“Maybe you do a picture with Don. After all, they can’t print pictures of the two of you dancing at Ciro’s or the Trocadero fast enough.” “Bat—’ “Hear me out. You and Don do a picture. A matinee romance, maybe. Something where all the girls want to be you, and all the boys want to be with you.” “Fine.” “And just when everyone is thinking they know you, that they ‘get’ Evelyn Hugo, you play Jo. You knock everybody’s socks off. Now the audience is going to think to themselves, ‘I knew she was something special.’ ” “But why can’t I just do Little Women now? And they'll think that now?” Harry shook his head. “Because you have to give them time to invest in you. You have to give them time to get to know you.” “You're saying I should be predictable.” ‘lm saying you should be predictable and then do something unpredictable, and they'll love you forever.” I listened to him, thought about it. “You’re just feeding me a line,” I said. Harry laughed. “Look, this is Ari’s plan. Like it or not. He wants you in a few more pictures before he’s gonna give you Little Women. But he is gonna give you Little Women.” “All right,” I said. What choice did I have, really? My contract with Sunset was for another three years. If I caused too much trouble, they had an option to drop me at any time. They could loan me out, force me to take projects, put me on leave without pay, you name it. They could do anything they wanted. Sunset owned me. “Your job now,” Harry said, “is to see if you can make a real go of it with Don. It’s in both of your best interests.” I laughed. “Oh, xow you want to talk about Don.” Harry smiled. “I don’t want to sit here and listen to you talk about how dreamy he is. That’s boring. I want to know if the two of you might be ready to make it official.”