47. Chapter Forty-Seven
And the fortune cookie read, “One bad chapter doesn’t mean your story is over.”
* * *
I should have waited three more days, but my father had wanted an answer.
There is a buzz on the studio lot and especially around the set. I’m sick. Every part of me hurts—but mostly my heart.
Graham deserves the movie my father offered him, and the only way he’ll get that is if I let him be a free man. I hate that my father has the ability to make or break him as an actor who is easy to work with. My father might not be able to squash Graham’s entire career, but I’m not willing to be the reason that might happen.
I love him too much to take this away from him.
When I watched him and Loki stop and talk to Penny, and then walk into his trailer with Sandra, everything inside of me broke. He has his ring now. He has the script and the contract. And the lucky son-of-a-bitch has his dog to comfort him.
I have Penelope Mondragon, and that’s all I had wanted before that stupid rumor started that put me and Graham into one another’s path.
Sebastian touches my shoulder. “Are you doing okay?” he asks because he’s a decent guy.
“I’ll be fine. Just a lot going on right now,” I say, and he nods.
“I’ve never had something come together so quickly, have you?”
The corner of his mouth is turned up, and the excitement of this opportunity radiates through him.
Sebastian Yates is famous not only for his amazing looks, but for his kindness and humanitarianism. Much like Graham’s brother, he’s just an amazing human.
As an actor, Sebastian is synonymous with rom-coms, action films, and dramas. The man can do anything. The fact that he’s giddy to be working with Penelope too, well, I can’t help but feel a little of his excitement. Though, I lose everything else to have it.
I lose the man I truly love.
Sebastian’s eyes widen on me, and I realize I haven’t answered his question. “No. You’re right. This was a very quick process.”
“I can’t wait to get started. I guess I’ll see you around soon,” he says, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze in a gesture of friendship, even though I’ve only met the man a few times.
Graham and I only have one more scene to shoot together. The rest of the scenes are without one another. I only wish this had all come down after we had wrapped.
I nearly scream when someone grabs my hand and yanks me toward them.
It’s Graham, and he’s pulling me away from the set and down the same hallway where he told me he had feelings for me.
When he lets go of me, he runs his hands over his hair and paces a tiny circle in front of me, obviously collecting his thoughts.
“What in the hell, Christina?” He scrunches up his face, and I notice he has my ring on his pinky. “I mean, what the actual fuck?”
“You don’t have to talk to me like that,” I say, on the verge of crumpling onto the floor in a pool of tears.
“At least I’m talking to you.” He moves in closer. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
I bat my eyes up at him. “It’s over, Graham. This was stupid.”
“This is real.” His voice has softened and I’m going to choke trying not to cry.
“It was a rumor that got out of control. We were using it to get what we wanted. Well, we got that. You have the movie my father offered, and I got a Penelope Mondragon movie. We should be happy.”
He bats his eyes, and I can see that they’ve gone moist. “Christina, I proposed because I want you, too. I love you.”
I swallow hard, sure that the lump in my throat is going to strangle me. “But do you really? I mean, you get a three-movie deal, and Olivia Chase.”
Her name burns on my tongue.
“Screw all of that. I want you.”
I shake my head. It would be so easy to fall into his arms and walk off into the sunset, but that’s not the right thing to do. He needs this. He wanted this. He deserves this. I can’t be what stands in his way.
“Graham, we know this was all a mistake. We got wrapped up in it. You’re free to do all the big things you want to do.”
He shakes his head. “This is your father talking. What did he make you do?”
God, I have to spin this so he takes the role. I read the script, and if he doesn’t take it, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life—I’ll regret that I held him back.
“He didn’t make me do anything.”
“Bullshit. I’d only get the role if I wasn’t dating you. So now that he’s producing the Mondragon movie, he made you the same deal, right? Right?” His jaw ticks. “Because none of this shit makes sense, considering that they wanted us to play this up to get this far.”
Composing myself is getting harder. “I want this,” is all I can say, but it’s bitter on my tongue.
Graham shakes his head. “He’s holding you back, just like he always does.”
“How can you say that when we’re both getting what we were promised?”
“Things changed.”
I’m going to pass out if I don’t breathe!
“Graham, we’re not meant to be. Look at your life and look at mine. It was never going to work.”
He twists the ring on his pinky. “You’re wrong. God, you’re so wrong. If you really think that I did all of this for this role—” He scrubs his hands over his face. “This is what you want? You want to have the movie that was promised and walk away from us?”
“We were a rumor.”
“I don’t believe that and neither do you,” he’s shouting now. “I didn’t peg you to be so selfish.”
My jaw goes slack. “Me?”
“Yes. I’d give this all up to be with you, and here you are, giving it all up to be with Sebastian Yates!”
The tears are dry now, and my hands come to Graham’s chest, and I shove him back. “This has nothing to do with Sebastian, and you know it.”
“He’s already walking out of your trailer.”
“Are you kidding me with that? So was Penelope. At least I haven’t slept with my co-star. I’ll bet you’ll be super cozy on set.”
Now his eyes go wide. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
The set behind us has grown quiet. This was a mistake, but I’m in it now.
“I saw how she talked to you and clung to you at the awards. C’mon, I’m not stupid. I was raised in this town. Only women who know what you can offer them act like she did.”
“You’ve lost your fucking mind!” he shouts. “God, I really thought that I was the bigger asshole. But you proved me wrong.”
He moves past me, and I can’t even help myself when I turn and say, “Where are you going?”
“What the fuck do you care? But just so you know, I have a movie to finish so I can go be some big action star, because my fiancée just dumped me. Maybe I’ll go get drunk and stoned too. Oh, and if Olivia Chase is free...” he shouts, and now I can see everyone’s eyes on us. Shit!
Only because I see Penny sprinting toward me, I don’t fall against the wall and slide to the floor in a heap of tears.
She wraps an arm around me and leads me into a small office, away from prying eyes.
Shit!
Shit!
Shit!