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She reaches up and adjusts my hair a little. “Listen, people are sheep. It’s terrifyingly easy to convince the public of anything. If they see you doing even a couple of these highbrow, smartypants things, they’ll actually believe you have your PhD.”
The three of us walk to the door of the condo and I open it for her. “Thanks, Nola.”
She turns to me. “I know you’re nervous about this, but trust me, when I’m through with you, they’ll be offering you a Nobel Prize in Science or whatever.” She glances at her oversized watch, then claps her hands together. “Chop! Chop! You’re not going to get any publicity standing here.”
Gersh and I both jump a little, and I hold up one hand. “Okay, I’ll be down in thirty seconds. I just need to have a quick chat with Gersh before I go.”
She rolls her eyes. “Your little wiener dog will be fine. Besides, if he’s not, you’ll make enough off this movie to buy a whole litter of them.”
Screwing up my face in disgust, I pull Oscar a little closer to my chest. “What?”
“Ugh, dog people are so sensitive,” she mutters. “I’m going to go down to my car. I picked up some pastries from an adorable Italian bakery this morning for you to take with you. Obviously, you need to take credit for it so we can get you on camera being thoughtful and charming,” she says. “And hurry up. You’re keeping people waiting which is neither thoughtful nor charming.”
I let go of the door and it swings closed slowly while I say, “See you in a minute.”
As soon as the door is shut, I turn to Gersh, my gut tightening at the thought of going to the research facility. “I have a really bad feeling about this. Maybe I should turn it down.”
“It’s only six weeks,” Gersh tells me. “And you’re not going to a war zone. You’ll be hanging out with some nerds. You’ll be fine. Oscar will be fine. It’s all going to be okay, Hud. I promise.”
I feel myself breaking out in a cold sweat under my triple layers of professor dress-up clothes. “It won’t be okay, Gersh. I know it. This is … not for me.”
“Dude, it’s exactly for you. It’s an opportunity for you to stretch your wings a little. Try something new. Prove to yourself that you’re smarter than you think.”
“But I’m not.”
“You are. Trust me. You can learn anything you set your mind to. All you have to do is set it to astronomy.”
“Yeah, sure,” I say sarcastically. “Maybe when I’m done with this film, I can shadow a brain surgeon, maybe try my hand at that too.”
He reaches out and gently takes Oscar from me. “You’re going to be great. The people there will be very nice to you.”
“How do you know?”
“Because people are always nice to you. You’re rich and famous,” he says. “Now, get going before Nola comes back up here. She scares the shit out of me.”
“Fine,” I tell him, rubbing the bridge of my nose under my fake glasses. “But this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
Oh God. I’m here. The SETI Research Institute. The camera crew clearly has been informed that I’m pulling up because they’re already filming. Crap, they sent Josie Pedlar to follow me around. She’s the worst. She’s always hitting on me.
I pull into a stall in front of the white, three-story building, get out of the truck and pick up the large white box of pastries Nola bought. Plastering my best famous actor smile on, I shut the door and nod at the crew. “Hey guys!”
“Hi, Hudson,” Josie says, striding over to me. “Oh, great look! You’ve got that whole naughty professor thing going on. The glasses? Love it. Very hot.”
Yuck. “Thanks. You look really lovely today. Did you do something different with your hair?”
Her eyes light up. “I had it colored one shade darker. I can’t believe you noticed!”
The sound guy, Chuck, walks over and holds up a tiny microphone.
Smiling at him, I say, “Hey, Chuck. How’s the little one?”
“Growing like a freaking weed,” he tells me, lifting the back of my cardigan and clipping the battery pack to my pant waist. “And we’ve got another one on the way—a girl this time.”
“Really? Congratulations,” I answer while I stand still and let him clip the mic to my shirt collar. “When’s the baby due?”
“In May. We’re pretty excited.”
“Okay, Chuck, you done?” Josie asks, giving him the ‘get lost’ look.
