Page 33 of Anyone But the Superstar
‘You weremauled?’ Horrific images from long-ago watched episodes ofAnimal Planetrun through my head. ‘On a film set? By, like, a tiger or something?’
‘No. This was before I started acting, when I was a kid.’
I frown, trying to make the pieces fit. From the little I’ve read, I know he was born and raised in California. ‘Then where did you come across a wild animal?’
He stirs the pot with wide, slow circles. ‘It was my neighbors’ pet.’
‘Your neighbor had a wild animal?’ I know the ongoing stereotype is of west coasters being eccentric, but zoo animals as pets? Really?
Hunching over the pot more, he mumbles something that sounds like, ‘Tabby.’
I lean closer, squishing Mike to my chest. ‘I’m sorry, what?’
He sighs, as if resigning himself to the inevitable.
I’m about to apologize, not wanting him to share something if it brings up bad memories when he says, ‘It was atabbycat.’
I win the Herculean effort of not laughing in the silence that follows.
However, I must not do a good job with my facial expression, because when he turns to gauge my reaction, his body stiffens once more.
‘It was alargetabby cat, okay?’ He holds his arms out as wideas they’ll stretch. ‘The name doesn’t do it justice. It was a mutant, I tell you.’
I fight the laughter. I fight itreallyhard. But when Mike makes one more attempt to reach out his paw toward Felix and the tough action star’s feet come up off the kitchen floor, I lose. Badly.
So badly, I don’t even realize it when Mike jumps off my lap, making a beeline to Felix.
I’m surprised when no one in the building reports hearing a woman being attacked in our condo.
Felix
Cracking two eggs in a small bowl, I pick up a fork and point it at the beast now strapped against Anne’s chest. ‘Thanks for confining the beast.’
‘Thanks for dinner.’ Anne’s lips roll in before nodding at the bowls on the island. ‘And thanks for making dessert.’
The cat sighs.
I beat the eggs, trying not to think about how Mike was finally able to rub his weirdly soft, hairless body against me, or how un-insulted I was when Anne laughed at my subsequent high-pitched cry.
Somehow between her laughing at the picture she took of me and her laughing at my tabby-cat confession, my ego has decided it’s fine with being the butt of the joke as long as it’s Anne doing the laughing.
Looking away from what I can only describe as the Benjamin Button-like cat in a baby carrier, I pour the eggs into the batter. ‘I have a bit of a sweet tooth, anyway.’
‘Yeah, but aren’t you like Mr Action Hero?’ The corners of her mouth kick up. ‘You can’t fight bad guys and save the damsel if you’ve got a cookie belly.’
I know she’s simply waiting for Jack to land so I can call him and figure a way out of her condo, but I can’t help but enjoy this time with her. I mean, now that I know she isn’t a stalking paparazzi. ‘I thought you didn’t know anything about me?’
‘I don’t, not really.’ She drops her chin over Mike’s head, but not fast enough to hide the flush in her cheeks that makes my bruised ego heal. ‘But the people at work seem to.’
And there go all the good feelings.
She must read something in my expression because she’s quick to rush on. ‘Not that I’ve heard much.’ She shrugs, the movement shifting Mike’s wrinkled skin. ‘Storyboarders work alone. What I do know is from a quick search of your movies and a few things I overheard at the press junket.’ She laughs, the sound easing my nerves more than all of Jack’s PR meetings. ‘All your, uh,fanswere swooning over your large underwear ad billboard in Times Square.’
‘Ugh.’ I hang my head over the bowl, knowing the exact picture she’s talking about. ‘That was Jack’s idea.’
It’s odd how relieved I am when her smile kicks back up. ‘The infamous Candy Crush addicted manager?’
I pause in scraping the dough off the sides of the bowl with the spatula, surprised by how much I shared over the past few hours with her. I should be nervous about it, but when she’s looking at me with shiny, amused, blue eyes, I feel happy instead. ‘Yeah, that Jack.’ I slide the cookie sheet I found in a cabinet closer. ‘I was doing so many survival-type action movies, he was afraid I’d get typecast as more of a Conan the Barbarian than a versatile leading man.’ I roll my eyes, recalling the long and embarrassing underwear photo shoot. ‘He thought theunderwear campaign would help the public see me in a different light.’
