Love, Lines, and Alibis: A Hollywood Rom-Com Mystery by Patricia Puentes

Author:Patricia Puentes [Puentes, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Patricia Puentes
Published: 2025-05-19T16:00:00+00:00

20

“We agree, right?” I asked David once we were out of the Biltmore and had bid our goodbyes to the film crew. Marky had decided to stay at the hotel and harass Gary and the rest of the cast of the movie for a while, but I managed to scare him enough that he’d promised me he’d leave within an hour.

David raised an eyebrow. “Probably. Care to specify what we agree on, though?”

“Better to leave the police out of this. They can find Marky themselves,” I said.

“Definitely. Let’s stay as far from them as possible.”

“Even if a chat with Marky could help them realize you really didn’t lure Henry to the Eastern Columbia the night he died but the other way around?” We had to cover all the angles.

“I don’t know about that. I still feel there’s a way of using Fitzsimmons’s testimony against me,” David reasoned, which sounded plausible to me. “Plus, they specifically warned us to stay away from this. I don’t want them more pissed off at us than they already are.”

“And we’re always on time to let them know if we change our mind,” I said.

David made a humming noise. “You never replied to my ask, by the way.”

“What ask?” I was tired, still shaken, and hungry. It was noon and I was drunk. I couldn’t remember what he was talking about.

“No more fights, no more misunderstandings,” he said, recalling the words he’d said to me when we were both running from Marky—zee, ess, and two ems—Fitzsimmons.

“When has there been a misunderstanding?” I asked.

“Apparently when you left me because you thought I was seeing someone else.”

“I didn’t leave you because of that!” I protested. “I didn’t leave you. We came to an agreement.”

“Really? And what would that agreement be?”

“That it was better to part ways considering I was going through some stuff, and being the girlfriend of LA’s hottest investigative journalist wasn’t exactly helping me overcome my insecurity issues.”

“Since when have you been insecure?” David asked me, baffled. And he was right. I’d always been blindly self-assured, until I wasn’t. And he still hadn’t realized why that had changed.

As I didn’t want to have that conversation—our two-hour relationship conversation that had been interrupted by a celebrity-adoring man-child—I picked up the pace, making my way to my car on Broadway. I had a slight premonition.

“The reprobate, revenue-hungry beasts!” I yelled when we finally made it to my car. The meter had run out exactly two minutes before, and I’d already been ticketed.

“Elena, we were finally having a conversation.” David looked at me with disillusionment painted all over his features.

“I know, I’m sorry,” I said. “But I just got a parking ticket when I wasn’t even a minute late!”

I wanted him to understand my frustration. But he didn’t.

“Can’t you just tell your mom about it?”

“And what, make it go away?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t do that, and the fact that you believe I’d do such a thing is part of the problem.” I see now that it wasn’t exactly me talking, but the fact that I was equal parts tired and hungry.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.