“Amelia!” He said, sauntering up to me. “It’s so awesome to see you here—hey, I heard you’re finally starring in a movie.”
My eyes narrowed. Was that why he was talking to me? Because I’d finally gotten a role in a well known film?
“I came here with friends, so I should get going,” I said curtly.
“Wait.” He grabbed me by the wrist as I moved to squeeze through the crowd. “I just wanted to say I’m sorry for how things ended between us. What I did was wrong and you didn’t deserve that.”
“Oh.” I paused. “Well, thanks… that actually means a lot.” I hadn’t even realized what a hit my self-worth had taken, but hearing Chad acknowledge that he’d treated me wrong felt like I was getting a piece of myself back that had been lost for a long time.
“I was thinking.” He moved a little closer to me. “Things were really good when we were together.” He brushed a hair from my face. “Maybe we could give it another shot.”
“Excuse me?” My blood turned hot and I barely resisted the urge to shove him hard. “Accepting your apology does not mean I’ll take you back. Ever. I would rather die alone than go back to someone who treated me the way you did.”
“Geeze, I didn’t realize your ‘fame’ had gone to your head already.” He rolled his eyes. “You sound so full of yourself.”
“Full of myself?” I took a step toward him, voice raising. “You mean because I’m showing some self-respect?”
“And there’s that temper again,” he chided.
I gripped my cup in my hand, unable to hold back the rage seething under my skin. He’d always been like this when we were together, treated me like garbage, then told me I was being childish when I got angry.
“You wanna see my temper?” I didn’t give him time to answer before thrusting my arm forward, throwing my drink in his face.
He gaped down at the red stain spreading over his white shirt. I turned, not wanting to give him a chance to say anything else, but his voice rang in my ears as I retreated.
“You’re gonna make some lucky guy really fucking miserable some day— that is if you don’t end up alone for the rest of your life.”
I bolting through the crowd as if I could run away from his words. Why did I still let him hurt me so much? He was an arrogant cheating loser. I didn’t have to listen to a word he said. And yet…
My chest felt tight as I squeezed through the room, searching for the exit, but finding it hard to see through the tears building in my eyes. I finally found a back exit and stumbled out into a dark alley.
It wasn’t just Chad’s words that had left me shaken. I was exhausted. Tired to the bone of searching for love and getting hurt over and over. Maybe he was right. Maybe I would never find anyone to share my life with. I slumped against the wall. First I’d given my heart to someone who lied to my face and left me struggling to trust anyone ever again, now I was falling for a make-believe romance. Was it too much to ask for something real?
When I heard the doorknob fumble behind me, I dove behind a dumpster, pressing myself flat to the wall. Jesus, I didn’t want anyone to see me out here sobbing my face off. I wasn’t nearly drunk enough to be the girl crying outside a bar.
The door opened and slammed shut. Then I heard a man’s voice. One that I recognized.
“You’re so bad.” He laughed. Where had
I heard that laugh?
“Just one kiss.” A woman’s voice. “No one’s around to see.”
“Stop it.” He laughed again. “I don’t want the headlines to say that I’m a cheater.”
Suddenly it hit me who was speaking: Oliver Colt. Jessica’s boyfriend. But the girl’s voice definitely wasn’t Jessica’s. My heart started racing again. I crept forward to get a better look.
“Fine.” He was leaning into her, their bodies pressed together, the distance between them growing smaller. I wanted to jump out and throttle him. But instead I took out my phone, snapping a photo just as their lips met. I had plenty of time to take more, because the kiss went on forever. Finally, I couldn’t look anymore.
I snuck back into the shadow of the dumpster and curled my knees up to my chin. Why did this hurt so bad? I thought of Jessica’s face when she found out Oliver had betrayed her. Would I tell her? How could I not?
His annoying voice rang in my head, ‘I don’t want the headlines to say that I’m a cheater.’
I scrolled through the photos I’d taken, jaw clenched. Cheater was the kindest thing anyone would be calling him. First he dumped Jessica, then he took her back but cheated on her. What kind of sociopath acted like that? He’d hurt Jessica twice and that was two times too many. That bastard was going to pay. How many movie deals would Oliver get when all his fans knew what a horrible person he was?
The door to the club opened and closed again. I sat silent for a moment until I was sure I was alone, then I slipped out of my hiding spot.
As I waited for the bus back to my house, I searched on my phone for how to submit photos to tabloids and found out that there were actually agents who would broker deals with magazines. Given the exclusivity of the photos, I could be looking at getting paid a couple grand.