Mr. Big xo
An olive branch.
Shaking my head with a wide smile still on my face, I turn to face my best friend. “Change of plans. Take me to Wingrove Estates.”
“I was going to do that, anyway.”
The set is already roaring to go.
Producers with headsets over their ears, talking into the attached microphones while they busy themselves by getting everything into place, extras shuffling in and out of wardrobe.
Mara is seated in Tahnee’s chair with an emotionless expression on the side of the stage, while my colleague works to neaten and fill in her eyebrows.
It’s not as easy as it sounds when the person in your chair has a resting bitch face, but she makes it work.
When I look to the left of Tahnee, I see my chair occupied by the man my heart has come to know, and my body has come to crave. I would say I’m surprised to see him waiting for me, but I’m not. Especially after his note, his failed attempt at a cupcake, and the coffee that was barely warm by the time it got to me.
I approach with caution, looking around the room to see if anyone is watching me, but to my surprise, they’re all too busy to care.
Mara, no longer stoic, chats Tahnee’s ear off when she sees me approaching.
Clearing my throat, I straighten my back, perk my chin up a little, and pull confidence out of thin air while forcing a smile on my face.
“What scene are we shooting today?” I ask to fill the silence and hopefully slice the tension, but his jaw ticks in the mirror as Tahnee answers the question for him.
Now isn’t the time to say what I need to say, so I’ll wait until he isn’t needed.
“It’s a re-shoot, actually. Something wasn’t right with one scene they shot a few weeks ago, so they need to do it again.” She shrugs, handing me the paperwork with all the information on what Cole needs done to his hair. I could do it with my eyes closed, but I don’t. This may be the last time I’m ever this close to Cole Green, and I want to remember all the little details about his face.
His dark, hooded eyes, his mischievous, crooked smile with deep dimples in each cheek, and the way his expression softens when he sees me.
If it’s the last time I get to see him, I want to soak it all in.
I trim the top and sides, but not too much. I rub the hair product in my hands, then run it through his hair until I get the desired outcome, to which he nods, still no word spoken, and gives me a formal smile.
My stomach sinks.
I guess the cupcake and the coffee weren’t an olive branch or a peace offering, after all. I’m beginning to think they were a parting gift.
While they were my way of an attempted goodbye, I think his attempt might just be the real thing. When I pull out my phone to beg Cassandra to come back and take me to where I originally hoped to go, my calls go to voicemail.
She never willingly ignores my calls.
That alone tells me she’s up to no good.
Chapter forty-five
Jenna
It’s a scene Irecognize, but one that I wasn’t here when it was shot.
The one he and I practiced together, one that he wouldn’t let me witness, and now I understand why.
Mara’s back is to me. Her platinum-blonde hair is dead straight, sitting just below her shoulder blades, and her head follows Cole’s movement as he paces the stage floor back and forth.
The same way he paced my apartment floor all those weeks ago.
Everyone is enamored by the performance he’s putting on, and I find myself subconsciously mouthing the words along with him, while playing the part of Mara’s character, too.
