The Trouble with Marrying a Movie Star (21 page)

Andrew had meetings, and I had an appearance at a bookstore before we had left that night. We had planned to meet back at the house before we headed out.

The paps were scarce that morning. We started at 8:00am, too early for most people in LA. Noon was usually the time that they would come out of their caves. The line at the bookstore was surprisingly long. It was nice that people were still into my book. Although, I wasn't oblivious to the fact that when our relationship had gone public, more people had become interested.

Keira and I had a system, and we worked the line pretty fast. This gave me time to take breaks, as well as talk to the people who had
actually
read my book. There were a few of Andrew's fans in line who only wanted to get a peek at my engagement ring. They told me so, and I didn't care. Maybe while they were here, they'd pick up my book and read it.

Everything was going smoothly until I heard someone squeal loudly. Then, more people joined in. Everyone—including me—soon turned around to see what was going on, and that's when I saw him. Andrew was strutting towards me, armed with his signature grin. Sunglasses covered his eyes, but I knew they were on me.

I could feel them.

As he approached, women held out papers or books for him to sign. He grabbed a marker from Connor as Wade was still in Virginia with Taylor leaving Connor to do double duty. Andrew scribbled his way along the line until he was in front of me.

He leaned over and gave me a kiss. A collective sigh filled the air before he said, "I thought I would pick you up. Are you surprised?"

"Yes."

No
.

After seeing the pictures of me and Ethan, Andrew's been "dropping" by the studio this week, just to say hi. I saw right through him.

"The last time I came to one of these, it wasn't under the best circumstances." That night in London popped into my head. "I wanted you to know that I am very proud of you and I want to support you in every way. You came to one of my events, and now I'm coming to one of yours."

I stared at him for a moment. Not because of what he had said, but because of how incredibly sexy that man was, and how he still made me speechless. He was dressed in a black suit, white dress shirt untucked, with no tie. His hair was its usual mess, and all I could think about was messing it up some more. With that, I kissed him again.

I pulled back, staring into his hooded eyes as he asked, "Do we need to take this home?"

My girly bits yelled out a "hell yeah", but I had to finish up. "Hold that thought," I said, giving him one last peck before sitting back down.

"Andrew, I'll find you a chair," Keira said as she started looking around for one.

"No need. This is Andria's time. I'll stand back here in the corner and be a good boy."

"Do you have to?" I grinned, before realizing that I had said that a little too loudly. Andrew winked and walked over to the corner.

I shook the fog out of my head and grabbed a pen, all of the time thinking that I needed to work fast. Unfortunately, the line seemed to grow. Some of the women I knew I had signed a book for already, yet they placed another one in front of me. It didn't take long to figure out that they wanted an up close glance at my fiancé who was standing behind me talking to Connor. Andrew
was
good for sales, I thought.

After a while, you get into a rhythm:

"Hi, nice to meet you."

"Thank you for reading my book."

"Whom do I make this out to?"

It pretty much went like that, but when I heard, "How did you get him to agree to it?" I was startled.

I looked up at the young, petite, dark-haired woman, with strong features—who was glaring at me—and I thought, what was she talking about?

"I didn't see it at first until I saw you two on a magazine cover. Then I re-read the book and noticed some similarities between Andrew and Thomas."

I narrowed my eyes at her stating, "Thomas is a fictional character."

She leaned forward. "You may have changed his hair and eye color, and made him a Brit, but we both know he's Andrew."

Who the hell was this woman?

Andrew's fans could be intense, but this one…"Every author has a muse or someone whom they picture when they write. If you see Andrew, great."

She raised a brow. "There are too many similarities, and honey, I would personally know that they all seem to point towards him." She nodded her head towards Andrew's direction—so I thought.

"Peyton?" Andrew asked as he now stood directly behind me.

This
was Peyton?

"Andrew." She stood up straight, smiling.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, annoyed as he stepped next to me.

I stood up beside him. "I wanted to ask your fiancée how she was able to get you to agree to use you in her book."

Andrew looked as confused as I did, before asking, "What are you talking about? You wanted to air my business in public. Andria wrote a fantasy." He turned his head around, signaling Connor with a nod. "I think you had better leave."

"Not before I get an autograph," she said too sweetly, "from the woman who was able to do what I couldn't."

I huffed. "You are delusional!" I looked around as people were now focused on us. "You lied to Andrew. You used him!"

She laughed to herself, before looking directly at him. "You told her about me? Why does that not surprise me?"

"Connor!" Andrew snapped out, and Connor stood directly behind her. "Please escort this person out."

"It's a public place. You and your goons can't force me to leave. Like I said, I'm here to get Ms. Moore's autograph, but I'm so glad you're here too. Maybe we can all meet up again, with my attorney. Since you allowed Ms. Moore to write about you, maybe we need to renegotiate—"

I looked at Andrew. "I told her that I might have used you as a muse."

"You used him, all right. I'm surprised. You didn't see yourself in it, Drew? Your favorite books, music, all the things you enjoy seem to be there." Peyton then looked directly at me. "You even captured his physical flaws," she grinned slyly. "Well, I had better be going. No need for that signature, then?" I glared at her. "Drew. Ms. Moore, it was a pleasure." She turned around and walked straight out of the door.

I looked at Andrew's expressionless face as he stared through me. This was a new look. He just stared at me, not saying anything. I turned from his penetrating gaze and sat back down. Connor and he walked back to the corner.

I tried to brush it off, but I knew something was wrong. My hand was shaking, and it took everything in me to write my signature clearly. I knew Andrew hadn’t paid that close of attention to my actual written words. When someone would ask a question regarding something in my book, he would ask, "Did that happen?" He only read it because I wrote it—which he would never admit to—but he's not a romance novel type of guy. He did focus on the sex scenes, and I was very grateful for that. But, I knew he never would have seen himself.

Until someone else did...

I asked Keira to mark the line so that we could get out of there. She walked over to the last lady, indicated that her's would be the last book that I would sign, and to please inform anyone else behind her. When I saw that same lady finally approach me, I was relieved. Keira said that she would take care of packing everything up, so Andrew and I could get on our way. I thanked her, and looked back to Andrew, who still had that blank look on his face.

The driver opened the car door, and we slid into the back while Connor sat in the front passenger seat. Traffic was heavy at first, and the car was barely moving. I was bouncing in my seat, eager to get home and away from here, but the tension coming from Andrew was becoming more apparent. I looked at him and asked, "Is it Peyton?"

He turned towards me. "I remember reading your book and thinking this guy and I could hang out. He likes the same things that I do," he said more to himself than to me. "There were some other things that I thought, I would do that, but nothing really caught my attention." You could see the wheels starting to turn behind his eyes.

"I told you that you had inspired me."

"Yeah…" he said as his eyes focused on the floor.” Was it more, Andria?"

"What are you asking me?"

"Was Peyton right?"

I wanted to say no, but I couldn't. I wasn't ever going to go into detail about how much I had studied him, but I wasn't going to lie either. "I did a lot of research about you, and I had you in my mind the entire time that I wrote that character. Similarities came out—"

"So she's right…he
is
me?" he asked with a concerned look.

"In a way, yes…
but,
I didn't know you, and it was all made up in my head…you seemed pretty pleased when I first told you."

"You know I was." He hissed, throwing an intense glare my way. "I thought I was just your muse. Someone you saw and…inspired you, like you said. I didn't think he was me!"

"Andrew…"

Silence, before he mumbled out, "...Brittney was right." I think, under his breath.

Then more silence.

I must have heard him wrong.

I turned my body to completely face him. "What did you say?"

He shook his head. "Nothing…"

"No…did you say, 'Brittney was right?'"

In the corner of my eye, I saw Connor turn his head slightly in our direction. There was no partition in this car.

"Andria…it's nothing!" He yelled out.

I couldn't think straight, and right then, I wanted to punch him.  As rage boiled up from my gut, hot tears started to pool in my eyes.  We both glared at each other shocked, and I could see his anger building, as I felt mine boil over until I couldn't control it any longer. "You...asshole! I told you that you were my muse. That should have been enough! When you made love to me afterwards—several times I may add—I thought we were good!"

"But you left out some important details!" Andrew yelled back.

"What did you want me to say? I didn't stalk you. I only used what I saw in your movies, or what you said in interviews, you ass!"

"But some of those details seem to have come from the outside sources you have bitched about!" he said with a deep rumbled growl.

I could feel the heated tears now running down my face. "Brittney's doubts about me have always been in the back of your mind, haven't they? Were you waiting for me to mess up? See if she was right all along?" I spit out.

"I always trusted you!"

"Bull! You just said—"

"It slipped out!"

"You know, the bitch said this would happen. Your precious Brittney predicted that you would come running back to her."

He looked at me pissed and now confused. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

"Because she's a crazy manipulative bitch, and I could see through her games. I thought you could too, but every time I give you the benefit of the doubt…you amaze me with just how dumb of an ass you can be when it comes to her!"

Connor chuckled, and Andrew snapped his head towards him, "Butt, out, Connor!"

"Don't yell at him! You're the one who started this."

Andrew pressed into me as he said, "You started this when you didn't tell me the damn truth. I told you about all of the people that tried to use me to get ahead. Damn it, Andria, I told you about Peyton. That would have been a good time to say, by the way, Thomas is you! Yet, I
never
doubted you because I loved you!"