Shay has to get up & leave early, giving Gavin some time to meditate, to help him deal with his anger at Astrid. He'll have to act that scene with Astrid again tonight & he'll have to get it right, or he'll have to keep doing it, over & over....In the early afternoon he meets with Byron for lunch at a Beverly Hills restaurant. The director asks him right away about Astrid, about their relationship and break up. Gavin tells him it's a personal matter, but Byron disagrees. "I'm your director...you don't have anything 'personal' from me. Whatever you have in your emotional history, we can use in your acting," he says. It's a little difficult to swallow, not having a private life. Did he sacrifice that, too, when he made this agreement?

Gavin explains to Byron about Astrid, about the love & betrayal, and the humiliation of her telling him in front of the crew about her affair with Alison. Gavin can't hide his emotions as he talks about it & he sees the director gauging his words like a performance.

"I want to try shooting the balcony scene again tonight: I need to know how ready you are to get in character & stay there." Gavin considers the question for a moment, then speaks, "I've been meditating all morning, I think I've put my anger away, if not completely dispersing it." He can face Astrid and feel nothing watching her perform, neither love or hate, but can he feel nothing while still pretending he does feel? That's a question he can't answer until he tries again.

"I like you, Gavin, and I think you're going to be perfect in this movie, you just have to use your natural sensitivity without it actually getting to you, if you know what I mean," he tells his actor. "And take my advice on this one. Girls like Astrid are very ambitious, you can never take anything they tell you at face value, they are always acting. Don't waste your energy even thinking about her." It's a disturbing thought to Gavin, that everything Astrid ever said to him was a lie. Her affair, and the particularly nasty & unecessary way she revealed it to him, in front of everyone, came as a huge shock to him. Clearly, she had never really loved him, as she had said. If he had learned this while they were still together very soon after she left, it would have sunk him into a deep despair. "When you are acting with her, remember that she is Death, your favorite sister. She's not Astrid. And you are not yourself anymore, either, you are Dream, an immortal," Byron continues. The director's words ring in his mind, not myself, he thinks, an immortal.

Byron tells him he will do a great job, and he seems confident. Gavin isn't quite so sure yet, himself.