Step Wilde: A Stepbrother Romance (18 page)

I had no appetite and could barely follow what the disembodied voice was saying to me. I was still in shock over the day before.

After the test scene, Fox had rushed me into wardrobe and makeup immediately. Lydia had to grab clothes that were supposed to be for the extras since Hailey was as big around as my right thigh and nothing intended for her would fit me.

We’d stayed on set until one in the morning. Production was now seven days behind schedule; everything that Hailey had filmed would have to be tossed out.

Janna assured Fox, who seemed to have come entirely unglued and didn’t care about anything, that with some extra hours and some script tweaks we would only need to be in Italy two extra days.

Fox had just laughed at her and given her a bear hug, walking away and chattering to himself under his breath.

I fixed my focus back on the speaker phone. The guy was
still
talking.

"You'll be required to attend all press junkets, red carpet events, and premieres, as well as any award shows -"

Fox reached forward and muted the conference call button on the phone. "That is in the
highly
unlikely event that this piece of shit movie we're making wins any awards," Fox said with a goofy grin.

I laughed. He hit the button again and the suit's voice came through the speakers. "...Okay with that I presume?"

I panicked and replied loudly, "Sorry, repeat that last bit?"

"Are you okay with everything that we just went over? I have digital copies my secretary is sending over for you to sign."

I paused. My ears were ringing and my vision was going black around the edges. I was freaking out.

Fox leaned forward. "We're going to call you back, alright?" He didn't wait for a response before hanging up.

"Olivia, I know this is all very new to you," Fox said to me kindly.

I took a deep breath and felt my vision come back into focus. “I'm okay with everything. Sure," I replied.

Fox took his glasses off and put his hands flat on the table, reaching out to stroke the back of my own hand in a fatherly way.

"If I didn't think you could do this, I wouldn't have put you in this position. But if you're not comfortable, you've
gotta
say the word. I'm not trying to scare you, but I want you going into all of this with eyes wide open. The press will find out every detail about your life, any relationships you've had in the past; anything about your family. They will
hunt
you. You are today's big story. It will feel like an eternity to you but it is only a moment in time for the press. Then they will move on to something else.”

I nodded slowly. “Okay. I think I can handle that.”

Fox sipped from his tiny, white ceramic espresso cup.

"God, I miss Folger's. Am I a stereotypical foreigner or what?" he laughed. "I think you can do this. You can handle all of it. It's a few weeks of shooting, a few months more of press chaos, then that's it. You'll get offers of other roles and you can either take them or turn them down, it's up to you. But I saw the work you did on the script. You're hired on any future movie I have behind the scenes if you want the job. So you don't need to worry about that. You just need to ask yourself:
is this what you really want?"

I stared at him, thinking about me looking in the mirror as a kid and pretending to accept my first Oscar trophy. But didn't all kids do that?

I thought back to Lorna telling me I needed to take chances and be spontaneous.

After that night with Wilder in college, I’d been burned enough to drop that assignment.

Until now.

I cleared my throat. "I guess I have to look at it from the perspective of how I would feel looking back if I didn't take this opportunity," I said slowly. "And I know I would regret it."

Fox clapped his hands together and beamed at me. "Then let's go make a movie!"

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

OLIVIA

Lydia chewed the slice of garlic baguette she'd pulled off of the loaf and stared absentmindedly at her phone screen.

I sipped from my glass of fizzy lemon water and stared across the way at Wilder, who was speaking to a wildly gesticulating Fox. It had been a few easy days on set re-filming all of Hailey’s scenes. I was having a blast, even though all of it still felt surreal.

"Any more internet updates about me?" I asked, trying to sound casual. I’d honestly never been so happy in my life not to have a reliable internet connection.

Lydia shook her head. "Nope," she said. "All the same stuff, calling you a mystery woman. Congratulations, it seems like none of your friends past or current are inclined to speak to the press."

“Anybody figured out that it was me in the gym with Wilder?”

Lydia shook her head. “Some idle speculation but nobody knows for sure. Your bandana kept you safe.”

I leaned back and stared up at the cloudless blue sky.

"You know, I always admired those celebrities who say they don't Google themselves," I said, reaching over and pulling off a few chewy bits of baguette.

"They're full of shit," Lydia replied, still not looking up from her phone.

I laughed. “
I’m
not Googling myself.”

Lydia shrugged. “Yeah, well. That’s you. You didn’t
want
to be famous, yet here you are doing this bizarre thing. The rest of all have Google alerts on our names.”

I looked back over at Fox and Wilder. They both looked like they were getting angrier with each other by the minute.

“What’s that about do you think-“

I was cut off by a shrill cry from Lydia.

“Oh Christ!” she exclaimed. I tore my eyes away from Fox and looked at her, panicking.

"What?" I asked her, feeling intensely nervous.

"Where's Fox?" she asked, standing up. But she was a few seconds too late. Fox and Wilder were running over to our table.

Wilder looked like he was ready to break a wall of concrete with his bare hand.

Fox ignored Lydia and crouched down next to me. “Look at me, Olivia.”

I obliged, feeling more panicked by the second.

"Whatever you read, remember what I told you: they will be past this by tomorrow. It's a good thing. A great thing, actually. No such thing as bad publicity."

"What are you all talking about?" I asked. Lydia handed her phone over to me. I took it, squinting at the screen as a full sunbeam fell across it and obscured the image. Lydia grabbed the bread basket and held it up to block the sun. "Thanks," I said quietly.

The screen in front of me had a grainy, on-set photo of me and Wilder. Judging by my costume, it must have been taken a few days previous.

The background of the website was hot pink, and there was a child-like scribble across mine and Wilder’s faces with a heart scrawled in between. The headline read "Roman Holliday.” I snickered in spite of myself. That was actually a clever headline.

Sometimes I laughed when I was in situations of intense stress.

I looked at the block of text underneath the photo.

“Surprise New Hailey Holliday release tells tale of betrayal; was Wilde child’s new co-star the happy homewrecker?” I scrolled further to see a photo of Hailey on the red carpet, smirking.

The author of the blog had drawn red laser beams that appeared to be shooting out of her eyes.

The text went on: "Hailey Holliday took to Instagram to preview a new song she's penned and slated for a weekend release. The ten-second clip shows her and her famous red guitar…with a twist. WATCH NSFW VIDEO HERE."

I clicked the right-facing triangle that was atop the still, frozen image of a makeup-free Hailey sitting in sweatpants with a guitar across her lap. In front of her was a pile of tabloid covers with Wilder’s image on them. The video loaded and began playing. I couldn't hear what she was singing, but someone out of frame dropped a lit match onto the tabloids, turning them into a blazing inferno.

The video clip ended.

I looked up at Wilder and Fox who were both staring at me apprehensively.

"I couldn't hear it," I said, shrugging. "I don't get what the big-"

Lydia grabbed the phone, scrolled down a little, and handed it back to me. I saw the four-line verse caption.

When you came out of nowhere I said no more

You'll never be anything but his little side shh…

They said to never, ever trust her

But how was I supposed to spot a star fucker

I scrolled down further to a photo of me that they must have swiped from Facebook. I was wearing a smile and my college sweatshirt. I saw that Lydia had been cropped out of the photo; all that remained was a sweep of her purple hair across my shoulder. "HOME WRECKER" was scribbled across my face.

I put the phone down and looked up at Fox and Wilder.

I felt like my soul had left my body.

Fox swallowed hard and forced a smile. "Like I said, all press is good press. And not many women can say they've had a Hailey Holliday song written about them."

"But it's not true," I said, flabbergasted. "That's not what happened at all. And home wrecker? Seriously? How is that a thing? You two weren't even together! We didn’t – we haven’t – what is happening?"

Lydia rolled her eyes.

Wilder noticed. “Hailey and I weren’t together, Lydia. Seriously. It was blackmail. She wanted publicity for her album.”

“Well, she’s certainly getting what she bargained for,” I said sarcastically. “Unfortunately it’s at
my
expense.”

I picked up the rest of the baguette and started shredding the dough to pieces in a blind rage. “Now the entire world thinks I’m some money grubber fucking my way to the top."

I stood up and knocked my chair over. I didn’t even care. I realized the entire crew and cast were staring at me.

"I didn't even
ask
for this. Fox, you came to
me
, because of
him.”
I jabbed my finger toward Wilder angrily.

Here I was, for the thousandth time in my life, absorbing the shrapnel from a bomb that someone else had planted, lit, and detonated.

Wilder stared at me, his expression unreadable. Then he finally spoke.

"This doesn't make sense for Hailey to do this. She would know this would be more good press for the movie than bad. And if she's really angry, she wouldn't want this movie to get attention, even if it meant that
she
would get attention.”

I stared at him, incredulous. "Oh, right. That’s what’s important. The
movie
.”

Wilder shocked me by taking two steps forward and grabbing my forearm. He pulled me past fifteen people into the wardrobe tent. He barked at a few of Lydia’s assistants to leave. They dropped what they were holding and exited the tent in a second.

He was still holding onto me.

I stared him down. “Let me go.”

He did immediately. “Listen to me. Do not fuck this up. You will regret this. Keep your emotional outbursts to yourself. This is a film set. You cannot ruin yourself over Hailey’s bullshit. If you want to get angry at someone, get angry at me. And do it in goddamn
private
.”

I was still fuming and at a total loss for words

He put his hands up in surrender, separating his feet and planting them firmly into the ground.

“Go ahead. Bring it. I can take whatever you’re going to dish out. Let out your fucking anger on me.” He looked around. “We’re alone.”

A total rush of adrenaline came over me as I looked at him.

“This is your fault.” Wilder nodded.

I was testing the waters.

Then my words finally came, and they didn’t stop coming.

"It’s
your f
ault. You pissed off Hailey.
You
kissed
me
.
You
eye-fucked me that first day on set or whatever. I didn't ask for
any
of this."

I felt like I was high on drugs. This felt so good. It was like I had been bottling up all of my feelings since I graduated college. They were all just pouring out now.

“
You
humiliated me. In college. You embarrassed me in front of
everyone
on that stage. You…that
role
was the
one
thing that I wanted. You took that away from me. And why? I still don’t fucking know, Wilder.”

I was pacing now, my heart thumping. Then I walked up to him and jabbed my finger into his chest. It was like touching granite.

Wilder had something like a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

“WHAT?” I screamed at him. “WHY are you smiling?”

He burst out laughing, covering his face with both of his hands and hiding his dimples.

“Sorry, it’s just that you’re fucking adorable when you’re angry. That’s all. Your nose twitches a little and you’re like this adorable little sex bunny.”

He reached his hands out and stroked them up and down the top of my forearms. Goosebumps erupted across my skin.

I blushed.

“Don’t do that,” I whispered to him. “We can’t. We’re…working together.”

He tilted his head. “I beg to differ that we can’t do that. We can do anything. Last time I checked I was the lead producer on this film.”

I felt butterflies in my stomach again. Actually, it was more like a hurricane of feathery wings threatening to choke me. He was so close to me, again. He put his finger underneath my chin and lifted my mouth toward his.

Our lips were nearly touching when the cloth door to the tent flapped open. We jumped apart like the other was on fire.

Janna was there with her clipboard. “We need to get back to filming,” she said. She looked disapproving, but wiped it away with a quick smile at both of us.

“Be right there,” Wilder said in a voice that was slightly higher than usual.

Janna shook her head. “It needs to be now.”

I pushed past Wilder and Janna back into the bright sunshine.

Wilder was right.

I didn’t want to fuck this up.