Page 14 of Anyone But the Superstar

I roll my eyes at his continued blank expression. ‘Don’t play dumb.’

Jack examines his nails. ‘Oh, you mean the one-night stand who left you naked and emasculated on the floor?’

I glance at the flight director whose desk is next to where we’re standing. He doesn’t so much as twitch over Jack’s comment. Although seeing as he’s busy overseeing every aspect of every person’s job in this room, I’m not sure if that’s because he’s used to not visibly reacting or if Jack’s voice hadn’t carried.

Jack rocks back in the custom loafers I bought him for Christmas last year. ‘Or do you mean the one who ghosted you after taking a nude photo of you?’

Seeing as Mission Control is kept at a near-frigid level due to all the computer equipment, I can’t blame the heat climbing my neck on room temperature.

‘No, I know.’ Jack’s eyes narrow. ‘The woman who could get you on Ron Allen’s shit list and therefore banned not only from the serious movies you want to start making, but fromallfuture projects.’

Ron Allen, the director of this film, took a chance on me. After Jack and I begged him, of course.

I’m grateful for the action films that put me in the spotlight. It’s just that, when I got into acting, I wanted to do more than justflash my abs and make quippy one-liners before jumping out of a helicopter. As the male lead, which is more of a side character in this female-focused romance, I’ll get a chance to flex more than my biceps. I’ll get to show Ron, and the movie audiences that I can be serious and funny without setting off or surviving an explosion every five minutes.

Narrowing my eyes right back at Jack, I take a deep, cold breath in through my nose. ‘No.’ My voice so low, I push my shoulder into Jack’s to make sure he hears me. ‘I mean the woman whose face you paralyzed by handing me a strip of numbing cream condoms like you’re an erectile dysfunctional Santa Claus.’

His carefully groomed and fashionably stubbled jaw drops. ‘I donothave erec—’ He freezes, his eyes shifting around the room to the people startled at his elevated tone.

A question from the ISS brings everyone’s attention back to the front.

Jack’s breath tickles my ear. ‘I donothave erectile dysfunction.’ Straightening, Jack smooths down his tie. ‘Those condoms were advertised as “for her pleasure” and—’ his hand pauses over his chest as if making a vow ‘—I am nothing if not a giver.’

I manage to keep from laughing, and note, not for the first time, that Jack should be the one in front of a camera, not me.

‘And no.’ His voice back to a normal whisper as Luke answers the director’s question about microgravity’s effect on facial expressions and physical reaction time. ‘I didn’t find her.’ Jack’s hand reaches for the pocket where he usually keeps his phone.

Guilt creeps back in. Jack isn’t a stereotypical agent or manager. He isn’t constantly on his phone making calls and greasing wheels. I’m his only client. So knowing that he’s anxious for his phone means one of two things. Either he’s waiting tohear the latest from the PR firm about the expected release of mysemi-nude photo, or he’s fallen off the wagon again and needs a Candy Crush fix.

I slide my arm across his shoulders and give him a quick side hug.

Jack’s been with me since the beginning of my career. Hell, before that. We grew up in the same town, went to the same high school. We even headed to LA together after college – him to go to law school, me to try and make it as an actor.

Two years later, when I got my first big job, Jack was the one who stepped in and handled the contracts. He’s been my agent ever since.

He knows me. He knows my mom. He knows the truth about what’s happening and he’s done nothing but have my back through it all.

I don’t want to add to his worry, but the memory of Anne, slacked-faced and tear-streaked, flashes in my mind for the millionth time since my nuts were kneed into my stomach. ‘What if she was really hurt?’

It takes a second, but Jack catches on to who and what I mean, and, to his credit, his expression softens. ‘We’ve already talked about this.’

The director laughs at something Luke says and Jack and I both smile as if we’ve been listening.

Jack drops a hand on my shoulder and whispers, ‘Youhave a bigger chance of having a sperm deficiency from her violent assault to your testicles than she does of having any lasting damage from theinfinitesimalamount of numbing cream she may or may not have ingested.’

I can’t help but chuckle at his phrasing, thankful my reaction matches the room’s mood. ‘Spoken like a lawyer.’

‘Spoken like a celebrity manager.’ He smiles back and drops his hand from my shoulder. ‘And friend.’

Before I can rib him for our bromance moment, the sound of my name jerks me to attention.

‘Isn’t that right, Felix?’ The director, Ron, looks at me expectantly.

Amanda hands me the receiver, her hand covering one end. ‘You used to want to be an astronaut when you were younger,’ she murmurs, saving me from looking like an ass for not paying attention.

Lifting the receiver, I give the camera set up in the center aisle a red-carpet smile. ‘Yes.’ I pause for a well-timed self-deprecating chuckle. ‘However, I had to give up the dream when I realized I needed to not only take butpassCalculus.’

I get the expected chuckle.

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