Media Darling by Fiona Riley

Author:Fiona Riley [Riley, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635552799
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2018-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Hayley didn’t say anything because a part of her was in denial. She’d been listening to Rachel bad-mouth vaguely about Emerson for weeks and weeks. But over that time, she’d decided that even if there was a relationship between them, there couldn’t be any truth to the villainous personality Rachel described. The Emerson she had gotten to know in that time was not vindictive or duplicitous like Rachel claimed. The Emerson she had gotten to know was wary of the limelight, fearful of being caught off guard, and vulnerable. She was on the defensive, not the attack. Rachel’s narrative didn’t match up. It couldn’t be true. Could it?

The silence seemed to make Emerson jittery. She started pacing again. “It started really casually at first. She’d come by more and more between scenes and lounge around the trailer. We’d run lines and talk about the characters and their quirks in hopes of perfecting the performances and to really understand the nuances of Willow and Rhea. Honestly, I didn’t think anything of it. She was so aggressively flirtatious with Johnny—and everyone with a heartbeat—I guess I missed the signals. I thought flirting was just her…voice. Nothing personal.

“What she said last night on Extra was partially true. The shift in our relationship did occur in my trailer and we were rehearsing an emotionally difficult scene that eventually leads to Willow and Rhea kissing for the first time but—I promise you—we weren’t rehearsing the kiss. That was all Rachel.”

Hayley leaned her hip against the counter and waited. “Go on.”

Emerson ran her hand through her hair. “She kissed me at the end of the scene, and I went with it. I assumed she just wanted to work out some nerves before we were in front of the camera, but that wasn’t the case. In the film Rhea makes the first move but backtracks after Willow reciprocates, but Rachel never backed off.” She stopped pacing and dropped her hands by her sides. “And I don’t know what happened next. I know I stopped her and told her I wasn’t sure what she wanted, and she told me she wanted me. And then suddenly there it was, like it had been there all along. We were more than costars on Willow Path. We were so much more than that.”

The disappointment Hayley felt must have been all over her face, because Emerson looked as distressed as she felt. Hayley hated feeling that way, but a tiny part of her had hoped it was all just Rachel spouting off at the mouth. She was…jealous. Which felt stupid because she was just in bed with Emerson last night. Which suddenly made this seem so much more embarrassing…because who else had Emerson fallen into bed with? Anyone that spent any significant amount of time with her? No, that didn’t seem like her. But did she really know her? She thought she did. Now she wasn’t so sure.

Emerson stepped forward and took Hayley’s hands. “Hayley, you see what my life is like.

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.