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“It is.” He nodded. “His family are super wealthy and he lived here while we were at NYU. Couple years ago, he got a job scoring movies in LA, so I agreed to look after the place.”

I smirked. “A real hardship.”

“The things I do for my friends,” he said with a sardonic grin.

“You’re a saint.”

His hand snaked possessively around my waist, kneaded my hip. “You hungry?”

My stomach rumbled in response. “Apparently.”

“I’ll make you something,” he said, dropping a kiss to my head. “Eggs?”

“Okay.”

After using the bathroom, I padded down the stairs to the kitchen, where Elliot made me scrambled eggs – shirtless – and it was possibly the hottest thing I’d ever seen, after his topless boxing, that is. As I sat at the kitchen island and sipped coffee, I saw the clock.

“Damn,” I said. “It’s almost three.”

Elliot snickered. “No wonder we’re hungry, we lost most of Saturday.”

“I’m not complaining,” I said.

“I need to tell you something.” He slid eggs onto a plate.

“Sounds ominous.”

“No, no,” he assured me. “Sherman quit yesterday.”

I remembered the argument I’d overheard at Silvercup. “The Janis Joplin scene?”

“Was the final straw,” he said with a nod. “And then … I got offered theWoodstockdirector role.”

“As you should be,” I said.

“You don’t seem totally surprised,” he remarked, pushing a plate of eggs on toast my way.

“Sadie may have mentioned that as a solution to the Sherman problem,” I admitted. “Congrats. I think it’s amazing.”

“It’s just for a couple weeks,” he said. “Mostly clean-ups and reshoots. But … it’s something.”

“It’s more than something!” I elbowed him. “It’s a huge show! Is RJ happy it’s resolved?”

Elliot’s face darkened. “Yeah? Maybe. I don’t know. We have a meeting Monday to talk through this new structure. The network is being amazing about it … but RJ’s gone quiet on me.”

I thought back to what Sadie had said, about the way RJ treated his staff. “He might just need to get used to it. I mean, you’re not so much his subordinate now as you are a peer. A director, like him.”

“Huh.” He sat on the stool next to me. “I never saw it like that.”

“You think his ego can handle it?” I asked.

He frowned. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, congratulations anyway.” I pushed a wayward lock of hair away from his face. “You deserve it.”

We ate in companiable silence for a few moments. The eggs were delicious, but I was so hungry I would have eaten anything.

“So,” Elliot said, wolfing back the last piece of toast. “Ralf quit, huh?”