Page 22 of Written with Love

At the time, she hadn’t believed the rumors. She’d been in close contact with Sophia and cheering on whatever relationship would come of their friendship. Now, however, she wondered if there was something they had missed.

“Let’s talk tomorrow,” she texted back to her friend.

“I’m here. Just…” There was a long pause between messages. “Don’t listen to anything they say. Trust me on this. There is more to the story about Max and Gabriella. Night.”

Juliette sent a thumbs-up emoji, then stood under the shower spray until all her worry and fears disappeared.

The moment she opened her eyes the next morning, however, they were all back. Rolling over, she sent a text message to Sophia to see if she wanted to meet her for breakfast.

“Great minds think alike,” Sophia shot back. “Sara’s Nook in half an hour?”

“I’ll see you there,” she replied and quickly got dressed.

When she walked into the bakery, Sophia was sitting in a corner booth, sipping a cup of coffee.

“I already ordered for you,” she called out, waving her over.

There was a second cup of coffee sitting across from her.

“Thanks,” she said as she sat down and took a sip of the latte macchiato. Her friend knew her well.

Sophia’s eyes ran over her face quickly. “You don’t look like you lost sleep over the article.”

“I didn’t. I was too tired after yesterday’s work, but with the sunrise the worry is back,” she admitted.

Sophia reached across the table and touched her hand. “There are reasons Max left her. They’re not my secrets to tell. You’ll just have to trust me on this. Remember, first and foremost, Gabriella is an actress.”

Juliette nodded and took another sip of her drink. “I’m not a nobody.” She was appalled that tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Oh sweetie.” Sophia surprised her by jumping up and rushing to her side of the booth and hugging her. “Compared to the Hollywood elites, we’re all nobodies.”

“It’s just…” She shook her head and rested back in the booth. “I’ve never really known what it was that I wanted to do in life. I’m not like you.”

“No one is.” Sophia chuckled and nudged her ribs lightly before sobering. “You have such amazing talent for seeing the whole picture. When I struggled putting my scenes together, you thought of every background detail, the right angle for the cameras, those extra edits you did that brought everything together. Nothing I did had felt fully finished until I met you.”

“Okay.” She realized she was starting to feel better about herself. Maybe it was the caffeine? Or maybe it was the friendship. “So self-pity trip is almost over.”

“Look,” Sophia started but stopped when Brook delivered their biscuit sandwiches and cinnamon rolls. She moved back over to her side of the table before she continued. “Compared to Gabriella, I looked like a rejected doll in a potato sack.”

“That’s not true,” Juliette broke in.

“It is, we both do. And you’re fucking sexy as hell.” She took a bite of her food. “Trust me when I say, what’s pretty on the outside can be rotten on the inside. Remember Leslie Timons?”

Juliette nodded. “She was a bitch.”

Sophia chuckled. “Still is.”

Juliette took a bite of her breakfast sandwich. “I think I was just hungry and in need of caffeine.”

“There is one thing I want to warn you about.”

“Shoot,” she said, straightening her shoulders and bracing herself.

“Max comes with some… baggage. No matter what he does, he will always be in the public eye. There will always be articles like this, filled with hate towards anyone he gets close to.”

Juliette nodded slowly. “I get it.”

“Good, because I think it was the number one reason that he moved so slowly with me. Looking back, I realize that he had a reason for trying to keep what was between us a secret. I thought that it was due to him being with someone the press would see as his student. After all, he was there to teach us.” She shrugged. “Now I realize it was to protect me from things like that article.”