Chap­ter 15 opens with the pro­tag­o­nist and Don in the qui­et pri­va­cy of their bed­room, a rare moment of inti­ma­cy amidst the whirl­wind of Hol­ly­wood life. Don, ever the con­fi­dent one, casu­al­ly asks how the rehearsals are going, and the pro­tag­o­nist admits that Celia is as tal­ent­ed as antic­i­pat­ed, per­haps even more so. Don, how­ev­er, is more focused on his own career tra­jec­to­ry, boast­ing about the suc­cess of The Peo­ple of Mont­gomery Coun­ty and his impend­ing con­tract renew­al. He is at the peak of his career, and with his lever­age, he claims that Ari Sul­li­van would give him any­thing he asked for to keep him hap­py. Don’s sug­ges­tion to remove Celia from the project entire­ly to main­tain the pro­tag­o­nist’s sta­tus seems like an easy solu­tion. How­ev­er, the pro­tag­o­nist refus­es, stat­ing that it is not nec­es­sary, as Celia is only in a sup­port­ing role. Instead, the pro­tag­o­nist choos­es to focus on their own posi­tion as the lead, express­ing a calm accep­tance of the sit­u­a­tion and even find­ing some­thing about Celia that is appeal­ing.

The next day, dur­ing their lunch break, the pro­tag­o­nist and Celia take an impromp­tu trip in Celia’s vin­tage pink 1956 Chevy, a car that reflects her bold per­son­al­i­ty. Despite her poor dri­ving skills, which have the pro­tag­o­nist grip­ping the door han­dle in fear, the two women are in high spir­its. As they make their way through Hol­ly­wood Boule­vard, Celia sug­gests they stop at Schwab’s, a well-known hang­out where many of the city’s most influ­en­tial fig­ures, includ­ing the famous colum­nist Sid­ney Skol­sky, often spent their time. The pro­tag­o­nist imme­di­ate­ly sens­es that Celia wants to be seen there, not only for a milk­shake but to boost her own vis­i­bil­i­ty in the indus­try. Ini­tial­ly, the pro­tag­o­nist is skep­ti­cal, inter­pret­ing Celia’s desire to be seen with them as a strate­gic move. How­ev­er, Celia insists that her inten­tions are genuine—that she sim­ply want­ed to enjoy a milk­shake togeth­er, but she thought of Schwab’s as an addi­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ty for expo­sure once they were already out. The pro­tag­o­nist, how­ev­er, is not eas­i­ly con­vinced and remains wary of Celia’s motives.

Their con­ver­sa­tion and dynam­ic shift as they decide to dri­ve to a qui­eter spot, CC Brown’s, for ice cream instead. Here, the pro­tag­o­nist asserts their con­trol over the sit­u­a­tion by sug­gest­ing a change in plans, refus­ing to let Celia steer them into the spot­light against their will. By choos­ing a loca­tion that is more sub­dued and less like­ly to attract atten­tion, the pro­tag­o­nist makes it clear that they won’t be used for the ben­e­fit of some­one else’s image. At CC Brown’s, as they sit and share milk­shakes, the pro­tag­o­nist uses the moment to impart some life lessons to Celia. They explain the impor­tance of push­ing bound­aries in Hol­ly­wood to get ahead and that, in the end, every­one is using some­one, whether they admit it or not. The pro­tag­o­nist admits, with­out hes­i­ta­tion, that they have used oth­ers to get to where they are, and they are fine with that. Hol­ly­wood, the pro­tag­o­nist empha­sizes, is a game that requires peo­ple to be ruth­less, to use oth­ers with­out guilt, and to be unapolo­get­i­cal­ly ambi­tious in the pur­suit of suc­cess.

As Celia absorbs this hard truth, she express­es some dis­com­fort at the idea of using oth­ers, though she has no doubt that the protagonist’s approach has worked. The con­ver­sa­tion between them con­tin­ues, reveal­ing the grow­ing com­plex­i­ty of their rela­tion­ship. The pro­tag­o­nist, ini­tial­ly defen­sive, begins to under­stand that Celia is not only try­ing to learn but also seek­ing a gen­uine part­ner­ship that could ben­e­fit both of them. Celia’s ambi­tion is just as strong as the protagonist’s, but where the pro­tag­o­nist has become adept at using peo­ple to climb the lad­der, Celia still wres­tles with the ethics of such tac­tics. Despite this, there’s a mutu­al recog­ni­tion that, in Hol­ly­wood, sur­vival often requires com­pro­mise, and both women are aware of the stakes at play.

The con­ver­sa­tion takes a more per­son­al turn as Celia admits she feels more drawn to the pro­tag­o­nist, not just for her fame but for the way she unapolo­get­i­cal­ly takes what she wants. The pro­tag­o­nist, while ini­tial­ly skep­ti­cal of Celia’s admi­ra­tion, is some­what dis­armed by the sin­cer­i­ty behind her words. Their bond, forged in the fires of ambi­tion, con­tin­ues to grow, though it is a com­pli­cat­ed one, built on mutu­al respect for each other’s abil­i­ties and dri­ve. Celia acknowl­edges that the pro­tag­o­nist is cur­rent­ly more famous and pow­er­ful, but she doesn’t let that dis­cour­age her. In fact, Celia express­es a desire to become even big­ger, to eclipse the protagonist’s suc­cess. The ten­sion between them, how­ev­er, doesn’t feel hostile—it feels like the begin­ning of a poten­tial part­ner­ship, where both women have some­thing to gain from the oth­er. Celia sug­gests that they help each oth­er grow in the indus­try, though the pro­tag­o­nist is cau­tious, unsure of what this could mean for their future com­pe­ti­tion.

The chap­ter ends on a poignant note, with Celia declar­ing her inten­tion to learn from the pro­tag­o­nist, offer­ing to help with her scenes and teach her what she knows. This pro­pos­al seems to mark the begin­ning of an unspo­ken agree­ment between them—one where each woman will lift the oth­er up in a world where suc­cess often depends on the strength of your allies. As they share a moment of mutu­al under­stand­ing, both women real­ize that they are far from the typ­i­cal actress­es in Hol­ly­wood. They are cal­cu­lat­ing, dri­ven, and deter­mined to make their mark in an indus­try that rewards both tal­ent and ruth­less­ness. Celia’s final con­fes­sion that she tru­ly likes the pro­tag­o­nist, not just for her suc­cess but for her unapolo­getic nature, reveals a lay­er of authen­tic­i­ty beneath the sur­face-lev­el rival­ry that has defined their rela­tion­ship so far. The pro­tag­o­nist, in turn, begins to soft­en toward Celia, real­iz­ing that per­haps their futures, while inevitably com­pet­i­tive, might be brighter if they tru­ly help each oth­er rather than tear each oth­er down.