“What happened to you supporting me?!” he shouts, eventually pulling away from me.
“I have always supported you, Reeve.”
He harrumphs, flattening his back against the wall across the hallway. “All you have done since I got this role is bitch and whine. I have never given you any reason to doubt my loyalty, yet you hurl accusations at me all the time. I can’t handle your insecurities, Viv. Do you have any idea of the stress I’m under? I don’t need this shit from you. You know it’s not real. It’s part of the industry.” He pushes off the wall. “For fuck’s sake, more than half the so-called relationships in Hollywood are fake. It means nothing, Viv. It’s part of the role, and I am getting sick of repeating myself.”
“If I’m that unsupportive, you know what to do,” I challenge, rubbing my tears away and straightening my shoulders. We stare at one another across the hallway, and there may as well be an ocean between us.
“I don’t want to break up, Viv,” he eventually says, walking toward me. He takes my hand and links our fingers together. “I love you, but you’ve got to find a way to deal with this.”
“And if I can’t?” I don’t know how to reconcile this new development with my own wants and needs.
He shrugs, looking sad, and we don’t need to articulate it.
I wrench my hands from his, briefly closing my eyes as pain lances me on all sides. “I’m calling a car to take me home,” I say after a few tense minutes of silence.
“No, Viv. Please don’t do that.”
“I can’t be around that bitch another second.”
“I’ll come with you,” he offers.
“I don’t want you to.” I eyeball him, letting him see the full extent of my devastation. “I need some space to think.”
“Don’t do this, baby. I don’t want to leave for reshoots when we’re arguing.”
“You should’ve thought of that before you lied to me again.”
I walk off, and this time, he doesn’t follow me.
* * *
“Hey.” Audrey steps into my home studio the following day, and I stop my sewing machine, setting the piece of multicolored fabric down on the table.
“You’re back.” I swivel around in my chair.
Audrey props her butt against the edge of the table. “How are you feeling today?”
I shrug. “Hurt. Scared. Confused.”
“He gave Saffron hell this morning at breakfast before we all went our separate ways.”
“It’s too little, too late. I never thought Reeve would be such a pushover, but he’s letting all these horrible people manipulate him.”
“He explained a little on the car ride home, and he’s as upset as you are over everything.”
My anger flares again, and I dig my nails into my thigh. “That’s just not good enough, and I’m not buying it. If this movie is going to be as big as predicted, there’s no way they would go ahead with the other films without their leading man. Reeve holds all the cards, not the other way around. He didn’t have to agree to this. Hechoseto.” Leaning back, I kick my bare feet up on the table. “It was that bitch, Bianca. She was the one who pushed this. All Reeve had to do was talk to my mom or talk to Margaret Andre, and they would have given him good advice.”
“Reeve wants to do things by himself. He doesn’t want to run to your mom and be accused of nepotism, and I really think getting his dad to notice him is the driving force behind a lot of this.”
“He told you that?” I know how desperate Reeve is to be a success in the hopes his father will sit up and take notice of him.
“He got really drunk last night after you left, and before you ask, no, he didn’t seek her out or spend any time with her when you were gone. She fucked Nate, or at least that’s what Nate said this morning. Anyway, the three of us stayed out on the deck drinking until the early hours. Reeve spilled his guts to me and Alex. He was a mess, babe. He’s terrified of losing you, and he was crying his heart out. It was hard to witness and not feel some compassion.”
Slamming my feet to the ground, I jump up. “So, it’s like that. You’ve switched teams now?”
“Jesus, dramatic much?” She pins me with a stern look, planting her hands on her hips. “Do not ever accuse me of that shit. I am always,always, on Team Vivien. One hundred fucking percent, no matter if you turn into the world’s biggest bitch.”
My shoulders relax as I exhale heavily. “Sorry. I’m a mess too,” I admit, plopping back into my chair. I rest my elbows on my knees and prop my head in my hands. “I don’t want to lose him, but how do I hide in the shadows while he pretends that bitch is his girlfriend?” I sniffle, fighting tears. I am so sick of crying because of that ho’s interference. “I can’t do it, Rey. I just don’t think I can do that.”