52. Chapter Fifty-Two
And the Instagram feed is filled with pictures of Graham Crowley holding Olivia Chase against him midair. “If Graham Crowley held me that close, I’d faint too,” says @GrahamCrowleyFanGurl102.
* * *
Jet lag is real. I’ve been trying to sleep it off for two days.
Production shut down when Olivia overdosed. We’d only been filming for a month. It’s up in the air whether we wait her out of detox, go on without her, or they can the whole thing.
What it means is I’m currently contracted, yet not employed. I’m getting a paycheck, but I’m not doing any work.
I’m drained.
Dragging my ass out of bed, I start for the living room, and Loki comes right to my side. He’s been very kind to not jump up on me. It’s as if he can read my weariness.
I owe Milo big time for taking care of him for me while I was in Italy. Even the past few days that I’ve been home, Milo’s taken him to the dog park.
He never mentions it, but I wonder if he ever sees Christina there. I know he goes at night and my mom was meeting her there in the mornings. But there are hundreds of dog parks. It doesn’t mean he goes to the same one my mother did.
I plop down on the couch, and Loki climbs up to sit with me. “So, you’ve been seeing my girl behind my back, huh?” I ask him as I rub his head. “How is she? Just as beautiful as ever?”
Loki lifts his head as if in a nod and I laugh.
“Or is her girl your new girlfriend? Are you using Christina?”
He lets out a bark, and I laugh harder. I swear he’s the smartest dog on the planet.
When I hear the back door open, I turn to see Milo walking in. Looking at my watch, I realize I’ve slept the entire day away.
“You look like shit,” he says.
“I feel like it. Jet lag is no joke,” I say as he sits down, and Loki jumps off the couch and walks to Milo. Such a traitor.
“Dude, I just got here,” he says to Loki, running his hand over Loki’s head. “I suppose you want to go for a walk, huh?”
“I can take him. I should get out of the house for a bit.”
Milo chews his bottom lip. “It’s no problem, really. I just need to change.”
I eye him coolly. “So, you want to take him?”
“It’s just been our thing.”
“I’m home now. He’s my dog. I’ll take him.”
Milo sits on the couch opposite me and leans forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “Shit, man. We kinda have a date.”
Now I sit back and study him. “Son of a bitch, you’re using my dog to get you a woman.” I laugh, but his expression hasn’t changed.
“Not really,” he says and sits back. “It’s his date.”
I look at Loki, who is looking at Milo as if he can’t wait any longer to get out of the house.
“Oh, my god. You’ve been spending time with Christina?” My voice is filled with accusation, and my chest squeezes. “Are you seeing Christina?”
“Whoa,” he blows out the word, holding his hands up in surrender. “I said the date was his, not mine.”
I have to process that. Rubbing my fingers over my forehead, I rub away the ache that is building there.
“You’ve been going to the dog park so that Loki can see Dolly?”
“Yeah,” he says. “That and your mom thought Christina could really use a friend. She’s not doing so well,” he says, and I consider that.
I swallow hard. She shouldn’t need a friend. She should have had me the entire time, even if I was in Italy and she was still here working. We should have been together.
Not being with her, seeing her, touching her—it’s left a hole in me for the past five months. And with what Milo has said, I assume the same goes for her, too.
I know she pushed me away, thinking I used her, but that was never my intent, even though we both got what we wanted. Though my prize didn’t end up being that at all. Instead, I lost what I wanted, only to get something else entirely, and it was a waste of time.
“I guess you shouldn’t keep her waiting then,” I say as I stand to walk back to my room.
“Hey, man.” Milo stands, and Loki looks between us. “You should take him. She’ll be there at seven.”
I shake my head. “She won’t want to see me.”
He shrugs and tucks his hands into his front pockets. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that.”
“Why’s that?”
A smile forms on his mouth. “You know she doesn’t speak to her father?”
“So?”
“So, she doesn’t know that you’re home. She doesn’t know anything other than Olivia Chase overdosed and your movie is on hold.”
“I’m not understanding,” I say, but that could be the lack of oxygen to my brain at this point.
“I’ve been meeting her every day for the past week. She’s loving the movie she’s working on, but more than once, she’s made a comment that Sebastian Yates isn’t as talented as she thought he would be. And, in a sincere moment, she said that even when she hated you, you still made her knees go weak when you kissed her.”
My lips twitch wanting to smile. “Why were you having a sincere moment with her?”
“Christ, man. We’re friends. Like I said, she needs a friend.”
“Then you should go be that friend.”
He shakes his head. “She needs a friend,” he restates. “But what she needs more than that is you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. She misses you. She wanted you to have everything you deserved.”
I lean my hands on the back of the chair. “You’re telling me that’s why she called everything off?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
I let out a little laugh. “Are you telling me that in a week, you’ve grown so close that she would disclose that to you?”
He throws up his hands. “You’re an asshole, you know. I’ve been her friend for months while the two of you tried to figure out what the hell you were doing.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I know that relationship started as a fucking rumor, and it grew into something real. I was here, remember? I heard you talk about her before that, and even though you had to work your aggravation out, you just never hated her that much.”
I run my hand over my face.
Milo stands and walks around Loki. “She loves you, but she wouldn’t go against her father, who wouldn’t give you the opportunity you got if you were engaged to her.”
“She told you all of this?”
Milo shrugs again. “A friend knows what another friend is saying, even if they’re not using those words.”
“What do I do?”
“You could take your dog for a walk.”
I look at Loki, who is still watching us have this conversation.
“I’m still contracted for the movie,” I remind him.
“Which is already a shit show. So, if you’re in love with the producer’s daughter, what more could go wrong? Your production is already shut down because the female lead overdosed. Now what? You don’t even know how long you’re home. They can’t call the shots forever. This is bullshit. And let me tell you, from someone who lives a normal life and works a normal job, it’s not so bad. So, if her dad tanks both of your careers, you both are successful enough to do your own thing. You don’t need him. You don’t need anyone else in this fucking town. Finish some of those books. Write some movies. Be happy with the woman you love. And, like I said, I’ve been around, remember? I know that it’s so much more than some publicity stunt. What you had with Christina was real, and I know you’re still in love with her.”
“Do you think she’d want to see me?”
Milo smiles wide. “I know she would. And, to Loki’s benefit, if you got back together with Christina, he could be with Dolly.”
Loki’s head lifts when he hears Dolly’s name, and I let out a laugh. “What do you say, boy? Should we go get our women?”