I opened my eyes, and Will was right there, his kind face hovering above me. “You helped me,” I murmured. “We were friends.”
He brow creased with worry, and he gently put his hand on my cheek. “How’s your head?”
“The snow,” I said. “I slipped. I wanted to run away.”
“You hit your head when Cam tripped walking up the steps,” Will said, frowning. “You were feeling dizzy so the set EMT looked you over and brought you here to rest for a little bit. You don’t remember any of that?” His voice was thick with worry.
I squinted and looked around. Right. I had been on set. Playing Gloria Diamond. Where was I now? On the couch in my trailer. Will was here, but Will had been there for me in the past too. Or was that some weird dream I had after I hit my head? “I think I was at your house when I was a kid,” I said softly. It looked exactly like the house on set. Had seeing it triggered an old memory? Or had I just made up the whole thing?
Will’s frown creased deeper as he sat on the edge of the couch and gently put his hand on the top of my wig. “You hit your head pretty hard,” he said. “Does it hurt?”
I tried to nod and that hurt so I stopped midway. “It doesn’t feel great.”
“I brought you some ice.” He stood to go get it, but I reached for his sleeve and tugged him back to the couch. I didn’t want him to move away from me. I wanted him to stay right where he was.
Then I remembered our ground rules. How had he even gotten in here? And where was Liza? “Where’s everyone else?” I asked.
“Eating lunch,” he said. “Don’t worry. I snuck in here, told Gloria I had to make a work call. Cam is very upset that you got hurt and they’re all working hard to console him.” He rolled his eyes.
I laughed a little but then stopped when that hurt my head too. “Poor Cam,” I said. I was not his biggest fan, sure, but I didn’t think he’d knocked me into the door on purpose. The reality that this was how the shoot began sank in my chest now, and it felt like a bad omen. I wondered if it was truly too late for me to quit.
The door to my trailer suddenly swung open and Will jumped up from the couch as Liza waltzed in. “Oh thank god, you’re awake.” She eyed Will, then me, then Will again, and she bit her lip.
“This is Gloria’s son,” I said to her. “Will, have you and my agent, Liza, met? Will was kind enough to bring me some ice.”
Red crept across the back of Will’s neck, across his cheeks, and I knew he was probably thinking of how he hid in the bathroom when Liza had barged into my hotel room earlier.
But Liza had no clue. “No, I don’t believe we have met.” Liza swept toward Will and shook his hand all in one motion. “You brought ice. Are you...a doctor?”
“Lawyer,” I said.
Liza laughed. “We’re not gonna sue. Accidents happen.” She was joking. Kind of?
Will nodded. “Well...if you’re all right...” He stared at me, and I nodded slightly trying not to move my head too much. “I guess I should...get back...”
Our eyes met for a moment, and I offered him my bravest smile. We can be friends while you’re here. We can hate it together. Had that happened once, in another lifetime? I felt almost certain it had. But if that was true, then why didn’t Will remember it too?
He left, and after the door shut behind him, Liza came and sat down next to me on the couch. “How are you doing, kiddo?” she asked, kindly.
How was I doing? Confused about what was going on, why I was here, and whether or not I’d really known Will in the past. Worried that continuing with this role was going to have the opposite effect on my career we’d both hoped, if I truly couldn’t figure out how to pull it off. But of course, that was not what she was asking.
“Does it hurt a lot?” Liza was saying now.
“It’s just a little bump,” I said softly. “I’ll be fine.” But then I tried to sit all the way up, and my head really did ache. I gingerly removed the Gloria wig, lay back against the couch pillow and sighed.
“Okay,” Liza said. “I’m going to tell them you need the rest of the day off and then maybe I should take you to the ER.”
I hated hospitals and was not about to agree to the ER unless I passed out and Liza dragged me there without my consent. And I didn’t plan to do that. I remembered what Will had just told me. “The set EMT already checked me out. I don’t need the ER,” I insisted.
Liza stared at me, squinted a little, and then sighed. “Well, I can at least get you back to the hotel so you can rest more comfortably.”
I opened my mouth to argue with her but a break this afternoon actually sounded nice. My head really throbbed. My hotel room and the bottle of ibuprofen I knew I had there suddenly sounded amazing.
“I mean the lengths you went to to get out of having pretend-sex with that gorgeous, gorgeous man this afternoon.” Liza laughed.
“There’s always tomorrow,” I quipped, hoping I was hiding the relief I was actually feeling at putting it off for another day. Then I added, “Hey, Liza, I think I really need to talk to Gloria. Can you see if you can set up a meeting with her later this afternoon?”
Liza frowned. “Work can wait until tomorrow. You should rest.”
But how was I supposed to tell her that this had nothing at all to do with the role anymore, and everything to do with my past, with Gloria’s past? With understanding who my mother was, who she once had been. And that now I realized, it probably wasn’t my acting abilities that had brought me here at all, but some strange intersection of all our lives I still couldn’t quite put my finger on.