She shrugged. “You don’t?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s easy to say I’d give it all up, but I was never able to when it came down to it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I thought a million times about selling everything and moving to a ranch in Montana or something. Never could pull the trigger. And now…” He trailed off, pushing his sunglasses onto his forehead and piercing her with a thoughtful look. “Now, with you, with everything—I guess I’m asking for it again. I can’t stay away. I’m not good for anything else.” He tossed the last sentence off almost as an afterthought, but there was an acerbic undertone beneath it.
She bent her good leg and rested her head on her knee. “Do you evenwantto work again?”
He was silent for a long moment. “I want to want to,” he said finally.
“You know there are a lot of people who’d kill to be in your shoes.” She hadn’t meant to chastise him, especially in such a trite way, but it just slipped out. By this point, she could sense when he was on the cusp of sinking into self-pity.
He glanced at her. “Including you?”
“Sorry, but nothing in your wardrobe is worth killing for.”He snickered at that. She leaned back in her chair, stretching both legs straight again. “I already told you, I don’t want to be you-famous.”
“Right, right, of course. Control. I remember.” He rolled onto his side. “Have you been enjoying the perks of being you-famous yet, at least?”
She cast her eyes around their decadent surroundings, then hesitated. “Well…” She thought about her encounter with the woman in the grocery store, the invasive Instagram photos. A photo of him carrying her back to their villa had already been posted on @grethan_updates, sourced from god knows where. He seemed to sense the unease lurking behind her expression.
“What? What is it?”
As she filled him in on the details of the last few weeks, his face clouded. He pushed himself to a seated position, facing her, his brow furrowing.
“That’s not okay. We need to do something. Did you tell Audrey?”
“Tell her what? What is she going to do?”
Ethan ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Grey forced herself to drag her eyes away from his bare bicep as it flexed with the motion.
“It’s so fucked. All this social media bullshit. I’m glad I didn’t have to deal with it when I was coming up. Everyone feels entitled to complete access to every part of you, all the time. It’s insane.”
Grey sighed. “It’s not all bad.”
He half smiled. “That was your worst read yet.”
—
THEY ATE LUNCHout on the patio; room service again. Ethan would’ve been happy to spend the whole weekend hiding outthere, but he knew Audrey would have their heads on a platter. The resort had offered them use of a chauffeured golf cart to transport Grey from place to place; they would be expected to make an appearance at the Oasis Lounge that evening. The clock was rapidly running down on their time-out due to injury.
Grey swallowed a bite of her blackened shrimp salad. “Ready for another question?” She seemed as grateful as he was to have a roster of conversation starters on deck.
“Hit me.”
She glanced down at her phone. “ ‘Name three things you and your partner appear to have in common.’ ”
“That’s not a question.”
“You can email them to complain later.”
He put down his caprese panini and rubbed his jaw.
“We’re both actors,” he said, counting off on his fingers, one by one. “We both live in L.A., and…we’re both in a fake relationship.”
“Boooo.” Grey cupped her hand around her mouth to heckle him, but she was smiling.
“Topthat.”
