Page 25 of Love like the (Real) Reel Thing
What did you do today, Jess? Well, Spencer Torres begged me to join him for lunch so I thought it would be rude to turn him down.
She sat down and took a sip of her coffee, wishing she’d picked up a salad instead of a roll. “So, how’s it going?”
“We talking about me or the movie?” Spencer’s brown eyes glinted.
Jess took a small bite of her roll and chewed slowly. “You don’t have to talk about either if you don’t want to. We could talk about something else.”
“Yeah, I guess we could have a twenty-minute conversation about the weather,” Spencer said.
“Twenty minutes is nothing,” Jess assured him. “You need to meet more Irish people.”
He picked up his smoothie and settled back in the armchair. “Someone’s leaking stuff to the press.”
Jess nodded. “I know, I’m sorry about that. For what it’s worth, I genuinely don’t believe it’s any of the staff. They’re all carefully picked and highly trained. Plus, they’ve signed NDAs.”
“Yeah.” He pushed some salad around his plate. “I’m gonna bet that the leak is someone working on set. And they’ve obviously been in Mel and Doug’s place.”
Maybe it was one of the ADs, Jess thought. Mel or Doug could have asked them to get something from the cottage. But if that were the case, and they’d leaked something as personal as their new sleeping arrangements online, they were taking a huge risk of getting caught.
They sat in silence for a few moments.
“It seems like a really fun movie to make,” Jess said finally. “And,um, I liked your last one a lot.”
He studied her for a moment. “Well, that makes one of us.”
“Why didn’t you like it?”
He shrugged. “Probably because I’ve been playing the romantic lead for the past ten years.”
“So go do other kinds of movies,” Jess said.
A flicker of frustration crossed his face. “I have. They’ve flopped.” He shot her a sharp look. “You should be a reporter. I can’t believe I just admitted that. Not that it’s a secret.”
She thought for a moment. “I don’t know anything about the industry, but maybe those other movies didn’t suit you?”
“You sound like my agent.” He sighed. “I suppose you see me as the perfect romantic lead?”
Was he fishing for compliments, she wondered – or did he genuinely not care about his looks? Maybe he simply wanted meatier roles. And looks weren’t everything. In fact, sometimes they were a curse. If she hadn’t been so instantly attracted to Adam, if she’d taken longer to get to know him … what was she thinking?Obviously,nothing would have happened. She and Adam hadonlyhappened because of a drunken one-night stand.
“Darling, there you are!”
Jess looked up as Mel approached, carrying a thermos coffee cup. She flashed Jess a quick smile. “We good here?”
Spencer glanced at Jess. “Great.”
There was an awkward pause.
“Actually, I was just leaving.” Jess got to her feet. “Lovely chatting to you, Spencer. Have a great day.” She picked up what was left of her roll and coffee.
As she moved away, she glanced back to see Mel place a slim, manicured hand on Spencer’s neck.
“Talk to me, babes – how are you feeling?” she said.
Jess wondered if it was part of Mel’s job to mind the actors. But there was something else – a warmth she hadn’t seen in her until now.
But Spencer had seemed different too. She’d seen a sort of quiet desperation that he kept well hidden from the public. Thataside, he was also a nicer person in real life than she’d ever have guessed.
CHAPTER 14
