“So I see.” Ayesha hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Mom’s out here claiming that you’re practically engaged to Dev. When did you even meet him?”
“Ugh.” Jia scrubbed her face. That’s right. Ayesha didn’t know about the debacle of meeting Dev. “It’s a long story.”
“Stop touching your face,” Ayesha chided, ever the young doctor.
“Right, sorry.” She wanted to wail her news out to her sister. Ayesha had been the one person who had known everything: not just who Jia was talking to, but also how much she’d started to swoon over him.
Time is—
Nope, nope, she wasn’t going to dwell on a single one of those fake scripted words. Dev’s real words were way better. “First, make sure the hallway is clear.” She wouldn’t put it past Zara to be hovering out there.
Ayesha rolled her eyes, but did as she asked.
“Okay, so . . .” Jia quickly recapped the whole situation for her sister, while Ayesha’s mouth opened more and more.
“Whhaaaaaat is happening?” Ayesha squealed when Jia went silent. “So Dev’s cousin catfished you?”
“Yes.” She didn’t mention the brother. No need to complicate this more.
“Did he give a reason?”
“No.”
“So.” Ayesha stopped, then shook her head. “What’s up with all these photos of you and Dev snuggling? Why is Mom planning your engagement party?”
“There was one photo, and Mom . . . she and Noor and Zara confronted me, all at once. I got overwhelmed, and well . . . I let them believe that I was dating him. It seemed to make them happy.” And she so rarely made her family happy.
Ayesha made an annoyed sound. “Jia, this inability to look at long-term repercussions is a real problem.”
“I know. I know.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Dev agreed to play my boyfriend while Mom and Daddy are out here.”
Ayesha’s lips parted. “When they’re out there?”
“Oh, they didn’t tell you that? Yes, they’re coming.”
“They didn’t tell me that, but that explains why Mom told me to give her my schedule.”
Jia sat up in bed, happiness soaring through her. “Oh yay. You’re coming for sure? That’s wonderful.”
“I suppose I am.”
“Sound more excited,” Jia chided. “This is fantastic. It’s not going to be only me and him against the parentals, that means.”
“I’ll be happy to see you, Jia, but I was really hoping that at some point we would have left these wild schemes behind us. Behind you.”
Jia bit her lip. “I deserve that.”
“I’ll talk to Mom. Of course I’ll come.”
“Phew.”
“Let’s save our phews for a minute,” Ayesha said. “What’s going to happen after our parents fall in love with Dev and come back home?”
“I’ll tell them it didn’t work out, eventually. It’ll be so much easier to tell them bad news when they’re back home and I don’t have to see it. They’ll be disappointed, but less disappointed than if they know I was catfished.”
“What are you getting out of this?”
What you have. She wanted her parents to look at her, just once, the way they looked at Ayesha. Like she’d done something right, met their standards.
She knew her parents loved her. But she craved their respect, and she wouldn’t have that, not from her mother at least, until she fit into the mold they had created with their first daughter.
Ayesha squinted at Jia when she didn’t speak. “You’re too much, you know that?”
Too much.
Oh, Jia was aware. She felt the words like a dagger in her heart, her confidence deflating. She hated those two words, though perhaps only second to a lot. Jia is . . . a lot. Always with that same pause between the words, the hesitation of looking for a word that could encompass superficial and silly and ditzy and foolish all in one word. Or two words, actually.
“Jia?”
She covered up her pain with a bright smile. “That’s me. Too much.”
SOPHIA WEPT PRETTILY on Hudson’s shoulder. “I swear, I didn’t mean to do it, baby.”
Hudson gazed down at her with anguished tenderness.
Off to the side of the shot, Dev stifled a yawn. Devastating news in his old serial had required a cut to every single face in the scene, which meant one didn’t get a break. No one was paying attention to him here, so long as he hit his cues.
Speaking of . . . Dev straightened when the two separated and slapped a smirk on. “She’s lying, Chase. You know it and I know it.”
“You need to back off.” Hudson thrust his on-screen love behind him.
“Or what?” Seriously, or what? They needed to toss a good evil mother-in-law into this mix. Everyone on this show was relatively nice, cheating aside.
Cheating wasn’t the worst thing someone should be able to do to someone on a show. No, that was a new bride washing her husband’s laptop with dishwashing detergent in a misguided attempt to disinfect it.
He understood if such camp was out of place here, but it would be nice to liven this up with something.
Hudson took a threatening step. “Or I’ll show Dominic the proof about your little side hustle.”
“Cut.”
Dev relaxed. Hudson walked over to him. “Good take, man. Let’s hope they got it so we can finish up early today.”
It was only ten, but they’d been working since three in the morning. “Let’s hope. Sorry I kept screwing up on that last scene.”
“You okay? You usually nail things on the first take.” They walked to the shade, out of the studio lights.
Dev grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it. He did usually nail things on the first take, but then again, he was rarely so . . . what was the word? Bored? “Yes, I’m fine. The script is . . . it doesn’t feel natural to me yet.” Plot aside, he felt underused. He’d thought he’d be a lead in this show, but the more they filmed, the more apparent it became that his role was to act as a dark foil and prop up the golden star.
It was one thing to be sidelined for the sake of the show, but it was another to be sidelined for a boring and bland hero.
Hudson nodded sympathetically, his blond hair catching the light. “You should talk to the director. I doubt they’ll rewrite, but they may take your thoughts into account. You’re really killing it, though. The character feels multifaceted.”
Dev didn’t tell Hudson that he’d already given the writers’ room some notes, and they’d shot him down. Then again, the director might be more willing to consider his concerns. “Thank you.” He glanced around. Their director, Fred, was sitting under an umbrella. He looked like he was busy with the computer he held in his lap, but there was no one else currently bothering him.
“How’s everything else going here?”
Dev refocused and gave a faint smile. “Well, thank you. My niece is adjusting to school.” So well that Luna had a sleepover scheduled tonight with a new friend. Dev thought it was fast, but she’d been more excited than he’d ever seen her, so he’d zipped his lips.