Happily Ever After? (Sleeping Handsome Sequel) (9 page)

He tosses the milk back in the fridge.
“See, I know I couldn’t deal.”

The music from the phone in my pocket
stops my retort.

Drake raises a brow and his eyebrow
ring disappears under a purple ski cap. “Guess this one’s not going
to include phone sex.”

“
Shut the fuck up,” I say,
reaching for the phone and moving toward my room.

With the phone to my ear and the door
pressed against my back, I answer, “Hey.”

“
Oh Zach, I’m so, so
sorry,” Paige says in a rush.

“
How could you, Paige?”
The question comes out of me without a thought.

“
I didn’t think
he—”

“
And while you were pissed
at me. So the spawn of Satan worked with me, but hell, I didn’t
hang out with her after work. Didn’t invite her into my fucking
room.” I start pacing the short length of my bedroom.

“
I know. I get it. I’m
just as bad. Worse probably. But we were just friends, nothing
more.”

I pause in front of my closet.
“Friends who kiss each other?”

“
Okay, I deserve your
anger, but I didn’t kiss him. And it was like a second
long.”

“
Angry?” I kick the shoes
spilling out onto the floor back into the closet. “You think I’m
angry? Every time I think about his arms around you or his lips on
yours, I feel like exploding. I’m furious. Don’t you get what that
image is doing to me?”

“
I do,” she says in a
small voice. “I feel the same imagining Amanda on your
bed.”

I kick the last two shoes. Hard. The
smack resonates within the small space. “I wasn’t on the bed. I was
nowhere near her or her lips.”

“
I already admitted what
happened with me was way worse. I’m sorry. It was nothing. It meant
nothing.”

I start pacing again. “Have you seen
the pictures on the net?”

“
What
pictures?”

“
Of you and your buddy
having a good time.”

“
Huh?” I hear her moving.
“Just give me a minute.” The echo of her punching keys sounds
through the phone. “What the…These are freakin’ ridiculous. That
asshole must’ve known we were being followed!” She lets out a deep
breath. “You know these don’t mean anything, right?”

I snap open the blinds on my window
and stare out at the parking lot without seeing it. “I don’t know
what they mean.”

“
What?” her voice is a
screech. “Zach, you can’t seriously think anything was going
on.”

My fingers push the window open. I
need air. “Do I think you’ve been cheating on me? No. Yet I have to
wonder why you’d hang out with someone like him.”

“
I told you. I thought we
were friends! Are you saying I can’t have male friends?”

Breathing near the screen, I ignore
her question. “So he never flirted? Never came on to you before
last night?”

“
Ugh. Okay, he may have
flirted a bit. A come on before last night, no. Seriously, why
would someone like him be interested in someone like
me?”

My forehead hits the screen. The mesh
digs into my skin. “Holy shit Paige, you can be so dense
sometimes.”

“
Did you just call me
dense as in like stupid?”

“
You know that’s not what
I meant.” I start pacing again. “You just don’t get it. Look at
your costars. They’re some of the most beautiful people in the
industry. Yes you can act, but that’s not the only reason they
picked you.”

“
I still can’t believe you
called me stupid.”

“
I said dense,” I spit out
from behind my teeth. “You need to take it in context. You’re a
beautiful woman. You attract men, which you just don’t seem to
get.” I turn on the fan. The air from the window isn’t
enough.

“
Well, isn’t that the
icing on the pie. Since I’m so pretty, I can’t be with
men.”

“
It’s cake.”

“
What?”

“
Pies don’t have
icing.”

“
Whatever. I never thought
you’d be like this.”

“
Like what?” I
snap.

“
So jealous you’d demand I
can’t have male friends.”

“
I never said that. I just
don’t like you spending time with assholes who are trying to get in
your pants.”

“
That was
crude.”

“
Would you like me to take
a little walk with Amanda down Rodeo Drive? I’ll have Drake take
pictures and send them to you. Then maybe you’ll fucking
understand. Or maybe I’ll let her try to kiss me and get that in
print.”

I hear her take a deep breath and
imagine her lip quivering. “Now you’re being an
asshole.”

Oh, I can be an asshole. Massive
asshole. “Why did you hang out with him? Why did you let him in
your room?” I demand harshly.

“
I don’t know.”

“
Why Paige?” My tone is
harsher and more demanding.

She lets out a sigh. “Because…because
I was lonely. I missed you.”

My fury comes back, pounds within my
head at full force. I’m going to combust. Bloody pieces of me will
be strewn across the room. “Was he a good replacement?”

“
Screw you! You know it
wasn’t like that.”

“
I don’t know what it was
like.” Though my floor is clean now, I need something else to kick.
“I can’t wrap my head around why you would consistently let some
guy in your room at the same time you’re freaking out over
Amanda
working
with me. How you didn’t connect the two before last night is
just plain stupid.” Oh fuck, I shouldn’t have used that word. I’m
so livid. I don’t care.

“
That’s the second time
you called me stupid!”

“
I said your actions
were—never mind.” I can’t take this anymore. We’re talking in
circles. I’m getting madder. She’s getting mad. “I should
go.”

“
Yeah, me too.”

“
I need some time to
figure this out.”

“
Yeah, me too.”

“
I’ll catch you
later.”

“
Yeah, bye,” she says and
her voice cracks in between the words.

I cut my phone off then whip it
against the wall. The shattered pieces fall to the carpet. Broken
and sprayed out the plastic shards give me the perfect visual of
our relationship.

~13~

Paige

I died today. A sword went into the
center of my chest. Blood soaked my gown before I wrapped my hands
around the blade and gurgled out more red goop from my mouth. Then
I slid down the stone steps of the tower keep and laid there for
freakin’ ever. It’s a lot harder to keep still than people think.
And I did it in two takes, which I should be ecstatic about, but
inside I truly feel dead.

Zach hasn’t emailed me in two days.
Nor has he responded to my texts. I was angry over his stupid and
dense comments. As the days progress, I’m starting to realize anger
doesn’t stop me from wanting him or from loving him. And if I’ve
messed up so bad and we’re over, the end of us is going to kill me
far more than the stunt sword.

My lip quivers as I stare at my inbox.
There’s a message from Emily and another from my friend Kelly.
Though I usually respond right away—right after responding to Zach
of course—I don’t have the heart to open them. Especially since the
last email Kelly sent explained the Facebook debacle after Amanda’s
little stunt. She got called out and got called several names by a
fourth of the people on Facebook—okay that might be an
exaggeration—then closed her account. None of that matters to me.
I’ve finally figured out Amanda and the past aren’t important. Why?
After probably losing what is important, everything else seems
trivial.

I want to spend the night crying
again. That’s what I do now. Lie in my hotel bed and cry. The
thought of another round with the tissue box in between the sheets
has me feeling like the world’s biggest loser.

In three days, I go home but with the
way things are with Zach home has lost its allure. Except for the
tiny amount of hope lodged in my chest that we’ll get over this
bump. Yet with every missing email and unanswered text, my hope
dwindles. He said he needed time. I expected him to at least text
back a one word response. Something? Nothing. It’s actually kind of
disrespectful of him and very hopeless for me. So
hopeless.

I re-read his poem last night. His
words made me cry more.

Just sitting in my room is making me
crazy. But I don’t know what else to do. Bret has shunned me. He
won’t even look at me unless it’s on the set. No big surprise
there. Freakin’ egomaniac. Going anywhere he might be is more than
unappealing. So no more dinners outside of my room.

While I love acting, all the other
stuff—the rumors, the arrogant people, and the time away from
home—have me questioning if this is the right business for
me.

Suddenly Zoe with her nonstop chatter
comes to my mind. Or maybe it’s the thought of rumors. I grab my
hotel key and slip it into my back pocket before I race out the
door. Zoe filling my head with useless rumors sounds good. As long
as they’re not about me.

Zoe’s brow rises when she opens the
door. “Hello darling. Come in,” she says, stepping to the side. She
tilts her chin and gives me a questioning look. “I’m surprised
you’re not out with Bret.”

I almost turn around and go back to my
room without saying anything. Instead, I breeze past her. “Why
would I be out with Bret?”

She gestures for me to sit in the
small sitting area and the multitude of bracelets on her arm
tinkles. “Come now, Paige. Everyone’s aware you two have become an
item.”

“
An item?” I plop down on
a fluffy chair. “Is that what nothing is called?”

Her brow rises again as she sits at
the end of the couch nearest to me. “Oh no. He made his little
‘Dating Me Will Hold Your Career Back’ speech didn’t
he?”

It takes me a few seconds to register
her meaning. Bret’s assholeness goes up a notch. “Um no. He just—he
just…” I feel tears coming. When I walked into her room, I planned
to be strong and refute all the rumors, but I can’t keep myself
glued together. “My boyfriend…” I say in a sob and cover my
face.

“
Why can’t that man leave
the young ones alone?” she snaps. With hands still pressed to my
face, I hear the swish of her long dress moving. Then I feel her
fingers pressing a Kleenex in my hand. Geez, I should buy stock in
Kleenex. She pats my hand. “I know he’s handsome and charming but
trust me, he’s really not worth your tears.”

Looking up through a blur, I moan,
“He’s worth everything to me.”

She rolls her eyes. “Oh to be blind
and young again.”

I wipe my eyes then blow my nose. She
waits with a calm expression.

“
Look Paige, Bret’s a
pretty piece, but he’s rather… dull inside. The sooner you realize
that, the sooner you’ll get over him.” She reaches for the
teakettle waiting on the coffee table.

It finally dawns on me she thinks I’m
crying over Bret. As if.

“
Here,” she says, handing
me a cup. “Green tea is both calming and good for your
metabolism.”

I snatch the cup from her fingers.
“I’m not crying over Bret.” I take a swallow of the tea and almost
spit it out. It tastes like swamp water.

Her overly plucked eyebrows rise
higher than before and her teacup pauses in the air.

I set my cup on the table with a
clunk. “Nothing, well pretty much nothing, happened between us. I
thought we were friends. I was wrong about that. He’s just a
douche-bag-wanna-be-seducer.”

“
So you and Bret
never—”

“
Ugh. No. He tried to kiss
me and that’s about it.”

“
The pictures?” she asks
then finally takes a sip of her tea.

Does this woman peruse the Internet
for rumors? “We were just friends,” I snap. “Or so I
thought.”

Her expression becomes perplexed. “So
you’re crying because…”

“
My boyfriend,” I say,
miserably.

She gently sets her cup on the table.
“Ah, he saw the pictures.”

“
Something like
that.”

“
And broke up with
you.”

My lip quivers. “Not officially
yet.”

“
Perhaps darling, if he
doesn’t believe you then he’s not worth it.”

I let out a sigh. “He believes
me.”

“
Then why—”

“
It’s complicated. He’s
angry and…hurt.” The last word is a revelation to me. Beyond Zach’s
anger, I kind of knew this, but saying it aloud somehow helps me
recognize it fully. Helps me see his response comes more from pain
rather than fury or jealousy. “I hurt him.”

She nods. “A man’s wounded pride is a
violate force.”

I shake my head. “It’s more about us.
About trust and honesty.” Another revelation hits me. “It’s about a
person mattering so much you think about how your actions are going
to affect them. I—I didn’t do that.”