4. Chapter Four
And the gossip magazine said, “And where did they go in the night?”
* * *
I had promised I’d get us out of the rest of the night. Sandra helped make that happen, and a call to Christina’s assistant, Penny, made it so that we quietly walked out the back door of the theater without any incident.
Now, in the back of Penny’s Kia, I undo my bow tie and unbutton the first few buttons on my shirt. I can’t get out of this tux fast enough.
“Maybe this isn’t the best idea. They’re going to know we’re gone,” Christina says, turning around in the passenger seat and looking through the back window as if she assumes someone will be following us.
“Of course they’re going to know. There are a couple of seat fillers who probably are supposed to fill other seats. Oh, and if, just by chance, your parents bother to look to where you’d been sitting, they might remember they rode with you to the theater.”
“Don’t be an asshole,” she bites back, but it doesn’t resonate in her eyes.
I’d have assumed she was oblivious to the situation, but obviously she was not. Her parents couldn’t have cared less that they were there with her. I wonder sometimes if her parents even know what she does for a living. In the years that I’ve known Christina, I’ve seen her power couple parents parade her around like a trophy, but otherwise, they don’t seem to remember that she even exists. Yet, her father shook my hand and called me by name.
“But, instead of us being assholes, we’ll be some loving couple who just couldn’t wait to get some time alone,” I say, still playing up this stupid trope of our lives that someone has decided we’re living.
“Anyone who knows us will know that’s not true.”
“Yeah, well, it’s the millions of people who don’t know us that think it’s true.”
“I don’t like that,” she says.
“You don’t get much say in the matter. You were raised in this. You know that the press runs what people think.”
Christina turns around with a huff but aims her glare at Penny. “Did you know about all of this? That someone released something that says we’re dating?” she shoots the question to Penny, who grips the steering wheel tighter.
“Well, um, yes. Well, I mean?—”
Christina holds up her hand to stop her. “I don’t care tonight. Tomorrow, I’m making a call to my agent. I didn’t agree to any of this, and I don’t want to be part of it.”
I laugh in the backseat, and she turns her narrowed eyes on me. “What?” she shouts.
“You’re such a diva. I don’t think you get a say as to what people say about you in the press. We signed up for that when we started in this line of work. Besides, what does it matter if this is what people think?” I ask.
“It matters.”
“Why?”
Christina purses her lips. “Do you love me?” she asks.
“Oh, hell no,” I reply with an emphasis on hell and no. “I have a hard time stomaching you altogether, but I think you know that.”
“The feeling is mutual, you know.”
“I know, and it only makes this that much sweeter,” I grin at her, and I’m sure if it weren’t dark in the car, I’d see her cheeks turn red with anger.
“You know that if you’re attached to me, then you can’t see anyone else.” Her voice teases as if she’s found a loophole in this scheme that is going to wreck me.
“Says who?”
“Says those fans you think so much of. If they want you with me, they won’t want you with anyone else.”
I consider that for a moment, and she’s right. Not that I date a lot or do anything else that goes with dating. The truth is, I’m a homebody. I’d rather have one woman in my life than a string of them. Where is the true satisfaction in that? Well, at least that’s how I was raised. And even with people thinking I sleep around; it’s how I live my life that counts. I know the real me. No one else does.
“I guess I’ll just have to keep my affairs in order and keep them quiet,” I shoot back.
She huffs again and turns around.
“Where am I supposed to take you both?” Penny asks. Her posture is tense as she nearly strangles the steering wheel.
“You’re not supposed to take us both anywhere,” Christina says. “He needs to get out of the car and go his own way.”
I let out another burst of laughter. “What, are you going to have her drop me off on the street corner?”
“Maybe,” Christina says.
I rattle off my address to Penny. “Get me close and I can walk.”
“But you’re in a tuxedo,” Penny says, her eyes darting to me in the rearview mirror.
“It won’t be the first time, even tonight, that you see someone walking the streets in LA in a tuxedo,” I say.
“She’ll take you home,” Christina grunts. “And then she’ll take me home, because we need to discuss how much of this she knew.”
Penny’s brows draw in and she worries her bottom lip.
I wonder if Penny is really worried about what Christina might say. Things I’ve learned over the years from working with the woman, she has no bite. If she digs her teeth into you, you won’t feel it.
See, Christina Malloy isn’t as hard as her mother or father. Now those two, they can make you quake in your boots. Christina, she just doesn’t have it in her to be ferocious. Though it doesn’t appear that Penny knows that.
Oh, I’ve seen Christina try to lay down the law, and things change because she comes from Hollywood elite, but really, it’s not her that makes things happen. It’s the dropping of her parents’ names.
But what do I care if she thinks she’s tough? We’re on equal ground when it comes to our jobs. The network likes us. They keep writing stories for us and we keep getting paid. Long live the serial romance, and God bless the lovers of unrealistic romance movies that are produced by the dozens.
Penny pulls up in front of my house and stops the car.
“I guess this is my stop,” I joke from the backseat. “Has anyone texted you to ask where you are?” I ask Christina.
She looks down at her phone. “No.”
“Didn’t think so. Well, thanks for the ride,” I say to Penny, and she returns a smile. “Later, lover,” I tease Christina as I open the door.
“Go to hell,” she replies.
Things are normal between us. No matter how many pictures show up on TV tomorrow or in gossip columns, Christina Malloy will still loathe me, and I will still try to get under her skin.