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Seek treatment. Like I’m a damn alcoholic?
“Like who agreed?”Not what I wanted to say. What I wanted to say was “You were the one who stole Millie’s Oscar, dumbass!” or maybe “Why don’t you go to treatment and tell me how it is, klepto!” But I don’t. The fallout is too big if we’re overheard. I can control the spin, but only if I keep my mouth shut.
“Like we all agreed, baby,”he says in his false caring tone. “You were there and so was your agent.”
“Prove it.”
I ended the call there, angry that he’d let me take the blame and worse—angry that he publicly dumped me and then put the target on my back. He may be younger than me but he’s older in this business than I am. He knew what he was asking of me was unfair. He just didn’t want his precious public to find out he was drunk and pranked America’s original sweetheart, Millie Duncan, to impress his girlfriend.
Granted, I shouldn’t have allowed my loyalty to be bought by the promise of a big role in his next feature, but I was temporarily blinded by the spotlight. A few days after the shit hit the fan, I called my agent and told her I didn’t want to go through with this.
She told me to take a break—asked if there was somewhere I could go to take a breather and leave L.A. My first thought was to flee to the safety and solace of my hometown—to my parents’ house. I suddenly wanted nothing more than to sit on the bed in my old bedroom and smell my mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the oven.
I procured a rental car at the airport, drove home with a sob lodged in my throat and with the intention of surprising my parents, only to find they weren’t home. They weren’t even in the country.
But Jackson was here.
He was the very last person I expected to see in my parents’ living room and by far the most welcome sight. And when the jet lag, anger, and sadness whirled into a funnel cloud of vulnerability, he was there to catch me. My port in a really ugly storm. And when those tears fell like rain, he held me while I cried.
Since then I’ve been thinking a lot about Xavier and how he never protected me. Jackson has been there for me since I’ve come home. He’s been taking me out and unwittingly putting himself in a photographer’s crosshairs. Until he wittingly did it at the park.
That’s when things changed between us.
Either he’s having a generic bad day that has nothing to do with me, or he clammed up and it has everything to do with me.
I intend to find out which one it is.
