Scowling, Arial stepped away from the sink. She knew her mother was right, but she didn't want to admit it, let alone talk about the problem anymore. Having a discussion about romance and making love to a man, along with all of her insecurities that went along with just thinking about it, was not something she wanted to do in the kitchen anyway.
She dried her hands on a nearby towel. “I think you've got a handle on the rest.”
“You don't need to be all offended. If you can't talk about this with me, who can you talk to?” her mother asked.
“The point is I don't want to talk about it anymore, period.” She shook her head. “Thank you for the advice and the pep talk, but I'm not going to feel better until I can figure out what's going on inside his head.” And that was a conversation she was terrified to even start with him. He was the only person who would understand the added pressure on her life, and she couldn't talk to him about it either. All of those things applied well to people who lived a normal life outside of the public eye, but her life was nothing like that. Finding one true love was difficult enough as it was. To find it in Hollywood was near impossible.
Chores done for the time being, she went outside in hopes that the fresh air would help her collect her thoughts. The sun was going down, the air warm, and the soft sounds of the insects chirping could be heard from out in the yard. She walked to the pond and sat down on the grass, gazing out at the still water.
It's not so simple. I've been lying to myself, thinking I could have a real relationship with him, believing that everything would stay the same after we left here. But it isn't going to work like that. As soon as their plane landed in California, things would change. The city would slowly start to suck away their soul again, and it would only get worse when the media caught on to what was going on. Because she knew without a doubt that if she and Bryce had followed through on their date, it would have gone well. They would have clicked well and made a wonderful couple — for a time.
How would things change back in Los Angeles, though? Would the paparazzi get the better of them? What if he found another sultry vixen eying him on the set of his new film? What if another man tried to seduce her? She was strong enough to stay away, but would Bryce believe her? Without working on the show on a regular basis anymore, how would that change their relationship to begin with?
Too many questions, and they were ones she was afraid to ask. Bryce would either react one of two ways: get defensive and deny the whole thing, or get overly sweet to the point where she couldn't trust his answers. Sometimes, if he got sappy enough, he said things that were good in theory but unrealistic. His imagination easily got the better of him.
Arial pulled out her phone, tempted to call him. Sure, he had said he would call her first, but what was the harm in her taking it into her own hands? The phone buzzed to life as she stared at it, and Bryce's name appeared on the caller ID. While the temptation was great to let the phone ring until she was ready to talk to him, she knew she couldn't put it off forever.
“Hey,” she said. “You have perfect timing, as usual.”
“Why's that?” he asked. “Am I interrupting drama, or getting you out of shoveling cow poop?”
She laughed softly. “Pretty sure the poop has already been taken care of for the time being. Family drama has been on a bit of a minimum for the past few days, thankfully. I just meant you have this way of…”
“Way of?”
Knowing when I need you the most. “You just picked a good moment, that's all.”
“Then I'm glad I didn't do it earlier like I had originally planned,” he said. “Anyway, I wanted to apologize for earlier. I shouldn't have run out like that, especially when we have a lot of work to do. And thinking about that, I realized maybe we should focus on our act. I know how scary it's going to be for you