The Rebel - Raleigh Ruebins Page 0,18
all of the blankets surrounding them. Bandit was lying on his back, his paws in the air above him.
“They’re clearly best friends now,” I said.
“I like their names. Anna and Elsa. Are those your grandmothers’ names or something?” Liam asked.
I fixed my gaze on him. “Very funny,” I said.
He just stared at me blankly. “What?”
“You’re kidding me, right?”
He looked to one side of the room, then back to me. “No?”
“Holy shit. You’ve never seen it, have you?”
“Oh. Are they names of some heroines from an old western movie or something? I should have known.”
“You’ve never seen the modern classic movie Frozen? Liam, you’ve been worse off than I thought,” I said.
He started cracking up. “Wait a minute. You named your dogs after the movie Frozen?”
“I named my dogs Anna and Elsa after the most iconic pair of sisters that have been put to animated screens in the last twenty years, yes,” I said.
“Well, excuse me,” Liam said, his eyes shining. “I’ve been too busy getting fucked on film for the past ten years to see kids’ movies.”
“Frozen goes beyond age barriers,” I said. “And I’m not going to let you go on living life without seeing it.”
“I have no interest in cartoons,” Liam said, waving me off.
“You’ll be crying by the thirty-minute mark, I guarantee.”
“Bullshit.”
“Let’s make a bet.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Fine. I’ll watch Frozen with you, and if I cry, I’ll give you fifty bucks.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going to take your money.”
“Then what’s the bet?”
Adrenaline flared through me. “If you cry, you owe me an explanation of why you finally quit drinking, and why you’re really in Amberfield. And... you will also owe me a formal promise that you won’t come into Red’s Tavern ever again.”
I immediately regretted saying it. I hated the way it made Liam’s expression grow sad, just for a moment, before he bit his bottom lip and nodded.
“Okay,” he finally said softly. “And if I don’t cry?”
“If you don’t cry, I will star in whatever stupid solo porn video you wanted me to do so badly,” I said.
His eyes shot wide open. “You will?”
“Yes. I’ll give you a contract in writing if you need it.”
“Red, don’t say things you’re going to regret.”
“I’m not going to regret it, because you are definitely going to cry at least three times in Frozen.”
“I don’t cry much these days,” Liam said.
“I seem to remember you crying very easily,” I said. “And I don’t know why you want me for one of your videos, anyway.”
“Because I know it would be the absolute best way to launch Hardy Productions,” Liam said. “Do you have any idea how many comments and views the old video of us still gets?”
“I try not to think about our old video,” I said. “Shit, that thing is still up online?”
“Of course it is,” he said. “Everyone in the Liam Hardy fan base wants to know who the mysterious man in the cowboy hat is.”
“But that video is from ten years ago. And you can’t even see my face,” I said. “It’s just a stupid video where you sucked me off.”
“It’s a video where you come so hard that you get it all over the brim of your cowboy hat,” Liam said. “People love that fucking thing. They’re big fans of your cock in particular. They say the head is perfectly shaped. Do you seriously not read the comments?”
“Of course I don’t read the damn comments,” I said. “I haven’t watched that video since we filmed it.”
“Well, I have eighty thousand Instagram followers, a hundred thousand NaughtyBoyz followers, and who knows how many people on Twitter. If I announced that a new video of the Mysterious Cowboy was coming out, I’d get enough views that day to pay for a year’s worth of rent.”
“Jesus,” I said.
He shrugged. “They really want to see you jerk off on camera. But I don’t want anyone in my videos who doesn’t want to be in them. Forcing people to do porn isn’t in my agenda.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “You’re not going to win the bet, anyway, so I’m not going to be filming a solo video with you.”
He fixed his eyes on me. “You’re crazy, Red. And you’re also going to lose.”
Something stirred deep inside me. I was way too excited about the prospect of watching one of my favorite movies with Liam.
But he was going to lose the bet, of course. And once I finally found out why he left Los Angeles, I could stop worrying