Chapter Four
Kristen walked into the loft that would be her home for the next six months. The living room was spacious, made more so by the white walls and teal blue furnishing. Her instruments, a keyboard and guitar were in a corner while a couch took up the middle.
The open kitchen was on the other end.
The crew members were still drilling cameras and microphones into walls. She walked in and glanced into one of the rooms.
Spencer was standing by a window, gazing out.
“Are you okay?” she asked after knocking and entering. Spencer hadn’t bothered to answer her question at the restaurant, but she wanted to make sure he was all right.
“Did you check up on me?”
“Huh?”
“You said some friends of yours were there and they confirmed I was with them. You’re talking about Nick and Kerri, right?”
“Spencer.”
“Were you afraid you’d be stuck in the same house as a murderer for six months?” He brushed past her. “You’d better lock your doors at night.”
She laughed once without humor. This was what she got for standing up for him? She puffed out her cheeks and exhaled heavily.
“Kristen, are you okay?”
Kristen turned to Ana. “Yeah.” She sighed and walked out of the loft.
“Here’s the script for the next scene.” Ana handed the script to Kristen. “Spencer seems like he really doesn’t want to do this.”
“I’m not rejoicing over this situation either.”
“I know.” Ana and Kristen walked back to the car in silence. “I’m sorry about Alvin,” Ana said when they got back to Kristen’s car. “You’re better off without him.”
Kristen nodded. “I’d chosen my wedding gown, you know.” In fact, she and Alvin had most of the wedding planned. The location, the caterer, the cake, the flowers … Everything had been booked. And her parents had helped her cancel everything, even the wedding gown.
Ana squeezed her arm, and Kristen cracked a smile. “I don’t want to be here, but work’s good.” She waved the script in her hand. “I’d better memorize my lines because Spencer and I sure don’t have enough chemistry to just wing it.”
Ana nodded and stepped out of the car.
Work is good. Kristen flipped open the script and read through the lines.
Both Kristen and Spencer stuck to the script as they filmed the scene of seeing their new place. As in the script, he was gentlemanly enough to allow her to choose a room first.
The two bedrooms were identical. Along the right side of each room was a closet with white shutter doors, while the headboard of a taupe wooden bed frame with white sheets on the king-sized bed was pressed up against the opposite side.
Kristen decided to let Spencer have the room she had found him in before filming began.
She walked into her bedroom, put her leather duffle bag on the cedar brown desk, and draped her sweater over a chair that was in the same shade of brown.
The nightstand seemed to be part of the desk and chair set as well.
Kristen pulled open the small drawer on the nightstand and pushed it back in after peering into the empty drawer. Home for the next six months.
After that, the crew filmed them individually. She was supposed to speak her thoughts while she unpacked. Her real thoughts? She wanted to be home. Not here with Spencer. She wanted to mope around on the couch and watch the world go by without her.
Instead, she smiled and said she was excited about the new beginning. She wasn’t sure what the next six months would bring, but she was thrilled to have a fresh start.
A crew member asked off screen, “Do you want to say something about the fight at the restaurant?”
“No,” Kristen said.
“I’m sure you were startled.”
Kristen didn’t bother to reply to the crew member. She knew he was merely trying to get her to say something about the conflict so he could lead her into talking about the accident in the Bahamas.
“What do you think about the accident in the Bahamas? Do you think Spencer had anything to do with it? Are you worried?”
Kristen rolled her eyes and glared at the crew member. “Just let it go. The police investigated and cleared him. It was an accident. Give him a break. I’m sure he didn’t want it to happen either.” She turned her attention back to unpacking.
Spencer was standing outside Kristen’s room when she gave the crew member a dressing down.
Neal had told him that he wanted scenes of Kristen and Spencer grocery shopping. With his arm around Spencer’s shoulders, he dragged him toward Kristen’s room to tell her that she would have to leave the unpacking for another time.
Spencer clenched his jaws. He knew the studio executives wanted Kristen and him to do this new show because they were both laden with scandal at the moment. Kristen was the prude fiancée thrown aside for someone more vivacious, while he was a murderer who got away with his crime because he had money.
If he hadn’t seen the hatred in the man who’d attacked him in the restaurant, he would have thought the production crew had hired an actor and planned the whole scene.
But at least Kristen seemed to be on his side.
They did have to spend the next six months together. She might not be his idea of fun, but they could always be friends, right? It would be better to go through this with a friend than to have someone he wasn’t sure he could trust.
“Kristen.” The director stepped into Kristen’s room without Spencer. “I want shots of you and Spencer grocery shopping. You can unpack later.”
“Okay,” she said and came out of her room with Neal. She blinked when she saw Spencer outside, but she didn’t say a word to him. She just sidled past him.
He supposed he deserved that.
They headed back to the parking garage, and Spencer was about to head to his black Audi when a crew member came over and handed him a car key.
“You guys will drive this car.”
Kristen stopped next to her white convertible Beetle. A crew member by her side was probably telling her the same thing. Her shoulders sagged ever so slightly, and she shared a look with her assistant before trotting over.
Spencer pressed the button on the remote handed to him, unlocking a black BMW. He got in and sighed.
Three cameras were spaced out evenly on the dashboard. All the cameras had microphones clipped onto them.
“Wow,” Kristen said when she got into the car. She popped her head out of the door that she had yet to close. “Is there a script for the car?”
“No. Not now. You guys can just chat as per normal.”
Kristen’s lips curled the split second before she pulled them in between her teeth. “Right.” She closed the door and stared ahead.
As Spencer started the engine, Kristen suddenly opened the door and shouted, “Ana! Can you pass me my phone and earphones?”
Ana ducked into the white Beetle, then ran over with Kristen’s phone.
“Thanks.” Kristen closed the door and pulled the seat belt over her. She plugged her earphones into her phone and entered her playlist. Then she put the earphones into her ears and closed her eyes.
Looks like it’ll be a quiet drive to the store. Spencer would’ve tried apologizing if there weren’t so many cameras in the car.
When they got to the store, Spencer cut the engine and Kristen pulled the earphones from her ears. He opened the door and stepped out, and Neal waved them over.
“So buy whatever you guys want to eat. We’ll be footing the bill. Just have a good time.”
“Wait, you don’t have a script?” Kristen asked. “I thought you said everything would be scripted.”
“Most scenes will be. You did great with your impromptu performance. You’ll be fine.” Neal gave her a pat on the shoulder and walked away.
Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. She looked at Spencer for a moment, seemingly about to say something. But at the last moment, she just closed her mouth and walked away toward her assistant.
A makeup artist touched up Kristen’s makeup before they moved into the store.
With their entourage of cameras, reflectors, and lights, everyone in the grocery store turned and gawked at them.
Kristen came up next to Spencer with her game face on. She was grinning as she pushed a cart over. She gazed up at him and said, “Shall we?”
“Yeah.” He took over the pushing of the cart. “What do you like to eat?”
She shrugged. “Snacks? And just to put it out there, I don’t cook. I don’t know how.”
“You don’t know how to cook?”
She nodded. “Do you know how to cook?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, so you decide what to buy.”
“So I’ll be the one cooking for the next six months.”
Kristen flashed a sweet smile. “If that’s what you want.” Then she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. I’ve always survived on takeout. So you just buy what you intend to cook for yourself.”
He frowned at her sudden change in demeanor.
“I’m sure the first reaction was enough for the edit.” Her sweet smile returned. “So what should we get, chef?”
Kristen might have grown up on Disney sets, but she understood Hollywood.
He played along, asking her what she liked to eat and buying the ingredients for the dishes she listed. He wasn’t sure how much she said was the truth, but he bought enough ingredients for both of them.
“Kristen Park?”
Kristen turned and smiled at the middle-age woman. “Hi.”
“I’m so glad you’re out and about again.” The woman took Kristen’s hand. “I’m so sorry about your fiancé. My husband cheated on me too, so I understand how you feel. Don’t worry. You’ll find someone who will love you just the way you are.”
Kristen’s smile faltered for a moment, but she was quick to flash a sweet smile. “Thank you, but I’m over Alvin. I’m glad I found out about his cheating before we got married.”
“Yes.” The woman’s head bobbed up and down. “I’m sure you’ll find someone who appreciates you for who you are.”
“I hope she’ll stop looking, especially since we’re getting married,” Spencer said and moved next to Kristen. He draped his arm over her shoulders. “I’m so glad Alvin screwed up. That’s the only reason I have her by my side now.”
The woman blinked, and her brows drew together. “You’re getting married?” The woman looked down at Kristen’s hand. “I don’t see a ring.”
“Unlike Ruby, Kristen has some standards. I’m still kind of on probation.” Spencer flashed a grin.
“Oh.” That was all the woman managed.
“If you don’t mind, we have to stock up on food for our new place and finish unpacking,” Spencer continued.
“Yes, I’m sorry to interrupt. And I’m happy for you, Kristen.”
“Thank you,” she said.
They moved away and continued grabbing things off the shelves. Spencer kept his arm around Kristen, and she didn’t move away from him.
After they loaded the groceries into the trunk of the BMW, Spencer went over to the passenger side to open the door for Kristen.
The rest of the crew filed into their cars, and Kristen moved over to close the door.
“Do you want Ana to drive you back?”
“No,” she said after a glance over her shoulder. “I want to thank you.”
He shrugged. “You stood up for me at the restaurant.”
“About that.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, and she blinked. “I’m sorry for what I said. It was rude and ungrateful.”
She broke into a small smile. “Do you have a camera on you?”
“No.” He frowned, offended.
“I’m sorry.” She pursed her lips. “I wasn’t expecting you to apologize. I’m sorry for implying that you were only doing it for the show.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I didn’t check up on you.”
He arched a brow.
“My manager thought I might be worried that I’d be living with a murderer, so she called Nick’s manager beforehand to find out what happened in the Bahamas. I think Roland told Heidi because he knew Nick and Kerri are my friends.”
“So you lied?”
“I didn’t think the man would be interested in knowing exactly where my information came from. It was just easier to say my friends told me.” She paused for a moment. “And I’m sorry about what happened in the Bahamas.”
“I’m sorry about you and Alvin.”
She gave him a small smile. “So am I.”
He opened the door. “Let’s go before the crew jumps out with their cameras again.”