Not that Arnie wouldn’t have made the decision on his own at some point, but I’m sure her motives in encouraging him to pick Rachel were less than sincere. Suddenly my easy interview yesterday made sense. They wanted me to be blindsided. They were hoping I’d be so caught up in my plans to stick with Arnie that I wouldn’t even entertain other possibilities. Meanwhile, they were orchestrating a different outcome right under my nose.
I had to be even more careful in here than I thought.
“You’re impossible!”
Arnie and I both turned our heads at the sound of Sofia screeching.
She barged through the doors and stomped across the room. Brady appeared out of nowhere and followed her, probably hoping to pull her aside for an interview while she was at her most heated.
Glancing back out the window, I saw Eli shaking his head, looking tired.
“You should talk to him,” Arnie said. “Not much else to do around here.”
“That’s an understatement.”
Arnie left me alone as I mentally hyped myself up to go out there and talk to Eli. His answers in the game were none of my business, and I would never judge him on those grounds. But I had to admit it made me even more sure than I’d been before that we didn’t fit. We were still partners,though, and we were still bound together in this strange version of reality. So I stood up and placed a tentative hand on the door before pushing it open to face him.
He spun around before putting his hands on his hips and sighing with relief.
“I was worried you were Sofia, back to tear into me some more.”
“I think she’s too busy tearing you down in front of a camera somewhere. She did not look happy.”
“She’s acting like we’re breaking up when we were never together. I made sure I never led her on and I told her I didn’t have feelings for her. We barely even spoke. I mean, how is she this upset?” he asked, perplexed.
I leaned against one of the wooden beams, wrapping my arms around myself. “If I had to guess, I’d say she’s a lot more upset about losing out on a chance to date a famous actor than she is about anything else.”
He laughed. “I’m a C-list actor at best. I would have done nothing to propel her to fame.”
“C-list actor with an A-list father. I’m sure she did the calculations.”
“Well, now at least I don’t feel as bad,” he said, chuckling. “She called me a bastard and said I broke her heart. I don’t even know what her last name is.”
“Do you need to know someone’s last name to break their heart?” I asked.
He thought about it for a second. “I think so. It sets the precedent that you cared enough to ask in the first place.”
“What if it was love at first sight, and you connected so well on all these other things that something as simple as a last name seemed trivial?” I pressed, teasing him.
He grinned. “In that instance, I guess maybe it would be possible.”
We stood in silence for a moment before he spoke again. “Calla, what’s your last name?”
“Why? Plan on breaking my heart?”
I expected him to smile at my joke, but instead he frowned and something flickered across his face. Determination? Concern? I wasn’t quite sure.
“I just want to know,” he said. And in that moment, I found him unreadable.
I answered him anyway. “It’s Scott.”
Chapter Twelve
I wokeup yet again with the sheets stuck to my sweaty body. Groaning, I rolled over to look at the time on my alarm clock.
Three-twenty a.m.
My head fell back against my pillow as I stared up at the ceiling. These few weeks were going to feel like a few months if I couldn’t figure out a better sleep schedule. Another dream had woken me up. Once again, Michael and I hadn’t gotten to wherever we were supposed to be going.
