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“No, sorry.” I got that all the freaking time.
“Sure you are. You look just like him.”
Her eyes went wide when she saw what I unloaded onto the counter. After a beat, I said, “You’re right, I’m Dallas Jaymes. Nice to meet you.” I paid as quickly as I could, then hurried to the exit with my purchase concealed in a flimsy plastic bag. When I glanced back at the woman, her mouth was still hanging open. I probably should have felt bad for pretending to be my twin, but nah.
I returned to the studio and started making my way back to Harper’s dressing room, but I was intercepted by Dallas. “Hey, my doppelganger,” he said. Then he grinned and amended, “Well, maybe not so much these days. Am I right?” He chuckled and actually flexed his muscles.
“Do you have to be a complete tool all the time? Can you just not help it?”
He sighed dramatically and rolled his eyes. “You have absolutely no sense of humor. Sometimes I wonder how we’re even related.”
“I do have a sense of humor, just not when the jokes are at my expense.”
I tried to step around him, but my twin stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “Lighten up Phoenix. You know I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“What do you want? I have things to do.”
He gestured at the plastic bag in my hands. “Yeah, like running errands for Harper Royce. Real important.”
“Go fuck yourself, Dal.”
“Damn it, why do you always have to do this? I was coming to ask if you wanted to grab a drink when I finish taping, since I haven’t seen you in months. But we can’t even get through a simple conversation without your hostility ruining it.”
“I love the way you always put everything on me,” I said. “Because obviously I’m just hostile for no reason, and you never do a single thing to provoke it.”
“It makes me sad that our relationship has come to this,” he said, though it was anger, not sadness, that glinted in his eyes. “Can’t you put aside your petty jealousy for one afternoon, so we can go have a drink? I’d like to catch up.”
“First I’m hostile, and now I’m jealous. Right. Our shitty relationship is definitely my fault, while you’ve never been anything but sweet and loving, and—you know what? Forget it. You’re not even worth getting upset over.” I stepped around him again, and this time he didn’t stop me. “Oh, and I’ll pass on the drink. This was plenty of brotherly love for one afternoon.”
When I reached the dressing room, I tossed the plastic bag on the couch and paced around as I tried to calm down. No one in the world could push my buttons like my twin. He knew right where they all were too, and no wonder, since he’d spent a lifetime aggravating me.
Well, not a lifetime. He’d been my best friend when we were kids. I couldn’t even imagine life without him back then, but fame had changed everything.
Chapter 4
I was still pacing when I got a text from Harper a few minutes later. He’d written: Prop closet Fuck Fest in 5 minutes, woohoo! That was followed by about twenty eggplant and water droplet emojis. A bark of laughter slipped from me, and then I almost started to cry, because my emotions were just that raw.
I replied: I can’t right now. I’m really sorry. Then I dropped onto the couch, took off my hat and sunglasses, and scrubbed my hands over my face.
Harper appeared about a minute later and asked, “Are you okay?”
“No. Not really.”
“What happened?”
“My twin.”
“Ah.” He came over and sat down right beside me. After a moment, he took a peek inside the plastic bag and whispered, “Damn.” Then he said, “You know, I get it. My brother and I have always had this weird rivalry, and I don’t even know why. We were close when we were kids, but somewhere along the line, things changed. I tried to offer him an olive branch by inviting him to stay in my house while he’s recovering from surgery, but he just seems to resent it. It’s like living with a big, blond storm cloud that always leaves a trail of gloom in its wake.”
A few seconds ticked by, and he added, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make this about me.”
“You didn’t. You were just showing me you understood what I’m going through.”
He held his arms out and said, “Come here.”
“What exactly are you asking me to do?”
“I want you to sit on my lap.”
“Why?”
“So I can comfort you.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so.”
He put his arms down and said, “Suit yourself.” After another pause, he asked, “Did you and Dallas fight about something in particular?”
“It wasn’t even a fight. It was just this stupid series of insults and jabs, which he immediately turned around on me. That’s what he does. He tries to provoke me, and if I react to it, then I’m the bad guy.”
