AllFreeNovel
Share Us
22
Edward
“Ijust think that’s something you should’ve thought to tell me, that’s all.” I pace the length of Cara’s trailer, her eyes following my every move.
She’s been trying to explain herself for the past hour, but the anger boiling inside me refuses to budge. Miranda and Gio failed to mention it at all. Then to have the bombshell dropped at dinner with father…
“Edward, I thought you knew,” she says for the hundredth time. “Miranda told me she’d talked to you before coming to me with it, so I just though-”
“Yeah, you said. You thought.” I turn to her, fuming. “And you’re fine with this? You’re going to uproot your whole life and live in New York for a year?”
She comes over to me and takes my face in her hands, her eyes imploring with me. “That’s how this works, Edward. Actors travel all the time, it’s what we do.”
I can’t look at her. I know she’s right, of course. But I can’t ignore this flaming knot broiling in my gut. It’s making me want to drive my fist through a wall.
A whole year.
I want her to be happy and I want her career to take off, but I didn’t stop to consider what that might mean. That it could be the thing that takes her away from me. Not right when I’ve only just found her…
“Look, I know you’re upset, but there’s nothing I can do.” She kisses me on the cheek and heads for the door. “I have to be on set. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
I grunt a meaningless response and let her go. I’m not used to being told something’s out of my control. It’s never happened, because there’s always something to be done when money’s involved. So, even though it’s only midday, I head over to Suave where I do my best thinking when it comes to hatching a plan.
* * *
“It’s a stretch, man,”Zach says, lounging with his drink in his hand.
Having felt the sting of our last night out, he has a beautiful woman cuddled up beside him, planting random kisses on him every now and again.
“Not for the right price,” I tell him, downing my third shot of Tennessee Fire. I’m buzzed, and that makes me feel even more determined to get my way. “Sanchez would be a fool to turn me down.”
“Relocating an entire shoot? And then you sit there and want me to believe you don’t have a thing for blondie?” He’s so pleased with himself, leaned back in his seat.
It grates me. “Don’t call her that, okay? Her name’s Cara. And I don’t have a thing for her, I just want to keep her around a little longer. That’s all it is.”
“Right…” He says it slowly, like he doesn’t buy a word of it.
“You find something you like, you stick with it ‘til something better comes along,” I explain with a nonchalant shrug.
Zach leans forward, detangling himself from his date for the first time. “So you’re saying that if something better comes along you’ll let her go shoot in New York?”
I nod. He doesn’t have to know that it’s because I can’t bring myself to agree out loud. For some reason, the word gets caught in my throat. Yes. Three letters, simple enough, but my body won’t let me say it.
“Well, then.” Zach rubs his hands together, eyeing me with a new level of excitement. “Let’s find you something better, shall we?”
Great. I was afraid he'd say that. “Go right ahead,” I wave a hand around the club. “You think you’ll do better than me? It’s not like I haven’t been looking.”
Zach scans the floor of the main area and then lands on someone. “There,” he points. “Black hair, pulled up. Nice ass.”
His date clears her throat loudly and Zach quickly turns to her with the most apologetic smile. “Not better than yours, baby. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to offer you to my friend. He’s going to have to settle for second best.”
She gives me the once over and her mouth curls up in a half-smile. “I wouldn’t mind helping him out,” she says with a sexy little shrug, winking at me.
I bite back a laugh as Zach loses it, sinking instantly into his insecurities.
“You’re seriously going to do me like that?” He has his hand over his heart. “With this chump, of all people?”
“Hey, watch it,” I say. “How many magazine covers have you graced recently? You can’t blame her for having good taste.”
