AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He screws up his face like he’s tasted something revolting, and I can’t tell if it’s my outburst or the very idea of what my dad did. “Why would your father do that? You’re his daughter.” Tom opens his mouth, likely to spit out more, but hesitates.
I don’t want him to stop or censor himself. “Go on.”
He swallows thickly. “It’s kind of like pimping you out.”
I stiffen, but the urge to defend something not even I can fully comprehend—or more like my father—is so fierce it wins out. “It wasn’t like that. It happens all the time in Hollywood. It’s harmless.”
“So you dated and what?” He shoves his hands into his pockets. “Things became real?”
I roll my eyes. “No, even though I told myself something else. It didn’t take long for Felix to realize I liked him, and because he’s never one to pass up the opportunity to exploit a situation… Ugh.” My fingers rake through my hair. “I don’t know if that’s what happened. I can’t speak for Felix. All I know is, he strung me along. Told me he cared for me too and it wasn’t just for show.”
My face falls into my hands and I groan, unable to look at him. The shame of it all perches on my shoulders, weighing me down like I’m slowly sinking into a pit of quicksand. If only I could be swallowed whole, saved from the misery and humiliation of saying all of this out loud. And not just to anyone. To Tom.
“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself.” His soft tone causes me to look at him through a small opening in my cupped hands.
“I’m not innocent in this. I hoped Felix would get to know me and fall madly in love with me.” I straighten. “Stupid, I know.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing. I kept thinking—hoping—we’d get close. He’d throw me a bone, string me along, but it was all an act. Fortunately, I eventually sensed it was a game to him and I kept a safe distance. He dated others publicly, and even when I knew it was fake, it hurt.”
I squeeze my eyes shut as if it were that easy to erase the images online, the media headlines. My stomach knots.
“We were always thinking up stories for the media when they’d catch him with this model or that actress. It became so exhausting and all so hard.”
I can’t tell him that my head may have known what was going on, but the girl with stars in her eyes wished for more. Held out hope that Felix would one day wake up, look at me, and realize I was the one.
Yeah, never happened.
The battle to keep my head and heart on the same page was constant.
He takes my hand in his. “And now? What’s going on now? Why did he come here?”
“The movie premiere. That’s all he cares about. All my parents care about. They’re worried because I’m taking my time getting back to Toronto that I won’t be there for their big night.”
I pull from his grasp, not deserving of his concern. Most of this is my own doing. I should have done something about Felix months ago, well before the flight and emergency landing.
“Our relationship, the dynamics of my father, Felix, me…it’s all about the optics. The press eats it up, and the fans swoon over the perfect picture of director Rupert Price and his daughter with the big movie star. We’re all happy and in love with each other. It sells movie tickets.”
“And what do you want?”
“Why do you keep asking me that?” Exasperation rings in my every word, and tears sting and gather at the back of my eyes.
What do I want? Damn, if only I knew.
15
TOM
Leighton finally looks at me, a little lost and confused, eyes glassy. Something sharp stabs at the center of my chest even if I’m also a little relieved to learn everything with the douchebag Felix wasn’t real.
Why’d I ask the question? I wasn’t trying to be insensitive. In fact, the opposite. I didn’t mean to embarrass or stump her, but it’s easy to figure from her reaction that she’s never considered what she might want.
If I found out the person I was crushing on and who had told me they felt the same way was lying and only using me, I’d have walked away from any kind of agreement. For Leighton, it feels like she didn’t get that choice or doesn’t know how to fight for what she wants. How to break free.
She clears her throat. “I don’t know what I want, but I’m done with Felix and even told him so.”
My heart soars, and it’s a struggle to keep my silly smile under wraps.
