Serial · ongoing
Red Cap
Set in the high-stakes modern entertainment industry, *Red Cap* tells a slow-burn love story between two men at opposite ends of the fame spectrum. June Halliday is a talented but little-known young actor signed to Gallery, a neglected subsidiary of the industry giant Solstice Entertainment. After losing a career-making role to a less qualified rival with wealthy connections, his career hits a standstill. A late-night visit to an exclusive industry nightclub takes an unexpected turn when he is harassed by an aggressive patron—until Rhys Calloway steps in. Rhys Calloway is Solstice’s iconic, multi-platinum singer-songwriter, famous for his sharp persona and a massive fanbase that dominates social media. He wordlessly defends June, and when June’s hat is ruined in the scuffle, he gives June his own brand-new red baseball cap before vanishing into the crowd of fans and cameras. The “red cap incident” goes viral overnight, thrusting the obscure actor into the spotlight. Soon after, Rhys personally handpicks June to star opposite him in the music video for his highly anticipated new single *Fade*, with no audition required.
Chapter 1: The Mirror in the Creek
He dreamed a long dream. In it he planted grain in a field that went on past where the far edge should have been. There was blade-light in t…
Chapter 2: Upstairs
He had learned the smile before he learned anything else about the business. Small parts, cold readings, a hundred hallways where an assista…
Chapter 3: The First Day of Summer
The First Day of Summer The long rains had let up at last, and the sun had not come back hard enough yet to bake the ground dry. On Harkness…
Chapter 4: The Cap
The left end of the bar was the only place in Nightingale where a man could stand with his back to the room, and that was where Halliday had…
Chapter 5: Even Odds
The doorway was three feet wide and the only dark left on the block. Wes stood at the edge of the doorway and looked both ways down the stre…
Chapter 6: Off the Record
Off the Record The car was nine steps from the door and the block was still full. “What’s the sound on this record?” “Rhys — is the single s…
Chapter 7: Trending
The phone was ringing on the nightstand, face up, throwing light on the ceiling, and he got to it before it stopped, mostly by luck. "Bernie…
Chapter 8: No Audition
# No Audition The movie was black and white and about twenty minutes in, and nobody in it had a job worth mentioning, which was the whole re…
Chapter 9: Take the Time With Him
The house had a garden and a long gravel drive and a back kitchen that Owen had found and lost twice before eight o'clock, so by the time Ha…
Chapter 10: The Ask
Halliday set the container down, still closed, and followed him. Doyle didn't look back to see whether he was coming. He went out by the gar…
Chapter 11: Handled
The hand on his hoodie didn't pull. It only stayed closed on the hem, small through the fabric, and that was enough. Calloway sat. Down the…
Chapter 12: Slow Work
Nobody had called a break, so nobody had taken one. The lights stayed hot, the fans kept running, and June stayed in the nest of pillows the…
Chapter 13: The Door He Left Open
The Door He Left Open The lot was half asleep when Halliday got there. The lights over the stage were at half, the coffee urn in the hall ha…
Chapter 14: Trading Down
"So," Doyle said. He had his hands folded over his belt, and he was talking to the mirror. The chair he'd set down behind the stool faced it…