Knox left to finish up the tour, but Courtney stayed in Los Angeles to keep an eye on Irina. She, Harley, and Becca temporarily moved into her old apartment, so they’d be close in case Irina needed help.
Becca listened in on their conversation, but kept to herself as she read through some patient case studies for her next seminar.
“I want you to stop being pissed at him.” Irina stood at the counter, folding laundry.
She still got headaches, but they were manageable. Mostly, she wished she could cry. Since the fall, she’d needed to, but she hadn’t been able to.
“You really want him to file divorce papers?” Courtney scowled. She’d been doing that a lot.
After Knox left the hospital, Irina called Hans and got him back on the tour. Then she pulled herself together, finished her mandated brain rest, and finally got to go home. Now, the bruises were mostly gone, and they’d resume filming in a few weeks. Everyone had to take a break while they investigated the fall.
“He loves you,” Courtney said. “He told Bax, andLinx, that he loves you.” She put an emphasis on Linx to clearly try to loop Becca into the conversation. “So why does a guy who loves you want to file for a divorce?”
“Drop it,” Irina said, softly.
“Why?” Courtney pushed.
“Because I love him.” That was the end of that.
“You love him?” Courtney confirmed.
Apparently that wasn’t the end of that.
“Yes.” Irina folded with a little more zest than necessary.
Courtney pretended to do a dot to dot with her finger using the grout on the counter. “He loves you.”
“That’s what he said.” She was seriously starting to think about pretending to have another headache so they could drop this conversation.
“So that’s why he’s talking about a divorce?” Courtney finished her fingertip dot to dot.
“Uh-huh.” That was the simplistic version of what went down.
“That makes no sense at all.” Courtney flung her hands wide.
“I don’t know, it makes sense to me,” Becca said, from the couch. “You don’t want to lose him, but you also want your career. You don’t want to lose your career, but you also want him. So you decided you can’t have any of it by convincing yourself you’re doing him a favor?”
“No.” Irina crossed her arms. “No.”
Holy crap.
“I also don’t want him to make sacrifices because he loves me. That’s not what love is.”
She was nearly certain.
“Shit,” she said. “Is that what love is?”
No one said anything, which was plenty of an answer for them all.
“Is this a good time to discuss your reluctance to relationship yourself with anyone romantically?” Courtney asked, careful like this was a minefield.
“It’s never a good time for that,” Irina said, her throat clogging.
“I kinda want to hear about it,” Becca said, gentle and with a slight smile.
“I fell in love once before.” Irina swallowed. “He was an actor, too. We were both trying to make it until he decided to give up. Wanted me to come back to Ohio with him to have a”—she made air quotes with her fingers—“real life together.”
“He wanted you to make a sacrifice you weren’t able to make,” Becca said, tilting her head to the side a little. “That’s interesting.”
