48. Chapter Forty-Eight
And the woman peering out of the makeup trailer snaps a picture on her phone and texts it to her sister. “Something is going down on the set. I think they broke up.”
* * *
I can’t fucking believe it. This is total bullshit!
I’m screwed no matter what I do. If I take the role, I lose Christina. If I don’t take the role, and keep Christina, I don’t get any other roles.
But I guess she’s made our decision.
I walk back to my trailer and lock the door. Loki rubs up against me, and I flinch. I don’t even want his comfort right now.
The contract is sitting on the table, right where I left it.
A Charles Malloy film will set me up for a long career.
A movie with Olivia Chase, who is hands-down one of the hottest names in the industry to be associated with, even if she’s the biggest bitch I’ve ever met, won’t hurt my box office totals.
Having my contract with the Love Is in the Airnetwork bought out, well, it’ll hurt. I enjoy this job.
But above all else, I thought what Christina and I had was real. Who would have known it would be her that thought so little of it? Then again, what does she know of commitment and love? She’s never had anyone love her like I love her—loved her.
Fuck!
I pick up a pen and sign my name to the contract. What’s done is done.
Move over aging action stars, there’s a new man in town, and he just gave up everything to share in the stardom.
I throw the pen back down on the table, walk to the back of the trailer, and drop down on my bed. Loki jumps up and moves in next to me.
He’s going to miss her too.
* * *
Our last scene together is a nightmare. Not only that, it’s a sweet and soft scene.
The universe hates me.
The number of people surrounding the set has increased. No doubt, they’re all there to see if we can handle this, because as I found out while I was walking to set, our breakup is already front and center on the news.
I take my mark and I can see Christina, her back turned, taking hers.
Jean-Claude is already beside himself with irritation at the entire mess we’re in.
Sandra is here, and so is Sal. They’re not here unless there’s reason to defuse a situation—and I suppose that’s what they’re expecting.
Well, they won’t get it on my end.
I’m going to be professional.
Though, I’m sure most of this is because of how I handled the conversation earlier, and not so privately.
Penny is chewing on the side of her thumb and clutching a notebook to her chest.
“Let’s get this over with,” Jean-Claude says, and everyone gets into place.
Christina turns around, and I wonder how we’re ever going to shoot this scene. Her eyes are red. I can see her entire body shaking.
This isn’t what she wants.
It’s not what I want.
What’s done is done.
“Take your marks,” Jean-Claude shouts and the extras get into place, and so do Christina and me.
She won’t lift her eyes to me.
I can’t breathe.
They roll. They set the marker. Jean-Claude yells, “Action!”
At that moment, Christina lifts her eyes to mine. She’s not even in there. This is all Yvette.
“I can’t be your business partner,” Yvette says to William. “I can’t see you every day and know that we have a history.”
I swallow and take the choreographed step toward her.
“Then I quit,” I say, hoping that I’m portraying William, because I feel this line resonate through me.
“You can’t quit. The investors?—”
William interrupts Yvette’s words by stepping in, pulling her to him, and gazing down at her before he presses a soft kiss to her lips.
“It’s all or nothing, Yvette. But I want it all—I want you.”
I watch as her throat works, and I know that Christina has broken through for just a moment. Then her eyes change.
“You want me?”
“More than any promotion or job title. I love you,” I say, and William is long gone. This is me talking.
“What if?—”
“No, what ifs. I love you. You’re all that I want.”
Christina’s tongue runs over her lips, and I’m shocked Jean-Claude hasn’t yelled cut yet.
“I love you,” she whispers, and it twists in my gut. That’s for William, not for me.
“Marry me,” William says, and I feel as if I added a bite to the words. I can’t say them without feeling as if I’d been punched.
“But what about the contract?” she asks, and I realize how much this movie is mirroring our lives.
“To hell with it.”
Yvette smiles at William, lifts on her toes and wraps her arms around his neck. “Yes! Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so much,” she says.
Christina presses her mouth to mine, and this is no longer acting. She trembles under me, and I hold on for dear life.
This is goodbye, no matter how many times we have to do this scene—she’s saying goodbye to me.
“Cut!” Jean-Claude yells, and Christina eases back, sadness swimming in her eyes.
She doesn’t say anything else.
Much like we did on other projects, she kisses me and then walks away.
I stand there, still on my mark, waiting to start over.
“That was good!” Jean-Claude yells.
I turn to him. “One take?”
“It’s perfect.”
“You didn’t get all the angles.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “I got what we need. Let’s move on, people.”
I look back at Christina, who is walking away with Sal and Penny.
That was it. That was the last time I’ll ever act with her.
That was our last kiss.
I suppose being an action hero will be a challenge, but at the end of the day, I get to blow things up and punch people. And right at this moment, I feel as if that’s warranted.
* * *
Loki keeps pacing by the front door. I suppose this is why people don’t introduce those they date to their children, if they have them. They get attached.
“She’s not coming,” I say to him for the tenth time in an hour. “Give up.”
Loki whines and walks back to me, resting his head on my lap.
“I can’t fix it. It’s too late.”
I run my hand over his head, and he looks up at me with those eyes that made me bring him home in the first place.
“It’s for the better,” I say, but it hurts. “She’s getting her chance, and she’d never have gotten it any other way.”
Saying the words out loud makes me understand what happened just a little bit more.
She had to do what was best for her, and I get that. Without this movie, Christina will be stuck at the network for the rest of her life. And though I know she enjoys it, she needs something bigger. She deserves to be the starlet she is.
“Dax Brown, huh?” Milo walks up the back stairs and into the living room, plopping down in the chair.
I study him. Dax Brown is the name of the character I’ve signed to portray. “Who have you been talking to?” I ask.
He shrugs. “No one. It’s on that entertainment network’s feed on Instagram.” He looks down at his phone. “Graham Crowley has signed on to be Dax Brown in Charles Malloy’s next movie opposite Olivia Chase as Francesca Cross.”
I blow out a breath. That hadn’t taken but a hot minute to become news.
“This comes on the heels of Crowley’s public breakup with Christina Malloy, the producer’s daughter,” he continues, and I wish he’d have stopped with just the announcement.
Milo lowers his phone. “Parents got involved, huh?”
I snort. “You could say that.”
“You could always see her on the side,” he says, and I smile at his optimism.
“Christina made her decision. She broke it off.”
He nods. “Proposing didn’t fix it, huh?”
Who was I fooling in thinking it would? Even Milo saw right through it.