least Bradley Cooper had the good sense not to date any of my customers.”
“We weren’t dating,” I say, taking my phone back from Tobin and sliding it into my purse. “We were just . . . I don’t know, we were just flirting. I shouldn’t have assumed anything.”
“Oh, Annie,” Chloe says, wrapping me in a side hug. “This isn’t your fault. You know what this is? Some sort of fun misunderstanding. Like, you know how in romantic comedies the heroine always thinks the hero is cheating on her but it turns out he’s been talking to his sister or something?”
“I’m fairly certain Tarah isn’t Drew’s sister.”
“It’s just an example. What I’m saying is that this is your rom-com misunderstanding, and you’ll resolve it and then ride off into the sunset and get married. There aren’t even any pictures, so who knows if this is true? It’s an anonymous tip.”
I shake my head. “Thanks for the pep talk, Chlo.”
Then Tobin wraps me in a hug from the other side, and Gary says, “Oh, all right,” and hugs all three of us. I steal a glance at Nick, and although he would never join in on a group hug, even he looks at me with eyes full of sympathy. It’s all too much.
“Actually,” I say, wriggling out of the hug, “I have to get home. I have a lot of work to do.”
“Okay,” Chloe says, watching me with concern. “I can come over tonight if you want?”
“Thanks, but I’m just gonna work and go to bed,” I say, and then I give her one more hug. “Bye, guys.”
The bell jingles as I walk out the door and into the night, where the street that looked so charming and lit up before now looks dingy and dark. This is it, I tell myself. This is your life.
It felt good to think, even for a day, that something magical could happen to me. That a movie star could come to town, and he could not only be good-looking but also sweet and sad and complicated, and that we would have a connection. But this is real life, not a movie, I remind myself as my boots hit the brick sidewalk. Drew Danforth is probably used to dating whoever he wants, whenever he wants, and anyway he’ll be gone in a couple of days.
And then, my sadness starts to morph into something more akin to rage. Because I broke up with Carter over this jerk. Sure, Carter didn’t make my heart flutter, but maybe that’s not what I wanted. Maybe I don’t need to feel like I’m constantly having heart palpitations! Maybe I should’ve gone for someone who was strong, steady, dependable, and I don’t know, NOT A MOVIE STAR.
“This is exactly why Hugh Grant should’ve stayed away from Julia Roberts,” I mutter under my breath as I step into the house.
“What’s that?” Uncle Don calls from the couch, where he’s working through yet another rewatch of the Merlin television series.
“Nothing!” I call as I hang up my coat.
I head to my room and stop as soon as I walk in. The thought that filled me with giddy elation this morning—“Drew was in this room!”—now fills me with incandescent fury. If I’d never met him, maybe what I had with Carter would’ve been enough. Oh, poor hypothetical Annie, forced to date a hot man with big arms who knows how to properly light a film set. How would I ever have survived?
But no. I had to meet stupid, flirty prankster Drew Danforth, a guy who will pull on your hair and make you think you’re having a movie moment even though he’s probably just thinking about making out with an impossibly beautiful actress.
I look at myself in the mirror, slumping when I see the sad remains of the lipstick I hopefully put on earlier, back when I imagined it would be smeared all over Carter’s face by the end of the night.
The only thing that cheers me up is the buoying effect of my own anger, which reminds me that I’ll be able to tell Drew exactly what I think of him tomorrow in a speech worthy of a movie.
“I hate you, Drew Danforth,” I whisper to my reflection with a smile.
Chapter Fourteen
In most romantic comedies, the first scene establishes why the female lead needs a change in her life. Maybe she’s barking orders at an assistant and sleeping at the office, so we know she’s a workaholic who needs to find love! Or maybe