it.” She grabs the water I ordered before she arrived and sips it. It’s then I see the cracks beneath the makeup. Half of her is injected collagen and scalpel at this point. Mere years ago, she looked fantastic, but she’s refusing to age gracefully. From my side of things women really don’t win that battle by spending thousands in procedures. I can’t deny aging actresses have it rough, I feel for them, but it seems as if it’s a trend now to look like a blow-up doll. She speaks up under my scrutiny. “I have a meeting in an hour, so I can’t stay long.”
“I won’t keep you.”
“When do you start filming?”
“Soon.”
“You’ll be great,” she assures me.
“Hope so,” I say.
“Any idea what angle you’re going to take?”
“I’m working on it.”
“Ah,” she says with a grin, “look at us, all grown up.” Her eyes shine with sincerity. “It seems like yesterday we were getting stoned between takes and trailer hopping.” She gives me a wink, and I hide my shudder. In those days sexual favors were a regular occurrence, but I brush off the ill feeling because I know I’ve never fucked her. My dick was a liability back then, but I’m thankful I had more sense than to sleep with her.
“We’ve both come a long way,” I say, avoiding the implication in her voice and scanning the menu knowing I’m not going to eat.
“How is Mila?”
“Perfect,” I answer without hesitation.
“Lucas,” she laughs, “you don’t have to worry. Our secrets are safe.”
I raise a skeptical brow. “Are they?”
She swallows and darts her eyes away as the waitress approaches. We both order egg-whites and fruit and I sip on carrot juice while she sips on black coffee.
I can sense the nervous energy radiating from her, so I play on it, intensifying the silence with an expectant gaze.
“I loved Blake,” she says softly, staring through the open space next to us. “I fell in love with him when we filmed.” Her eyes glaze over as she speaks, submerged in a different time. “He was so…tempting? No, that’s not the right word. But whatever it was, it was alluring. I guess bad boys always are.”
I remain silent, giving her the segue. She wants to talk, that much is obvious. She looks over at me.
“We were kind of a thing.”
That I didn’t know. But I didn’t see Blake much during the filming of the second movie. It was when he was using the most, and after bailing him out of jail when we wrapped, I moved out and got my own place. We could both afford it. What I couldn’t afford was his lifestyle, it was wearing on me.
“You know dating an actor is insanity,” she says. “I can see why you married out. But the payoff with Blake, the fun we had.” She shakes her head in fond memory. “You know he filled my head with plans for us, I had actual stars in my eyes. It was perfect, until it wasn’t. You know how he was.”
I nod in silent agreement.
“I can’t believe he’s gone.” She looks up to me with tear-filled eyes. “And he loved you. It was so obvious with the way he talked about you. He was so protective…if anyone said anything negative, he got crazy aggressive,” she says, pulling the flimsy napkin from the wrapped silverware to catch a tear underneath her eye.
Ache begins to throb in my chest, and I resist the urge to rub it.
“Okay, so we all loved each other, right?” I ask, playing on her words.
“I thought so, yes.”
I clasp my hands together on the table. “Then why are you bringing his name into this?”
Silence. She takes another sip of coffee, and fearful eyes meet mine over the cup. She’s cracking a lot faster than I’d anticipated, and I need to strike.
“Gabriela, when is the last time you talked to Blake?”
She hangs her head and more tears fall. It takes every bit of strength I have not to lash out, and I know then my assumptions about her were right. She knows.
“The night he died?”
I barely catch the dip of her chin.
“I’m not angry,” I coax gently, doing my best to keep from jerking her out of her seat. “I just need to know what happened.”
She glances over her shoulder as more tears streak down her cheeks. “It’s nice out. I’m craving a cigarette, how about you?”
I grit out my response. “I don’t smoke.”
She nods her head toward the door slightly widening her eyes, and