Falling Into Love with You (The Hate-Love Duet #2) - Lauren Rowe Page 0,34
about the amazing talent we’ve seen. But the second we get into Aloha’s dressing room, and she’s closed the door behind us, she whirls around and whisper-shouts, “What the hell is going on with you and Savage?”
Twelve
Laila
“What do you mean what’s going on?” I say to Aloha, taken aback.
She drags me to a couch on the far side of her dressing room. “I mean you and Savage couldn’t keep your hands off each other all day, even when the cameras were off. You exchanged googly-eyed looks and goofy smiles, even when the cameras were off. And you giggled at everything that man said, even when it wasn’t funny, even when the cameras were off. So, I’m asking you, ‘What the heck is going on between you and that man that you haven’t told me,’ because I know you and this is exactly how you act when you’re gone, baby, gone!”
I flop onto the couch and rub my face. “You nailed it. I’m gone, baby, gone.”
“Oh, girl.”
“I’m in big trouble here, Aloha.” I throw up my hands. “Savage is The Beast and I’m Belle and last night was our snowball fight!”
Aloha gasps. “No.”
“Yes!”
“Holy hell, Laila. The boy gives you a few orgasms and suddenly you’ve got amnesia about all the times he made you cry during the tour?”
“Well, it wasn’t just a few orgasms,” I mutter, snickering. And when Aloha chastises me nonverbally, I add, “Okay, look, I know Savage was a colossal jerk to me during the tour. But I wasn’t exactly a saint to him.”
“You didn’t deserve what he did to you, though. That tirade in Atlanta. The groupies he brought to your dressing rooms. The groupie he fucked in Vegas, mere hours after having sex with you.”
“I know. But I found out he’d gotten some terrible news the morning of his tirade in Atlanta. And he thought I was dating Malik when he brought all those groupies into my dressing rooms. And it’s not like we’d agreed to be exclusive when he banged that groupie in Vegas. So, all things considered—”
“He’d sent you a text, begging you to come to his room, mere minutes before banging that groupie, Laila!”
I pout. “Yes, I know, Aloha. But we’ve both agreed to forgive and forget all sins committed during the tour by either of us. We’re going to press the reset button and see what happens and I’m excited about that.”
Aloha raises her eyebrows. “You think you can do that?”
“I do. Now that I’ve had a chance to get to know him on a deeper level, I think I can forgive and forget and move on. I’ve told him that I expect and require monogamy while we’re living together, and he said he totally understands and promises to be with nobody but me. And not because of his contract or the fake romance. But for real. And I believe him.”
Aloha looks skeptical.
“What’s the downside?” I blurt. “He’s hot as hell and I’m stuck with him in a fancy house for three months. I might as well enjoy myself.”
Aloha smirks. “Well, that’s true. I just don’t want you getting hurt, that’s all.”
“I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
“Regardless, I think you should bring it down a notch, on-camera, just to give yourself a little headroom, so to speak—room for the on-camera romance to grow.”
I furrow my brow. “Nadine said she was thrilled with what we did today.”
“Yeah, I heard. But let me offer some unsolicited advice. I’ve been in this industry my whole life, so trust me when I say you can’t give the suits everything they want on day one, or there’s nowhere for your performance to go. Trust me, they always want more, more, more, until their expectations feel impossible to fulfill. You and Savage should leave yourselves some room for your ‘romance’ to blossom each week on the show, or else, by the finale, they’re going to want you to give birth on-air.”
I laugh.
“I’m only half-kidding.”
I process that for a moment. “Here’s my predicament, though. The producers slipped a cheap buy-out clause into my contract, and I’m worried if the romance storyline isn’t a ratings bonanza out of the gate, the producers will axe me from the show.”
“Shoot, Laila. Daria was okay with a buy-out clause?”
“We had no choice. The producers wouldn’t do the deal without it, and I wanted to do the deal. Daria said the chances of them invoking the clause are almost nothing, because she thinks we’ll pull in record ratings. But, still, just knowing that clause is