Sobbing, I make a quick turn off the road and park at a shopping center. Unable to think past the pain, I dial the number and pray for an answer.
“Mila?”
“Amanda,” I croak into the phone.
“Oh, no, honey, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“I need to talk to you.”
Our marriage won’t last through another week of filming. He’s gone too deep, too far removed from the life we built, and if we have any hope of a future, I can’t subject myself to any more rejection. For this, he didn’t want a partner.
“Lucas, he’s…I don’t know what he is. I need to talk to you.”
“Okay, where are you?”
“You’re here, in town?”
“Yeah, I came back for a casting call.”
“I’m parked at the shopping center just down from the promenade. Will you meet me?”
“Sure, give me thirty minutes.”
I hadn’t realized how much time had passed until Amanda knocks on my window. I’d been staring off into space and jumped when she rapped on the glass. When I get out of my SUV, I hug her tightly to me, fully identifying with the loss of the past four months, for her, for Lucas, for all of us.
“I didn’t fully understand before,” I tell her tearfully as she hugs me close. “Now I do,” I sob as she grips me tighter. “I’m so sorry. I’m so, so, sorry.”
“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Mila, you were a better friend than anyone else. You couldn’t know. No one knows unless they have to go through it themselves.”
I can hardly speak as I unload on her and she does her best to console me. “I can’t handle this. I’m losing him.”
“Mila, you’re scaring me, what’s wrong?”
“I suppose I have a highly developed capacity for self-delusion, so it’s no problem for me to believe that I’m somebody else.”—Daniel Day-Lewis
Mila
Casey and Bonnie Morning Radio Show
Casey: This just in, Bonnie, our golden couple may be in trouble.
/> Bonnie: Uh, oh. What’s going on with Lucas now?
Casey: A source on the set of Silver Ghost, Walker’s new movie, says Mila Walker was on location yesterday in El Paso.
Bonnie: She’s always with him on location, so what went wrong?
Casey: Rumors are circulating that tensions are running high and it’s getting a little bit risqué. Walker is filming opposite of Adriana Long.
Bonnie: Not another set romance?!
Casey: Could be.
Bonnie: Come on, Lucas, you know better than that. I think Mila’s prettier than Adriana. She’s had too much work done. So, what happened?
Casey: Apparently Mila left the set furious and the drama went down in Walker’s hotel room shortly after filming wrapped for the day.
Bonnie: Oh, no, Casey, not those two. They always look so in love.