Riley Hartwell Has Meltdown at Party.
Riley Hartwell Assaults Photographer During Fight with Boyfriend Rowan Keene.
The gossip headlines pretty much wrote themselves.
And Rita seemed to be enjoying every moment of it.
“We have to watch him.”
“Stay on him. He’s your date,” Rita replied. With that, she turned around, scanned the crowd, and latched onto the first big name she saw.
With a sigh, Riley looked around too, and saw Rowan was standing at the bar with a crowd of hanger-ons gathered around him, probably pretending to be regaled by whatever he was saying.
“These are not my people,” Riley muttered.
Only theywereher people. She was just as much a part of the industry as anyone else there, and she knew it.
Worried that she too was part of the problem, she looked around again until she found a private alcove set into one of the far walls. In the old days, it had probably housed a phone booth but now was bare.
A couple beat her to it, groping and kissing each other, so Riley diverted toward the outdoor courtyard.
The night air felt good and refreshing.
There were still plenty of people mingling out there, but it was a tad better. The lush greenery and trees were adorned with stringed lights. The Spanish Revival architecture screamed classic California, and Riley found herself liking the space.
She found a private corner, pulled out her phone, and checked her messages. What she found surprised her.
A missed call from Briggs!
Without even hesitating, she called him back.
After the second ring, his voice came on. “Hey.”
“Hi! I… saw you called.” Self-doubt washed over her out of nowhere. Maybe she should have thought of what to say before she called him.
But he’d called her first. That meant he probably had something on his mind.
Still, she prayed this wasn’t awkward.
“Yeah. Sorry to bother you.”
“You’re not bothering me!” The words came out so fast she’d nearly interrupted him.
Okay, so the call isn’t awkward, but you sure are, Riley.
“Good. I just wanted to apologize for taking so long to respond to your text today. I got caught up in work. But I made some good progress.”
“I can’t wait to see it,” she said. “No apologies necessary, though. I know you’re busy.”
“What are you doing right now? Athena is having movie night over here and I agreed to stay.” He chuckled. “Not my usual genre. They’re watchingThe Parent Trap.But it’s not bad.”
“The Lindsay Lohan version or the Hayley Mills one?”
“Lohan,” he replied. “The Mills version is so much better. I mean, you have Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith. How can you beat that?”
“You can’t,” Riley admitted. “But I grew up with the Lohan one.”
“Yeah. I think a lot of the people here did. And hey, I might be older than you, but not that much! The original was well before my time.”
