And maybe it was all those things.
Or maybe it was a genuine attempt to be friendly.
Maybe he really was a delightful asshole, one who’d found himself injured and in trouble and virtually without friends in a foreign country. If so, no wonder he wanted her company. Until he returned to California, he didn’t have many other options available to him.
She raised her head, lowered her hands, and surrendered to the inevitable. “I propose a truce.”
His eyes were half lidded and hazy with exhaustion, the dark shadows under the left nearly a match for the bruises under the right. Still, he managed a cheeky smirk. “If you’re proposing a truce, that means I was winning the war, right?”
She nodded gravely. “Your anecdote about Whiskers turned the tide.”
“Carah Brown calls me a gossipy bitch.” He scrubbed his hands over his face, stifling a yawn. “But this gossipy bitch gets results.”
“Evidently.” She raised her hand to signal the server. “So here are my peace terms: If I promise to be more chatty, you promise to give me a few minutes of silence when I tell you I need quiet time. Also, no deliberate attempts to break Ron’s rules, because I really, really don’t want to call him.”
“No desire to talk to your cousin, huh?” When the server laid their check on the table, Alex wrote his room number on the slip and left a substantial tip. “If it’s any consolation, any right-thinking human would feel the same way.”
The amount of time she’d spent with her relative this week was enough to last her …
Well, forever. Longer than that, if possible.
But that wasn’t what she’d meant.
“I don’t want you to get in trouble,” she corrected. “And if you do, please don’t make me the means by which it happens.”
“Also, you don’t want to talk to him.” He grinned at her, tired eyes alight. “Admit it, Nanny Clegg. Admit it, and I’ll agree to your peace terms.”
She shouldn’t. Simple family loyalty should prevent her from saying it, and Alex could use the admission against her at some point.
Still, her cousin was such a dick.
“Fine.” She sighed. “I don’t want to talk to him.”
“Victory!” Alex crowed, raising both fists in the air.
The couple at the bar turned to glare at them, and the kitchen staff peeked out of their doorway to see what was happening.
Her cheeks went hot, and she cast him a withering glare. “Are we done here?”
“Oh, Lauren, bless your naive little heart,” he said pityingly. “We’re just getting started.”
Star Tracker: Your Favorite Celebrities Revealed
Gods of the Gates Actor Goes Wild!
Star Tracker’s international sources are getting word that Spanish authorities detained Alexander Woodroe, the actor currently portraying an oh-so-adult Cupid on Gods of the Gates, in conjunction with a late-night bar brawl. He was released hours later without charges filed.
No official word yet from the Gates camp, and Woodroe’s agent hasn’t responded to our inquiries, but looking at that mug shot, he certainly doesn’t appear to regret anything he’s done.
This isn’t the first time Woodroe has found himself in hot water. In 2013, he was famously ejected from Bruno Keene’s award-winning ensemble drama All Good Men mid-shoot, under unclear circumstances. Woodroe claimed Keene was abusive toward his cast, but Keene dismissed the accusation as the fabrication of an actor out of his depth.
“He couldn’t keep up with everyone else,” Keene said at the time. “So he lashed out. I feel sorry for him, really. I hope he finds resources to help him control his temper, or I’m afraid he’ll have trouble finding future roles in Hollywood.”
When asked to comment on the scandal, the remaining All Good Men cast members refused. The Gates cast hasn’t responded to requests for interviews this time either. Coincidence? Perhaps. But actors are famously reluctant to turn on one of their own, despite any bad behavior on or off set.
Star Tracker suggests you make this your last time lashing out, Alex, because you know the old saying: Three strikes, and you’re out–of work!
3
ALEX WAS NAPPING IN HIS TRAILER AGAIN, WHICH DIDN’T surprise her.
Since they’d met on Monday, Lauren had seen him work one fourteen-hour-plus day after another, arriving on set at dawn and leaving after sunset. Back at the hotel, he exercised and ate and talked with Marcus and—collapsed, as far as she could tell.