a hand, breaking into her thoughts. “Hold on. I’m getting an idea.”
Jasmine groaned. Michelle’s ideas were often brilliant but just as often got the three of them into trouble. Like the time they’d snuck out to a concert in New Jersey on a school night and missed the last bus back. They’d had to call their oldest cousin, Sammy, to pick them up. His silence had been expensive.
“I want to hear this idea,” said Ava.
Of course she did. Enabler. Jasmine made a face at her. “I don’t.”
But Michelle was not to be deterred when she was in possession of an idea. “Abuela’s eightieth birthday is coming up. If you could get Ashton Suarez to come to the party as your guest, Abuela would be over the moon. She’d make enough pasteles to last you the rest of your life.”
Biting her lip, Jasmine couldn’t disagree. It wouldn’t just make her grandmother’s year. It would make her whole decade.
“And if you bring him, I absolve you of party-planning duties,” Ava added.
“I didn’t realize I had any party-planning duties.”
“Of course you do. Everyone does.”
“What about Tony? He’s in London.”
Ava shrugged. “Don’t worry, I’ll find something for him to do. All the cousins have to help.”
How many times had Jasmine heard those words? “Everyone has to help” had been one of the guiding forces in her life for as long as she could remember, going back to before she was born. Despite whatever fights or petty squabbles might be going on among the members, when the time called for it, the Rodriguez family banded together. And Esperanza’s birthday was going to be an event the family would be talking about for years to come.
All the more reason not to bring an unknown entity into the mix. But for her abuela, Jasmine was willing to do just about anything. Including asking her new costar for a potentially embarrassing favor.
Maybe Ava and Michelle were right. Maybe it was time to move back.
The ceiling creaked, followed by the sound of steady footsteps overhead, moving toward the stairs.
“Don’t tell anyone,” Jasmine hissed. “I haven’t even met the guy yet. He could turn out to be a total asshole.” So many guys in the entertainment industry did, after all. Like McIntyre.
“Rumor has it he’s kind of full of himself,” Ava mused. “But professional. Easy to work with.”
“Don’t let that stop you from inviting him.” Michelle clapped a hand on Jasmine’s shoulder and shot her a raised-eyebrow look that said, You better figure out a way to bring this guy to the party. Jasmine waved her away.
Someone opened the basement door and tromped down the stairs. Their cousin Sammy came into view and Jasmine quickly shoved her Leading Lady Plan into her jeans pocket. She wasn’t in the mood for his teasing.
“What do you want, Sammy?” Michelle called out.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the Bochinche Brujas,” he said, striding over to them.
Jasmine rolled her eyes. Sammy had been using that tired old nickname for at least fifteen years, and it was never funny. Especially since they weren’t even the biggest gossips in the family.
Sammy grinned. “You made me lose a bet, you know.”
Jasmine didn’t like where this was going. “How’s that?”
“I figured you and McIntyre would last at least three months, but you had to join the Sisterhood of the Single Ladies over here, huh?” He gestured at the three of them on the sofa.
While Michelle and Ava shouted at Sammy to get out, Jasmine groaned and covered her face with her hands. Had she really just been thinking of moving here permanently? Forget it. She was booking her return flight to Los Angeles the second the show wrapped.
Chapter 2
The elevator doors pinged, then opened with a whoosh, and Ashton Suarez stepped into ScreenFlix’s Midtown Manhattan office for the first time.
The ScreenFlix office decor was trendy and spacious—glass walls, leather armchairs, lots of plants. The orange and dark gray ScreenFlix logo was everywhere, along with posters from some of the streaming network’s hottest original shows, like The Clandestine Cases of Detective Yang, Showbiz, Party All Night, and The Dreamers. Wide windows overlooked Bryant Park’s expansive lawn.
It had been years since Ashton had worked for a new production company. The studio lot in Miami where he filmed telenovelas was so familiar to him, he barely even noticed his surroundings there anymore. And while he wouldn’t be filming here—ScreenFlix Studios was located in Queens—he paused to take it all in.
And to give himself a pep talk.
Get your act together, pendejo. You wanted