Page 58 of Love and Loathing

Jessie scoffed. “I amnota fan.” She slapped a hand to her mouth. Had she just made it seem like she hated his work? “Not that I don’t like his movies. He’s very talented …”

“Are you a reporter?”

“No, I’m …” She huffed. “I’m just a friend.”

“Well, I know all my son’s friends, so if you want to talk to him, you’ll have to give me a name.”

He was there? “I …”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Wait!” Jessie screamed, and patrons all over the store turned to look at her. Grandpa Bo came out from behind the register and stared down the aisle at her. She mouthed “sorry.”

“I’m listening,” Alex’s mom said.

“My name’s … Jessie.” She held her breath. What if his mom didn’t know her? Would that mean he didn’t see them as friends? Or maybe she was just one of those moms who thought she knew everything but didn’t … Ugh. So much for first impressions. She would now forever be implanted in the woman’s brain as the crazy phone girl.

“Jessie, the videographer?” Alex’s mom’s voice pitched up at the end.

Jessie sighed. She knew her. “Yep. That’s me.”

“So you’re the one who stole my son from Roxy.”

Jessie’s brain stuttered. She felt like her mind had just gone blank in the middle of the conversation and she’d missed something. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Oh, I think you heard me.” She didn’t sound mad, but the words still felt accusatory.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jessie’s gaze dropped to her grocery store bag, where she’d dumped it on the couch.

“Alex and Roxy have been together since high school,” Alex’s mom continued. “On and off again, but always on again. You know why?”

She shook her head but said nothing. Instead, she walked over to the bag and pulled the magazine out, scanning that cover of Roxy and Alex walking around the Sunset Valley Lodge and Spa together, smiling—Roxy holding his arm. Her stomach did a proper somersault, and she was glad she hadn’t eaten any of the Skittles yet.

“Because she knows what it’s like to be him. To be a movie star. To be loved by everyone in the world,” she said.

Jessie thought that was just silly. She didn’t love all celebrities. In fact, she felt very little about any of them. Except for Roxy. She might hate her.

“She can relate and support him in a way that someone like you never could.”

That snapped her out of it. “Someone like me?”

“Yes, anormalperson.” She made “normal” sound like it was dirty. “I know it’s exciting to have a celebrity chase after you. I know how easy it is to get caught up in their light, to mistake their excitement for something new as opposed to something real, but I just want to warn you. What you have won’t last. He will go back to Roxy eventually.”

Jessie threw the magazine on the wood floors as red-hot fire wrath coursed through her. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard—a rash judgment about me, a person you’ve never met—and it shows a total lack of understanding your son and who he really is.”

“Oh,” she laughed. “You think you know him better, after—what? A few months? I’ve known him his whole life.”

“Then you’ve clearly been wearing blinders!” Jessie snapped. “And just so you know, I had no clue who Alex was when I first met him, and even after I found out, I could barely stand to be in the same room with him because he constantly baited me into fights and because I, like you, had on blinders to who he really was. But no, I was not swept up by his celebrity, and it took months before I even liked him because I thought he was just like you describe: a man who let his fame go to his head. But over these last few months, I’ve come to learn that your son is a kind and decent person who works hard and gives selflessly. He would never lead a woman on, then dump her when hernewgot old. He’s not like that.”

“You love him, don’t you?” she asked.

Yes!her head screamed. She slapped a hand over her mouth, afraid it would pop out. She was more shocked by the thought than by this entire conversation, but now she knew for sure. She did love him. She loved him with everything in her. “That’s not any of your business.”

“I’ll take it by that short pause before you answered that you do,” she said, her voice wavering. “I can see that you’re not going to listen to my warnings. But just remember that I warned you.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a real saint,” Jessie said. “Now is he there or not?”

A sniff came through the line. “Not.”

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