Someone I Used to Know - By Blakney Francis Page 0,117

“She’s wrong about so many things. It’s almost my natural reaction just to disagree with her about everything. You’re almost guaranteed to be right if you just chose the opposite of what she does. I’ve always thought that she was unbelievably backwards in the most wonderful way…but just this one time, she was actually right about something.”

An usher rushed forward, pulling my door open, thinking my delay was a signal that I wanted him to do it for me. Cheers flooded in, chasing away the serene ambiance.

“About what?” He made no move to hurry towards the chants, perfectly unaffected as he stared at me with curiosity glinting in his eyes. The fact that Adley could be right about anything mystified him just as much as it did me.

“I would have regretted not taking the movie.”

Outside, I was immediately rushed by a studio-assigned publicist, since I didn’t have one of my own, and Cam and I were directed to a long line of reporters.

One stale, rehearsed answer followed the other as I was asked the same questions over and over again. It was amazing how many different ways the same question could be asked. My temporary publicist steered me down the line, stepping in with a classic “no comment” when I signaled to her that a question was too personal.

Cam was stopped for interviews of his own, and was even invited into dialogue with me a few times. There was only one foreign journo who dared inquire about our mutual ex-girlfriend, and after an awkward laugh, we both pretended not to understand the translator and moved on.

Our last interview was a big one. The publicist made it clear we were both to be on our best behavior as she herded us towards a well-dressed man who had a halo of hairspray floating around his crafted hair. I wrangled my smile into the range of charming, and prepared to greet the stranger like we were old friends.

“You’re looking great, man,” the reporter patted my arm with beaming enthusiasm, falling into the façade seamlessly. “Everyone’s been talking about your physical transformation, and I have to say, it’s impressive. We should hit the gym together sometime soon, man.”

“Absolutely,” I lied through my teeth, not that it mattered. It was all a part of the charade. “I’ve never had to bulk up like this for a role before, but this project is so important to all of us, that we’re all willing to go the extra kilometer to bring Mr. Hoffman’s vision to life.”

“Madeline Little, your costar, said as much the same…What’s it like working with her on a second consecutive project? Gone with the Wind is rumored to have a production timeline of years. Aren’t you worried you’re going to get tired of each other? It seemed like as soon as you wrapped The Girl in the Yellow Dress, you were both off to Australia almost the next day.”

I wanted to say that Madeline was like a little sister to me, and our constant squabbles were a testament to our sibling-like bond, but we’d been discouraged by the higher ups on both films from making such comparisons. They said if we put that image out there, then the public wouldn’t want to buy into our roles as love interests. We didn’t have to say we were dating or anything, but we could leave the audience to wonder the true depths of our relationship.

“Madeline is incredibly dedicated. It’s one of the things I admire most about her, but anytime you put two passionate people together…let’s just say, there can be fireworks. While we were filming The Girl in the Yellow Dress, for instance,” I said, finding the perfect segue to bring the topic back to the movie whose premier we were at, and give Cam a reason to be standing beside me.

I put my hand on his arm and looked at him, preparing to bring him into the conversation with a clever anecdote about our time spent working together, but his attention was elsewhere.

He was staring down at his phone with a quizzical look on his face. At my touch, he looked up surprised, like he’d forgotten all about the fact that a camera was rolling, capturing every moment of our interview with the biggest entertainment network in the world.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Cam said apologetically, stepping out of the camera’s range, “I’ve got to take this.”

I painted over my confusion with a casual smile, tuning back into the reporter like nothing at all was