Star Crossed: A Hollywood Romance by CD Reiss

Author:CD Reiss [Reiss, CD]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-14T18:30:00+00:00

I put the camera down.

What the hell was that? Was he talking about me without talking about me? None of the paps seemed moved one way or the other, but they knew about the other night on the rooftop. I imagined they could smell the cinnamon of his skin on me, then I became convinced it was the truth.

I didn’t have another second to feel shame about Michael and his busted eye. Brad Sinclair and his crew exited the back of the restaurant, and the pack broke. They didn’t hustle or rush. Brad put his arm around a pretty blonde’s shoulders and turned to Jayce with a comment that made his friend laugh.

I did what I was supposed to do.

I bolted ahead of everyone and leapt over the hood of a car to get in front of them. Clickclickclick.

Head to toe. Heels to hairpins. I had it. If I could separate Brad and Jayce into two separate frames, I could sell it twice.

“Hey,” Brad called. “Shuttergirl!” He pointed at his eye. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

I put down the camera. “Give me something to shoot, and I’ll tell you.”

He held out both middle fingers, smiling and looking over those stupid sunglasses. Everyone else had him from the side, but he posed for me. I shot it. You bet I did. Boots to bonnet.

“Well?” he said as his car pulled up.

I lowered the camera. “I’m left-handed. I woulda busted the other eye.”

He pointed at me with a fake gun shot. I laughed. I forgot to be jaded and knowing. I forgot how it would look for me to have a friendly relationship with Brad Sinclair. I just felt unburdened and available for a stupid joke from someone I’d casually labeled a douchebag.

When Brad and his friends got into his car, I felt the car door slamming as if it were the closing off a portal to another world. I was in an alley with my peers in their smelly T-shirts and matte black cameras. I had always been an outsider, being a woman, but after being friendly with Brad Sinclair, I was worse than an outsider. I was a pariah. I saw it in their looks and their turned backs.

The shots I’d gotten of Brad should have gotten me high fives. Instead, I looked as if I had a leg up, and nobody liked that. Especially not the ragtag team of starkillers I hung out with.

“Laine!” Tom came jogging up behind me, having missed everything. “What did you get?”

“Good stuff.”

I felt dead inside. I got no joy from it. Not from the accolades I’d get for doing my job, nor from the money or heated negotiation. I walked out of the alley, and Tom followed.

“Hey,” I said, slipping out my phone, “can I see what you’ve been shooting?”

“Yeah.”

I texted Michael.

—I’m worth getting a

black eye for?—

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.