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Her brow creased. “Huh?”
A sick feeling that had nothing to do with the hangover filled his gut. “You broke it off with me because I was the hometown boyfriend. Iwas the anchor. You wanted to be freed up to find a richer, more well-connected boyfriend. I wasn’t him. Until now, when I may have a chance to be that for you. Now I’m interesting to you again.”
She tilted her head and gave him a patient look. “Don’t do that. Don’t make me out to be the bitch and you some maligned party. You know what happens to relationships out here when one is a star and the other is a civilian? The regular person gets crushed under the weight of it. The media eats them alive. Or they get to sit home and watch the person they love hang out with the most beautiful, talented, famous people in the world, always on the outside looking in. They get to sit home and watch the kids while the other person is on location for months doing love scenes with someone onPeople’s Most Beautiful list. I didn’t want that life for either of us. So when you sabotaged that last audition before you left LA and I landed a role, I saw the writing on the wall.”
His jaw clenched. “I didn’t sabotage that audition.”
“They told you not to improvise, and you improvised your ass off. You wanted to prove that you knew better, that your way was the better way instead of listening to what they wanted you to do.” She pulled her hair to the top of her head and secured it into a bun with the hair band around her wrist. “I thought you were going to do it again yesterday, but you finally got your shit together and showed them you could take direction. Thank God. You need to let the improv go. It was good training, but you’ve got a real acting job now. Let the writers do their job and write for you. Memorize the script, follow the stage directions. Be a professional.”
Let improv go. Memorize scripts. Be a professional.
He tried to imagine never being onstage again without a script, never getting the rush of that living-on-the-edge state in improv.
Onstage. Improvising.
Panic hit him like a baseball bat to the gut.“Oh, fuck.”He scrambled out of bed, his head protesting at the sudden movement, and scanned the room for his phone. “What time is it?”
“What’s wrong?” Kenzie asked, the covers falling from her and revealing she’d slept in only a tank top and underwear.
“The time, Kenzie.”
She reached behind her for her phone, which was sitting on the side table. “A little past ten. Why?”
Dread and panic filled him. “Fuck! Where’s my stuff? I need to go.”
“What the hell, Jas?”
“I missed my flight.” His heart was racing as he found his jeans draped over a chair and tugged them on. “I need to get to my room, grab my stuff, and go to the airport. I need to get back to New Orleans to do the show tonight.”
Kenzie frowned. “Jas, that’s sweet of you to want to help out the group and all, but what’s the point? You got the part.”
He found his phone in the pocket of his jeans and started typing, trying to get to the airline’s website. “The point is I promised I would be there.”
I promised I wouldn’t let Hollyn be onstage alone. I promised my group I’d help land these investors.
Legitimate panic was making his fingers tremble as he tried to search for a new flight.Full. Full.“Dammit!”
“I think you’re going to be too late anyway. New Orleans is two hours ahead of us. And the traffic to get to the airport…”
“Screw my stuff. You can send it to me. Get me to the airport. There’s got to be something. Standby or something.”
“Jasper.”
“Fine. I’ll call a fucking Uber.”
She threw the covers off. “Don’t do that. I’ll bring you. Damn. I just think you’re being ridiculous. What’s the worst that could happen? The girlfriend you have to leave behind anyway is going to get mad and break up with you?”
Jasper couldn’t answer. That was by far not the worst thing that could happen. Hollyn was going to have to go onstage with or without him because of all the Miz Poppy promotion she’d done. He’d sworn to her that he’d be there to back her up and support the group, that he wouldn’t leave her up there on her own. He’d already let her down by going out to California. He couldn’t do this to her, too.
But as they pulled into LA traffic a half an hour later, home had never felt so far out of reach.
