Page 87 of If the World Was Ending

What event?

A party thrown by Louis Vuitton. I’m a brand ambassador, remember?

Mom

HOW COULD I FORGET? You brought home that GORGEOUS necklace for me on your last visit. I wore it EVERY time I go out. Even just to the store!

Hunter smiled. She’d looked so elated when she opened the box and immediately asked him to return it because it cost too much and she’d rather he had the money. And when he refused, she wore that necklace to her last chemo treatment and showed it off to all the nurses proudly, his dad had told him later. Hunter couldn’t be there because he’d had a post-release press out with Mikayla.

Gotta go. Love to you and Dad.

Mom

He’s apartment hunting as we speak.

His smile dropped. It was still hard to wrap his head around the fact that his dad was getting divorced. Also, he didn’t understand why he was getting an apartment. He’d moved in with Catherine and taken over Hunter’s spot in the guest bedroom while she was undergoing the last of her treatment and Hunter had to be in LA for work. Hunter FaceTimed them regularly and had never seen either of them so happy despite the circumstances. He didn’t have his parents getting back together on his bingo card, ever, but now he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t officially happening. Still, he didn’t want to talk about it with either of them because he thought it would get awkward. Plus, they were adults, right? They could figure it out.

Don’t let him take a place he hates. You know how he gets frustrated and just gives up.

Mom

I know. BE SAFE. Have fun. LOVE YOU!

Love you.

As Hunter tucked his phone into his pocket, he saw his car coming up the curving ramp from the underground parking. A black Cadillac Escalade pulled up just in front of Hunter as he walked to where the valet was parking his car. “Hey! Hunter Law! Can I get a picture?”

He turned his head, fully intending to smile at whoever recognized him, until he saw who it was. Hannah Wolfe was handing another valet her keys and staring at Hunter with a big, glossy, pink-lipped smile. His heart sank. “Hey. Hannah.”

She nodded and walked right over as Hunter quickly slipped the valet a five-dollar bill. He wished he could just rush around the front of his car, hop in the driver’s seat, and zoom away, but that would definitely be rude. She was laughing as she approached. “Fooled ya! You looked so sweet, ready to smile and take a selfie.”

“Part of the job, right?” Hunter replied, hoping his voice didn’t reflect the tension he was feeling. He hadn’t seen Hannah in person since she was on tour with Colby. That had ended a while ago, along with the fake relationship. At least that’s what the media was speculating since Colby and Hannah weren’t seen out and about together anymore.

“I can’t believe I’m running into you!” She hugged him like a dear friend. “How have you been? I mean, do I even have to ask? Obviously you’ve been amazing. Your movie is number one. Everyone is freaking out about you. I loved it! My God, you are so sexy in it!”

She finally pulled back and, judging by the smile still on her face, she hadn’t noticed the lackluster way Hunter had returned her hug. She continued to grip his shoulders as she said, “Colby is going to shit when I tell him I saw you!”

He nodded outwardly but cringed inwardly. “Congrats on the song, by the way. The one in that movie. I hear it’s going to be nominated for an Oscar.”

“That’s the buzz, but I try not to think about it,” she replied. “Don’t want to jinx it. Besides, it’s silly that he gave me writing credit. He did all the real work. I just helped with the bridge.”

“And you sing on it too.”

She waved a tiny hand in the air. “Anyone could have done that.”

Hunter gestured to his car awkwardly. “I need to get going. I have a thing tonight.”

It was mid-afternoon, so that was the lamest excuse ever, and Hunter knew it, but if Hannah did, she didn’t act like it. Instead, she nodded as the wind blew a strand of her long, wavy hair across her bottom lip. His mind flashed to a fan photo of Colby brushing a similar strand in a similar place off her pretty face, and he tried not to frown. “Yeah, I have to go too. I’ve got a meeting with my agent. He only eats at Wolfgang Puck restaurants, and so Cut it is. God, he’s so predictable.”

She leaned in and hugged him again, but so quickly this time he didn’t even have time to react. “Hey, is your thing tonight at Marmont? That jewelry party thing?”

Say no, say no, say no, Hunter’s brain screamed.

She pointed and grinned again. She really was breathtakingly pretty, damn her. “It is! Oh cool. I will see you there! Bye, Hunter!”

So he guessed he isn’t a good actor after all if she could read him like a book. He took a deep breath and got in his car. On the way home, he replayed the conversation in his head and thought about all the things he should have said—like naming any place other than Chateau Marmont. Fucking hell. How could he even go to the event now because if Hannah Wolfe was going… chances were Colby Keaton was too.

Had she even been photographed at an event without him since that stupid song they wrote and sang together hit number one and was used in a critically acclaimed movie? No. Not that Hunter could remember, and yeah, he’d googled their names a few times—not a lot, just maybe twice a week since Colby and Hunter stopped talking. Which was eighty-six days ago. And counting.