“Are you serious?” I say through a light laugh.
“Yup,” she pops the p at the end. “But you don’t have to worry about all that yet. I told mom to calm her tits down. She should be lucky to have a daughter-in-law like you. I mean hell, you're rich and pretty. I’m praying Nick will get tired of living here and sell his tiny house and go to the big city with you so I can follow, because I know you can’t be happy here.”
If she only knew.
“It’s been my dream to be an actress ever since I was little.”
Sophia was stunning, and the camera would love her, along with the producers. She had striking blue-green eyes and the perfect shade of olive skin. Black, thick, wavy hair, and she was tall like me, too. Her body was a little more filled out than mine, which made her even more exotic-looking. But if the girl only knew that Hollywood was nothing but a mere mirage, she might change her mind. Hollywood was a facade to the world, thinking those people were the happiest when, in reality, a lot of them were just slaves to the industry. They did things they didn’t want to do, but since they had a taste of fame and money, they couldn’t stop themselves from falling deeper into the rabbit hole.
“It’s not as cracked up as you would think,” I start plating the dirty dishes on top of each other along with the silverware so I can grab the empty wine glasses when I get back. Gabreilla followed me into the kitchen.
“Is it true your dad is one of the biggest producers in Hollywood?”
With my back still to her, I squeezed my eyes shut as if the mere mention of my stepdad pained me.
As I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, I said, “Yeah, he’s pretty well known in the movie industry.”
“What are you still doing here?” I could picture her small nose scrunched up.
“I told you to go home like twenty minutes ago.”
Nick’s voice made me nearly jump, as I turned around to face him.
“Oh my God, chill out, it’s not that late, and it was fifteen minutes ago.”
“It is late, and you know how mom freaks out. She called me because I told her I cut you twenty minutes ago, and she thought you died in a car wreck or some guys kidnapped you while you were walking to your car.”
“Now there is a lady who would have made it big in Hollywood, so dramatic.” Gabreilla said as she turned on her heels, “See y'all tomorrow.” She waved a hand in the air.
In that moment, I realized even though I was younger than Sophia, she still had a sense of innocence to her. She was clueless to how many monsters come lurking around at night and prey, specifically on pretty, vulnerable girls.
Once Sophia was gone, I threw myself into closing duties, desperate to get the hell out of here before I did something reckless. It was almost eleven. In a few miserable hours, I’d have to drag myself up and wake Nick, even though part of me wanted to let him sweat alone in his nightmares after the stunt he pulled tonight. I stacked the last plate, ready to bolt, when a hand closed tight around my wrist — hot, firm, and unyielding.
“Come with me,” he growled, yanking me down the hallway.
The air between us crackled like dry leaves before a fire. He shoved me into his office and slammed the door behind us. The sound echoed through the empty space, locking us inside this boiling pressure cooker.
His eyes pinned me where I stood. Furious.
Hungry.
“You do realize, flirting with other men to get better tips makes me look like an idiot and you look like a whore, right?”
The slap of his words stung, but I snapped my hand up between us like a shield.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who said I was flirting with those assholes?”
His glare was blistering, his chest heaving under his black T-shirt.
“So some guy just happens to slip his number to you to be nice?”
“You saw how cocky that son of a bitch was. So why aren’t you getting mad at him?”
“I did.” His voice was steel and smoke, his jaw flexing hard enough to crack.
“Then why are you still so pissed?”
“Because you were taking pictures with the guys? And why the hell were you sitting on the guy’s lap? This isn’t a huge town. If someone sees that online, what do you think they’re gonna say?”
