Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Gates, over here!” a reporter yelled.
“Mr. Hartman, please a word.”
“He’s so hot!” someone screamed from the crowd.
“A picture, please.”
“Right this way!”
Bryna smiled through the blinding white flashes of light. Reporters with camera crew littered the red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard for the Broken Road premiere. A crowd had started forming behind the police barricades hours before the stars were expected to show.
Tonight, Gates was the star.
Crowds cheered for him. Women swooned at his smile. Even the reporters weren’t immune to his charm. He was all charisma tonight. Completely in his element.
Bryna, on the other hand, had been out of it for the past two weeks of Jude’s silence. It was straight up torture. She wanted to find out what the fuck he was doing with his wife, but her heart and stomach twisted because the question was dangerous. It would lead to a road of additional questions she didn’t want to ask herself, but she couldn’t seem to stop. Had he lied about being separated? Had he been with his wife the whole time? Were all the times he had claimed to be at work really an excuse for him being with her? Is that why he couldn’t see her? Were they sleeping together? Was Bryna no better than her stepmother after all?
All that tension left Bryna stressed and erratic. So, she focused her attention on the charity benefit. She dove head first into planning and tomorrow night all her efforts would pay off. If she could get through the benefit, then things would go back to being as perfect as they had been in St. Barts.
That meant being a supportive friend to Gates on his big day. She had gone all out, wearing a stunning blue Alberta Ferretti original paired with flashy patterned Louboutin high heels. Gates was in a classic tuxedo and looked dashing.
“Gates, one picture with your date, please,” a female reporter requested.
Gates wrapped an arm around Bryna’s waist, and they both smiled for the camera.
The camera crew snapped a few shots.
When they were done, the woman said, “You make a great couple.”
Bryna felt her cheeks heat, and she glanced at Gates.
“Thank you,” he said.
“Our readers have been asking whether or not you are still taken. Some thought, or maybe were hoping, your relationship was over.” The reporter laughed and conspiratorially smiled at Bryna. “We’d love to hear your love story.”
“Oh, we’re not—” Bryna started to say.
“We prefer to keep our personal life private,” Gates said instead.
The reporter switched tactics. “Everyone saw you two together on New Year’s. I even heard there was a kiss,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “Can you confirm that?”
“We were together for New Year’s,” Gates acknowledged. “But I don’t kiss and tell.”
“A gentleman,” the reporter acknowledged. “Is it true that you were recently spotted out in Las Vegas together as well?”
Gates nodded. “That’s right.”
“A budding romance. Can you tell us how you feel about her?”
Bryna kept her fake smile on her face, but she was ready to get out of this situation. Pretending with Gates was fine for the red carpet, but it was enough that her stepmother thought they were still dating. She didn’t need the rest of the world to know that as well.
“We already said, we keep our lives private,” she said.
“Bri, it’s okay if they know,” Gates said, squeezing her waist.
She raised her eyebrows at him in confusion. “Know what?”
“How I feel about you,” Gates said softly. His eyes stared into her, all bright blue and pleading. He looked like he wanted to tell her something, like he’d been holding it in for a while. “Everyone else seems to know but you anyway.”
Bryna’s mouth opened slightly in surprise. He was not doing this right now!
“Gates, are you saying you love her?” the reporter asked, thrusting the microphone forward. “Care to comment further?”
“No, he does not,” Bryna said. She took his hand and marched him down the rest of the red carpet and inside the theater.
Bryna had been here before for her father’s premieres, so she quickly found them an empty room. She shoved Gates inside and glared at him.
“What the fuck was that about?” she demanded.
He glared right back at her. “What the fuck do you think it was about, Bri?”
“I came to this premiere with you because we’re friends, which I’ve said to you over and over again. I agreed to go months ago. And you have been so good to me lately that I wanted to do something nice for you, but I’m not your girlfriend!”
“You think I don’t know that?” he growled. “You remind me every chance you get. I can’t help that I’m in love with you, Bri.”
Bryna rolled her eyes. Was he really playing this game? “Stop! We’re not even in front of the cameras. You don’t have to bullshit me and pretend that you’re in love!”
Gates’s eyes flashed with anger. “Pretend? You think I’m fucking pretending? I do love you, Bri. I have for a long time.”
She shook her head. He had no idea what he was saying. It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. “No, you don’t.”
“If I could love someone else, don’t you think I would have already done it? You’re a psychotic bitch most of the time, and you drive me crazy, but I love you.” He threw his hands out and stomped across the room, away from her. “For some unknown fucking reason.”
“You’re just saying that because I’m with someone else now.” God, she hoped that was the case.
“Do you fucking hear yourself? You are out of your goddamn mind. And don’t even bring that fucker into this conversation.”
“Jude?” she asked.
“Yeah. Fuck that guy!”
“What is wrong with you?”
He looked manic.
Where was this all coming from?
He flung his hands up in the air. “Wrong with me? You’re the one who thinks you’re in love with this guy. He’s deluded you with presents and exotic trips, so you think that’s fucking love, but he’s just using you.”
“You don’t even know him!” Bryna cried angrily. How dare he throw all this out at her now!
“I don’t fucking need to. I know how he treats you, and I know what he said to me that night in Vegas. That’s all I need to know about this guy to know he’s a fucking douche.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“See? You don’t even want to know the truth. You don’t care that he only wants you when it’s convenient to have sex with you.”
“Fine!” she spat. “What did he say to you?”
Gates laughed contemptuously and looked away from her. “After I told him I’d just be taking you back to the hotel to sleep, he said that if I laid one finger on you, he’d tear me apart limb from limb. That I needed to do the right thing and stay away from you…for your own good. He asked if I understood that there would be hell to pay if he found out otherwise.”
Bryna paused where she was standing. “He said that?” she asked softly. It sounded really hot…like Jude really wanted her.
“Yes. It’s the most unhinged, controlling, douchey thing to say when I was only trying to help you.”
Should she see that as controlling, or had Jude only been looking out for her? “You still stayed the night,” she reminded Gates.
He glared at her. “Would you have rather I left you there to drown in your own vomit?”
“No, but Jude was right.”
Gates looked at her in utter disbelief, as if he was seeing a completely different person. It was an unsettling stare. “I can’t do this, Bryna. I can’t do this with you anymore.”
She eyed at him uneasily. “What do you mean?”
“What do I mean?” He stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “I told you that I loved you, and you act like I’m fucking jealous. I’m the one who has been there for you through all the bullshit, Bri, and you thank me for being there for you, but it’s not out of appreciation. It’s an expectation. You were flirting with me on New Year’s before we kissed. You took me away from a girl I was hitting on at Posse and then joked around about how sex with me sounded fun. The mixed signals have pushed me over the edge. You think because you say we’re friends that it’ll magically happen. But that’s not how it fucking works!”
“I don’t know what you want me to say,” she whispered taken aback.
“Nothing. It’s obviously too much for me to expect you to say anything.” He shook his head. “You might think you’re queen bee, but I’m not the same person I was when we first met. I’m a movie star. We’re at my fucking premiere. I could be doing whatever and whoever the fuck I want.”
“Then, do that,” Bryna said harshly. “I’m not fucking stopping you.”
“Good. Because I’m not fucking around anymore.” He brushed past her toward the door and then spoke quietly, facing away from her, “I used to think you were everything, Bri. Now, I realize that you were just a waste of my time. You’re not queen. You’re just another desperate wannabe. And you’re no longer welcome here.”
“What?” she snapped. Her mouth dropped open.
He turned around, and his eyes were icy. “Leave. Before I have to alert security.”
With that, he walked out the door, leaving Bryna standing alone in the empty room with her hands shaking, her breath coming out in shocked sputters, and her mind reeling.