“For not looking like a real Guild boss?” Gabriel said.
Veronica chuckled. “You know what I mean. See you guys tomorrow.”
She catwalked down the hall. Xander did not take his eyes off her until she disappeared down the stairs.
“I have a question for you, Xander,” Gabriel said.
Xander spun around. “Sorry,” he said. “Got distracted. It’s not often you stumble across real talent, you know. What did you want to ask?”
“How did you find us?”
“It wasn’t easy. Ms. Bell wasn’t taking my calls—”
“I thought you were a spammer,” Lucy said.
“I had a hunch that was the problem, so I asked your colleagues at Weather Wizards if they could help me contact you.”
Lucy went very still. “Colleagues?”
“They assured me they could make you available because you were going to be on the Weather Wizards team. They said you were about to sign a contract with them.”
“That’s interesting,” Lucy said. “Why were they so eager to help you?”
Xander winked. “I told them I would make sure Weather Wizards got plenty of product placement in the movie. I promised I would make certain the heroine wore the company’s uniform. There would have been shots of the Weather Wizard headquarters. Walk-ons for the Roxbys, of course. And credits. There would have been plenty of opportunity for Weather Wizard merch.”
“I gather that’s not going to happen now?” Lucy said.
“No, the deal fell through when it turned out they couldn’t get you on board,” Xander said. “I tracked you down today by contacting Ollie’s House of Pizza.”
“Let me take a wild guess here,” Gabriel said. “You offered Ollie’s placement in the film, too?”
“Of course. The owner is thrilled to be a part of the project.”
“Aside from telling us that we don’t have the looks or the talent to play ourselves in your picture, was there anything else you wanted, Xander?” Lucy said. “Because we have plans for this evening.”
“And they don’t include you,” Gabriel said.
“Sorry for the confusion,” Xander said. “I didn’t come here to talk to you about who will be playing you in the film. I’m here for the dust bunny.”
Lucy stared at him. “You want Otis in your movie?”
“He’s—”
“I know,” Lucy said. “Perfect.”
“Exactly. Plus he’s already tamed.”
“You don’t tame dust bunnies,” Gabriel said. “You form friendships with them. Or not.”
“I understand they can’t be domesticated in the traditional sense, but it’s obvious that the one called Otis has formed a bond with Ms. Bell.” Xander chuckled and looked at Lucy. “You, of course, would be our dust bunny wrangler on the set. Union scale.”
“I don’t think your cunning plan is going to work,” Lucy said.
“The manager at Ollie’s told me the creature is very fond of cheese-and-olive pizza,” Xander said. “I’ll make sure the caterers have it available on the set. How about a screen test tomorrow? We can do it right after we do Veronica Star.”
“Who am I to stand in the way of Otis’s big opportunity to have his name in lights?” Lucy said. “He’d love that. Okay, I’ll bring him to the screen test tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes, but I have to warn you, I’m not optimistic.”
“Why wouldn’t it work?” Xander demanded.
“I don’t think dust bunnies grasp the concept of work as we understand it. Making a movie is hard work, right?”
“Well, sure. Long days on the set. A lot of rehearsals until the director decides the scene is right. But in the end, it’s a movie. Thousands of people will see it. Otis will be a star.”
“Fine. Whatever. Good-bye. See you in the morning.”
Otis chose that moment to appear at the end of the hall. He had a half-eaten slice of pizza in his paw. He chortled.
Xander peered past Lucy. Energy shivered in the atmosphere around him.
“Perfect,” he said. “Absolutely perfect.”
Lucy closed the door with some force, enough to cause Xander to step back quickly.
“Ten o’clock,” he called, his voice muffled by the door. “Rez-Stone Studios. Two-fifty-two Mirror Street. Emerald Zone.”
Lucy locked the door and turned to face Gabriel.
“Just when you think things couldn’t get more bizarre,” she said.