“Nah,” he said. “You’ll love this place. It’s an historic landmark.”
“An historic landmark in the middle of the Mojave Desert,” she said.
“Near a volcanic crater! Are you kidding me? We’re totally stopping. You’ll love it.”
She glanced over at him, his five o’clock shadow coming in right on time. It made him look even more like a rugged outdoor model than he already did, which she found equal parts annoying and appealing. The thing that struck her most, however, was this boyish excitement he seemed to have about this road trip. She wondered, but didn’t ask, what that was all about.
“We don’t really have time to see the crater tonight, though.” He shifted his hands to the bottom of the steering wheel, seemingly weighing their options. “But. . . we could go in the morning. Or I could just go, you know, before you wake up.”
“Don’t you want to get on the road early?”
He shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t really have an itinerary, remember?”
“I’m starting not to believe you. You’ve known exactly where to stop at the last three places.”
He shifted in his seat, almost like he was caught. “You really think I planned on sleeping in a crater?”
She let a small smile creep onto her lips. “Dunno, it kind of sounds like a place you’d sleep. Do we have reservations at this hotel?”
He chuckled. “It’s a motel. And no. Despite what you think, we really are winging it.”
Her stomach squeezed at the reminder. She didn’t like “winging it.” What if they ended up in the desert without somewhere to stay? It’s not like there were very many places to choose from.
“We should be there soon,” he said. “Less than an hour, maybe?”
She turned forward in her seat as a text came in. It was her boss, Lisa.
I know you’re heading home for the holidays, but we have an emergency. The artwork I ordered for the dorm room isn’t going to work.
Did you have other options you could send my way?
Her heart rate picked up as her fingers typed out a reply.
Yes, I had three different mood boards with available artwork in my original proposal.
She forced herself not to be irritated that Lisa hadn’t read her whole email, trying instead to look at this as the huge opportunity it was.
“Everything okay?”
“What?” She glanced at Will. “Oh, yeah, no, it’s work.”
He nodded and returned his attention to the road, which was good, because his attention on her twisted her into a knot.
“Spencer said you work on a TV show or something?”
She nodded as her phone buzzed.
Send them to me ASAP.
We should be near WiFi in about an hour.
Will send then.
“I’m an assistant set decorator.” She tucked her phone back into her bag. “My boss, Lisa, designs the sets, but she’s taught me a ton. She’s actually starting to give me more responsibility.”
“That was her?” he asked. “The text?”
She nodded again, though she wasn’t sure he was looking at her. She still resisted being too cordial to him—they weren’t friends, after all. But if he was going to ask her questions about one of her favorite topics, she probably wouldn’t be able to keep quiet.
“Right now, we’ve got to decorate a dorm room,” she said. “It’s only for a couple of episodes, so we don’t have a lot of time.”
“So, like beer cans and dirty underwear?” he joked.
“A girl’s dorm room.”
“So, like make-up and dirty underwear?”
She let herself smile. That was actually funny.
She loved her job. She loved learning about characters and bringing their spaces to life. She’d always been artistic, and she’d always loved film. Somehow, she fell into this career that married those two passions, and she couldn’t imagine doing anything else. She’d been working for years, and kept waiting for the day someone trusted her enough to let her run with her ideas.
“So, you’re like an interior designer,” he said. “But for fake people.”
“Well, the people are actually real people,” she said. “I mean, as real as actors can get, anyway.”
“Ha. Nice.”
She continued. “This job is about. . . bringing characters to life.” She turned toward him. “For instance, a couple of weeks ago, Lisa and I were working on a single mom’s kitchen. The attention to detail is crazy. You can’t just make an empty kitchen, you have to clutter the fridge with little kid artwork and quirky magnets the character picked up on vacation and post-it notes with actual reminders written on them.