“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Are we done here?” Esther asked. “I have a pool party in Bel Air tonight, so I must get waxed.”
One of the executives looked at Nikhil. “You good with all this?”
He didn’t have much of a choice. His career was in shambles. His co-star hated him. He was about to be sequestered with these people for three months or longer to film this movie.
And he’d lost Marley.
“I’m grand,” he said. He was an actor. He could act like everything was okay, at least. He’d been doing it all his life.
When he got to the gym after leaving the studio, Serena and Caroline weren’t there. He talked with Reggie a bit about the meeting and even asked if Reggie knew why Serena had put up that Instagram post. Reggie was sympathetic and kind, but he had no idea why Serena had lied.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter,” Nikhil said. “Can we repeat the sequence from yesterday a few more times?”
Nikhil worked with Reggie until he could have done the sequence with his eyes closed. He put everything he could into the job.
Because this was still living his dream. And the dream was all he had left.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Marley
Marley was still having a love-hate relationship with her ugly recliner. Most of the time, the sight of the beige ultrasuede monstrosity in her otherwise colorful living room made her cringe. But today, on the day after she lost both her job and Nikhil, the recliner felt like a gift from the heavens. All she needed was it, McQueen, and delivery apps. Which was good because that was pretty much all she had. She had no career. Her closest friends were busy living their own lives. She had no boobs.
And she didn’t even have the man she loved.
This was her life now—she was going to stay here, cocooned on this comfortable chair, and avoid the world.
A sharp twinge of pain on her chest reminded her of the stupid fucking defective gene that had been the catalyst for everything falling apart. This defective DNA had been the cause of all the pain in her life.
Maryam Aunty’s death. Her mother’s illness. Marley’s surgery. And the huge mess her life had become since the surgery.
Marley knew she had some decisions to make, but she had no idea what she should do. Accept the severance package Reid’s offered? Speak to an employment lawyer? She didn’t know how to even begin to find one. Her dad would know, butthe last thing she wanted to do was call her parents now. Then she’d have to tell them that she’d lost her job because a movie star who was rumored to be dating a megapopular actress kissed Marley in a plastic surgery office, and her boss was concerned that customers would think Marley was too much of a home-wrecker to buy Armani and Elie Tahari from. There was no way Marley could make them understand that. Hell, she didn’t understand it herself. Bad enough she’d have to explain it to a lawyer.
The sharp pain in her breast hit again, almost making her cry out. What the hell? This was a new pain—not like the one that had sent her to the doctor a few days ago. Should she call Dr. Abernathy again? But this pain passed as quickly as it hit.
She was still sitting there on the recliner a few hours later when someone knocked on her door, and McQueen growled. Shayne had left early in the morning for a shoot. And everyone else she knew was at work.
She slowly got out of the chair and made her way to the door. She was shocked at who she saw when she opened it.
“Ruby! What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be at the store?”
Ruby put her hands on her hips. “Are you nuts? Not when my cousin wasfired… I had to walk out in solidarity.”
Marley cringed. Ruby better not have quit her job. Marley’s mother would kill Marley if Ruby did that. “Don’t tell me—”
Ruby shook her head. “No. I thought about actually quitting, but I wanted to talk to you first. I told Jacqueline I ate bad shrimp and felt like throwing up. She waved me away.”
Marley chuckled. Jacqueline had a well-known phobia of bodily fluids.
Marley motioned Ruby inside, then took her seat back inthe recliner. God bless the recliner. McQueen jumped onto Marley’s lap.
Ruby sat on the sofa, hugging a chenille pillow in her arms. “Someone said you were fired for telling Jacqueline that her hair is stuck in 1993, but I doubt you would do that. Even though for sure you’ve thought it.”
“Um, that’s not at all what happened.”
“So then what happened?”
