a red one-piece on that pops against her dark skin. She looks strong, too, with those long, lean muscles you get from Pilates.

In high school, she was the lead cheerleaderandthe captain of the debate team, and she ran around with a crowd that we called the “glitterati,” which was made up exclusively of current and future prom kings and queens. Her crew generated three actors you’ve heard of and one supermodel. To give you some idea of how extra they were, Simone is probably the least successful of her cohort.

“Hi, Simone,” I say.

“Oh, hi, Eleanor. I didn’t see you there.”

Right, sure, I’m invisible suddenly. Though thatwouldbe a cool power to have.

Or maybe not. I probably don’t want to hear what people have to say about me when they think I’m not there.

Besides, I already have my Amazon reviews for that.

“You remember Harper?”

She looks at her blankly, then nods slowly. “You all getting in?”

“I’m starting with the cold pool,” I say.

Simone frowns. “I think you’re supposed to do hot, medium, cold.”

“Emma just said the opposite.”

“Your choice.”

“Mychoice, I think,” Emma says with a bright smile.

“What? Oh, yes, of course. You’re the bride.”

“Crazy, right?”

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