43. Cole
Chapter forty-three
Cole
I know better than to push Jenna Rogers to talk or open up before she’s ready, but dammit, I miss her.
In every single way, I miss her.
And I saw her less than twenty-four hours ago.
Sure, she was furious, but I still got to see her.
I just got back from Harley and Cassandra’s place, and threw myself face down onto my bed.
We have one week left of shooting, and I can finally put this job to rest and move on from all the drama that came along with it.
I have to put it in my past. I'll deal with movie tours, and press when I have to, but I'll make damn fucking sure that the entire world knows Mara and I are nothing.
Not even friends.
And in a week’s time, I will no longer have to consider her my colleague.
My phone vibrates on my nightstand, and I see Cassandra’s name on the screen.
Cassandra: I shouldn’t be telling you this, but our girl is planning on leaving Grangewood early. Like, tonight early. Her flight is booked already. Please make her stay. If not for you, then for me.
Cassandra: Kidding. But seriously. She knows deep down you’re not an asshole. You just need to convince her of it. Prove it to her.
Me: How?
Cassandra: Figure it out, Green. And do it quickly.
Sighing, I place my phone back onto the table beside my head and run my hands down my face.
How can I have screwed this up so badly?
Six months ago, I was a broke, almost nobody, scrounging for pennies, and God, I was lonely.
I didn’t realize just how lonely I was until I spent every single day surrounded by people I now consider family.
And with work almost finished, I’m conflicted on how to feel. Because on one hand, I’ve never been more relieved for something to end in my life. But on the other, I’m not ready to say goodbye to it all.
That’s a lie.
I am ready to say goodbye, but I’m not ready to say it to her.
I don’t want to go back to being complete strangers who live less than a block away from each other.
I can’t do it.
I won’t.
The experience of filming and being on set has been fulfilling in a way I never thought possible, but all the perks that come with being an actor?
I’d give it all up for her.
The money, the fame, the penthouse apartments, chefs, cleaners—I don’t want any of it.
But even if I gave it up now, people already know my name. They know what I look like and my entire resume. They probably already know the address to my new place, and I only signed the paperwork this morning. There’s just no avoiding it.
One week left, and we all go back to living the lives we had before, but it doesn’t feel right knowing I might have to do it without her by my side.
Over the last three months, I’ve realized what it feels like to know her, to have her, and to lose her.
I can’t handle the thought of being lost forever.
***
“Are you coming, hotshot?” Mara calls out across the set, and all eyes turn to watch my reaction.
Laurel pulled the both of us aside once I’d gotten here this morning to talk about our actions and how unprofessional it was.
As if I didn’t already know.
Mara tried to claim innocence, but Laurel told her to cut the crap, put her head down, and focus on the job at hand.
“If word got out to the press that you were too drunk to even function,” she says to me. “And you were attempting to take advantage of a man who physically couldn’t say no to you,” she says to Mara, her face now red with fury. “You will lose all credibility in this industry. Do I make myself clear?”
Mara and I both nodded in agreement and parted ways.
I hadn’t thought about it that way.
I hadn’t realized just how predatory Mara’s actions had been until Laurel pointed them out. Just thinking about what could’ve happened if no one else were there makes my skin crawl.
I close the gap between Mara and I, forcing a smile across my face, and her eyes look everywhere but me while we wait for our marks.
She knows how badly she fucked up, and being around me makes her uncomfortable.
Good.
“I have no choice,” I respond quietly to her, now that no one else can hear us, and she nods awkwardly.
My eyes rake around the room, landing on Jenna, and I watch as she tidies up the space around her, sweeping up hair clippings off the floor from the trim she’d given me earlier.
Without a single word between the two of us.
I watch as Mara walks away from me, plops herself down into the vacant seat at Jenna’s station, and I rise from mine instinctively.
Ready for what, I’m not sure.
“My turn,” Mara says to her, flipping her long, blonde hair over her shoulders while Jenna clips the black cape over her shoulders, and straightens her back.
“Of course,” she replies sweetly, with the fakest smile I’ve ever seen.
I watch as she works in silence with Mara’s eyes burning a hole in the vanity mirror. “I can’t concentrate with you wishing death upon me,” Jenna says to her, placing the scissors back down onto the table, picking up her curling iron.
“What’s been your excuse every other time you’ve done my hair or make-up, Snow ?” she mocks, using the nickname that only I call her, flashing a knowing grin in my direction.
Even after the conversation Laurel had with us earlier, she’s still trying to stir up trouble.
Mara doesn’t want me, so I can’t fucking understand why she’s doing everything in her power to come between Jenna and I.
Our movie has the numbers and all the publicity it needs.
What more does she want?
“I guess they wouldn’t mind if I held this curling iron a little longer than necessary, then.” Jenna shrugs, while Mara pulls her hair free of Jenna’s clasp.
“You seem to forget who you’re talking to, Jennifer. I make one phone call, and you’re off this job.” Mara shifts in her chair to create some much needed space between the two of them.
“You’re right. I am the wrong person for the job. If doing this means I have to bow down to people like you every day, count me out. Besides, I don’t think I have enough foundation left in your shade to cover the words ‘ I’m a fucking cunt ’ tattooed across your forehead.” She says it so casually, as though she isn’t bothered by Mara’s narcissistic ways in the slightest. But then I realize she’s been around a narcissist her whole life, and I have to physically stop myself from screaming ‘ that’s my fucking girl!’
Gently placing the curling iron back onto the vanity, she switches it off at the wall, and I cover my mouth with my hands to hide the chuckle that tries to escape. Mara’s face is now lobster red.
“I think you seem to forget that you attempted to assault my very intoxicated boyfriend, who didn’t have the mental capacity to say no.”
“I was kidding, I didn’t mean—” Jenna raises her hand to quiet Mara, marches to the center of the room, and snatches a microphone out of Laurel’s hands on her way.
She taps the top of it, and the sound of feedback screeches through the speakers. It does the job of getting everyone’s attention, though. She doesn’t wait for them to be ready.
“Does anybody else want to comment on how I’m a home-wrecker, even though you all know it isn’t true? Or does that not fit the narrative that you’ve all created in your heads? Does anyone else want to whisper to the person beside them that someone like Cole Green would never go for a girl like me? Whatever the hell that even means.” She waits patiently for any response, but it seems the people who were once brave enough to comment obscene things on social media or whisper hurtful things behind her back, no longer have a backbone.
“Jenna—” I try to speak, but she cut me off with a glare, and a finger pointed in my direction. She drops the microphone to the floor, a loud thud echoing on the eerily quiet set.
“ Not you. Never you.” She seethes at me before storming out of the room, and all eyes go from her, to me.
“What the fuck are you all looking at?” I shout, voice vibrating against the empty walls in the giant room. “You all have a job to do. Do it.”
Ignoring the fact that I too have a job to do, I walk out in the direction I know she headed, but I don’t look for her. That would do more harm than good.
Instead, I drive to the other side of Grangewood Creek, parking my rental car in front of the Wingrove mansion.
“Cole,” Cassandra says breathlessly as she opens the door to greet me. “What are you doing here? Is Jenna OK?” She opens the door wider for me and I step inside. I’ve been here twice now, so I know my way around, and I head directly to the wide open kitchen and dining space.
“She’s fine. At least, physically, anyway. She and Mara just got into an argument and Mara basically told her to quit or she'd have her fired.” I sit on the cloud like couch, burying my hands into my face as Harley enters the room. “I just don’t know what to do anymore.”
“You know what my best friend told me when I didn’t know how to get the girl?” Harley asks with a quick, cheeky wink at his wife. “She told me to just tell her.”
“Have you met Jennifer Rogers?” I scoff. “I cannot just tell her . You two had history. Jenna and I have…”
“A future,” Cassandra chimes in, taking a seat beside me on the couch, patting me on the shoulder. “And if you cannot see that, you need to get your eyes checked.”
“I see it so fucking clearly that it’s the only thing in my line of sight.” I shake my head in disbelief at the realization I’ve come to so happily accept. I’m in so deep with this girl, and she thinks I want someone else.
“This is so sweet,” Cassandra swoons while Harley laughs, taking her hand in his, kissing the back of it.
“I can handle Mara. We have a week left of working together, then nothing for months until press starts. One week until everyone goes back to life as we knew it.” I picture my old apartment, grateful I only need to clear out a few things before I never have to go back.
“What building does Jenna live in back in California?” I ask her best friend. Cassandra pushes herself off the kitchen bench top, rushing to get her laptop. “Maybe I can have something delivered to her house to let her know that I wish she didn’t leave.”
Placing it down on the counter, she opens it quickly, fingers tapping away at the keys. “Here,” she says, turning the screen to face me. “Are you going to try and make her stay first?” She bites the inside of her cheek.
“I have a plan for that, but if it fails, I’ll do this, too.”
“What are you thinking?” Her watchful eyes narrow. I take down her address in my phone, only I already have it burned into my brain.
“I’m thinking the universe has a funny way of forcing your best friend and I together.” I laugh with a slight shake of my head, sliding her laptop back toward her.
“It says the penthouse was just sold a few weeks ago… was it—”
“Me? Yep.” I smile. “I move in the day we get back.”
Cassandra wiggles her brows. “Of course you do.” She laughs. “I would say that this whole thing just took an unexpected turn, but I shouldn’t be surprised. Of course, you unknowingly purchased the only for sale apartment in her building.”