CHAPTER 8 DANNY
We don’t get a whole lot of time together during the day on Tuesday. She’s busy filming her scenes, and I’m supposed to fade into the background. I’m playing myself, a part I was literally born to play, and I’m walking by in the background with a gorgeous woman on my arm for today.
Tomorrow I’ll have one line to speak to Alexis—or Charity, as she’s called in the movie—where I hit on her and she declines because she’s trapped in her own life, and then I choose the woman beside her and move on.
It's art imitating life in so many ways it’s scary…except she didn’t decline when I hit on her, and there are zero women I’d ever choose over her.
As far as everyone around her knows, though, she did decline when it came to me. As far as everyone knows, she’s going to end up with Brooks. And in the film, it’s an added layer to her character where she regrets the loss of yet another potential relationship.
She’s not going to lose me, though.
I will fight to hell and back for her. For us. That’s how real and important this has become to me in such a short amount of time.
The gorgeous woman on my arm is Kit Davenport—the same Kit Davenport of reality TV fame who’s now apparently trying to break into Hollywood. I’ve not met her before, but she isn’t shy about the fact that she wants to hang out between takes.
And I’m not quite sure how to handle that.
The Danny of a year ago wouldn’t have thought twice about it. We’d have already found a nice, quiet place to fuck.
But the Danny of today has different priorities. The problem is the rest of the world hasn’t caught up to that fact yet since those priorities changed in secret.
When it’s a lunch break, I sneak into Alexis’s trailer.
“Kit asked for my number,” I announce, and she glances up at me from her spot on the couch and rolls her eyes. She sets the script she was reviewing on the end table beside her.
“Tell her it’s taken.”
I laugh. “I would, but then she’ll ask by who, and then I’ll have to tell her, and then the secret about you and Brooks will come out…”
“You don’t have to tell her anything. Just tell her you’re not interested.” She purses her lips and eyes me a bit pointedly.
“Wait a second,” I say, walking over and standing in front of her. “Are you…are you jealous?”
She folds her arms over her chest, and I’m not going to lie…she’s currently in the perfect seat to unzip my pants, pull my cock out, and suck away.
“No, I’m not jealous,” she says, her tone definitely exasperated.
“Maybe you should be.” I toss her a wink to let her know I’m just kidding.
She leans back and glares up at me a little. “Fine. Then maybe I am. But I have exactly zero room to be considering the fact that I’m marrying some other guy in eighteen days.”
I push the idea of a quick BJ out of my head as I collapse on the couch beside her. “This is all so fucked.”
“Yeah,” she murmurs, and she leans her head on my shoulder. “Maybe I’d be jealous if I didn’t literally wake up to morning sex with you today.”
“You have no reason to be jealous.”
“The fact that you came in here and told me speaks volumes about that, Danny. You could’ve just as easily hid it,” she points out.
“I’m glad you see it that way. I’d never want to hide anything from you, and I guess I’m trying to figure out how to let her down gently.”
She reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Thank you.”
I lean down and press a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re welcome. For what, exactly?”
She chuckles. “For being you. For being honest with me. For sticking by me even though it’s beyond confusing being with me.”
“The confusion is worth it for the sweet moments of total clarity,” I say softly.
A knock sounds at her door, and she glances at me. “Probably my next call.”
“I’ll slip out after you,” I say.
She nods and presses a soft kiss to my lips before she gets up, picks up her script, and answers the door.
But it’s not her next call at all.
“Brooks!” she says, surprise evident in her tone. “What are you doing here?”
Brooks? What the fuck is he doing here?
I watch as she seems to physically shrink down to a shell of who she is when she’s with me. The expressiveness, the joy, the happiness…it all fades away as a weight seems to press her into someone else.
He answers the question in my head.
“Your father sent me to check on you. We both knew you were worried about him and with the wedding approaching, we both thought it would be good for us to be seen together. Can I come in?”
She still hasn’t invited him in—likely because she doesn’t want him to know I’m in here. He’ll report back to her father, and it’ll be nothing but trouble.
But she doesn’t have a choice. She steps back to allow him in and looks at me wide-eyed.
“Danny?” Brooks says as he walks in and sees me sitting on her couch.
I clear my throat and stand, offering a nod. “Brooks.”
“What’s he doing here?” he asks Alexis. “Is he bothering you?”
She shakes her head. “No, no. He has a small role in this film, and he’s shooting today and tomorrow.
He stopped by for a visit. Wasn’t that nice?
” She’s a little high-pitched in the lie, but mostly, she’s putting on a pretty good act.
But she’s perfected the act now, right? If her goal is to win an Academy Award, why not put it on in all aspects of life?
Just…not with me.
“Yeah,” Brooks says, narrowing his eyes at me. “Nice.”
I don’t mean to hit her when she’s already down, but I put the act on, too. “Kit’s probably wondering where I went. I better get back to set. Nice seeing you, Alexis.” I nod at Brooks again.
“And you, Mr. Brewer,” she says rather formally, the eyes that fall onto me so warmly riddled with confusion and fear.
And then I walk out of her trailer, sure I’m doing the wrong thing by leaving her alone with him, but also sure I don’t have any other choice.