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“This is a good one. Tell us what you’re doing next! We’re dying! And we need to know how your cats are handling these changes in your life. I’m worried about how Phil is coping with your new romance.”
Katie clapped her hands. “My babies are good! They have a button for Wil, and Almond Butter has taken her rightful place as their wise and experienced elder.”
The audience exploded again, this time with hoots and laughter.
“I feed them breakfast,” Wil said. “They’ve figured out I’m a softer touch than Katie. This morning, Phil looked at Almond Butter eating her special geriatric cat food, and then he looked at Sue—”
“—who is the spokescat,” Busy interrupted. “Right?”
Wil leaned back against the sofa cushion, utterly at ease, and draped her arm along the back behind Katie in a way that casually claimed her as Wil’s own.
Honestly. Wil Greene was a miracle.
“Right,” Wil said. “The next thing I know, Sue goes up on the buttons and says,Wil. Breakfast. Cats. Want. Yes?So what am I going to do? That’s brilliant, right? That is some genius cat behavior. I had no choice. Everybody got some of Almond Butter’s food.”
“No one told me,” Katie said. “I was otherwise occupied, or I would have intervened. But to answer your question, Busy, what I’m doing next is starting my own production company with my former agent, now founding co-partner, April Feinstein. It’s called Talking Cat Pictures—”
Someone in the audience whooped, and Katie waved, laughing.
“—under the Cineline Carnegie Howell parent company. I’ve written an adaptation of the worldwide bestsellerObstructed View,which I’ll also direct, and Marisol Gonzales has committed her biopic of the artist Emma Tenayuca with us. And that’s just the beginning.”
After that, there was a lot of pandemonium, a few more hugs and smiles, and Katie put her finger through Wil’s belt loop and dragged her off the stage, mostly for the audience’s enjoyment, although Wil’s outfit was alot,and Katie couldn’t really help herself.
Also, she couldn’t help pulling Wil into a corner and kissing her again, just the two of them in a dim, comparatively cool spot, Katie’s back against the wall, Wil’s hips pressing into hers, her mouth hungry, her hands roaming over Katie’s back, her hips, her waist. When Katie pulled away, she was panting, her heart racing, every pulse point hot and aching. “I want to go home,” she said.
“Yes. Hard agree.”
They had to find Madelynn and April in the greenroom first, because Madelynn had arranged their transportation, and then Madelynn told them to wait a few minutes for their mothers, who were coming to the greenroom to talk to them.
“That was the best Christmas present anyone’s ever given me,”Madelynn told Katie. “I can take down my dartboard now. Nothing will compare to the utter annihilation of that interview.”
“It was super fun,” Katie said. “Would do again.”
“I hope so,” Madelynn said. “But go home and rest. Take the holiday for your family, and then let’s make some time for all of us before the New Year.” She kissed Katie’s cheek and shook Wil’s hand before one of her phones rang, and she walked away, already talking.
April held her arms out to Katie. “Come here, you incomparable creature.” April hugged her once, hard, lifting Katie to her tiptoes. “You just did that. I can hardly believe it. How do you feel? Are you dead? Did it kill you?”
“It didn’t!” Katie watched April—her business partner, herfriend—wind her red curls around themselves into a self-adhering springy bun on the top of her head. “It felt really good.”
“Are you scared about what happens next? Because Madelynn’s got this, and even if she didn’t, I would. Marisol was watching with Diego. She’s been texting me. She’s happy. Honor’s happy. But I want to make sureyou’rehappy.” She braced Katie by the shoulders, searching her face.
Katie shook her head, smiling, completely at a loss for words. Standing here in the greenroom with Wil by her side, with Madelynn and April, with her mom and Beanie on the way, the biggest thing she felt—the thing she noticed, because it was new, and because it waseverything—was that she wasn’t afraid.
She wasn’t afraid.
She couldn’t remember when she’d ever, ever felt so safe. Not because nothing bad could happen to her, but because she knew that whatever happened, she would be loved, and she would keep telling her story and living her life until she took her last breath.
“I’m so happy,” she told April.
April reached out suddenly and took Katie’s face in both of herhands. She looked into Katie’s eyes, her own eyes brimming with tears. “Good,” she said. “Finally. Katie. This is so good.”
Then she stepped back, letting her hands drop. “Have the best Christmas. We’ll talk in a few days. I’m lying. Probably tomorrow. Maybe tonight on group chat. Pretend I have boundaries.”
Katie laughed.
There was a knock on the greenroom doorframe by a PA, and then Katie was wrapped in her mom’s arms, the familiar smell of her Emeraude perfume like an aura of love and safety. “I’m so proud of you,” Diana whispered.
Katie leaned back. “Yeah? Because that wasn’t—”