me and told me about the new direction they’re taking the show. I figured you heard the bad news.” He chuckled again, and I wanted to throw my phone across the parking lot. “Don’t worry. If they kill you off dramatically enough, it might actually be good for your career. You can’t play the goody-two-shoes forever. Well, you can, but who would want to?”
I stopped next to my car and briefly closed my eyes. The age difference between the two of us was a decade, but there were times when it felt like he was eons older than I was. I called him a kid, but he hadn’t been youthful in a very long time.
“No offense, but you’re the last person I plan on taking advice from. The choices you’re making right now are dangerous. No one else in your life will tell you the path you’re on isn’t the right one, but I will.” What else did I have to lose at this point? “Maybe you should try acting your age for once.”
I pulled open the car door and slipped inside. I immediately started it so I could turn on the AC. It was hot in LA, and I needed the blast of cold air to cool down my face. The last thing I needed was a paparazzi picture of me looking like a hot mess to get major coverage.
The surprisingly deep and husky voice on the other end of the line mocked me with obvious delight. “Maybe you should stop acting the way everyone else wants you to act, for once. You’re about as interesting as watching paint dry, Maren. Being boring isn’t going to get you anywhere.”
I dropped my head so that my forehead rested against the steering wheel. I wanted to tell him that being a spoiled brat and indulging in every single temptation that came his way wasn’t going to get him anywhere either, but it didn’t seem like that was the case. He seemed untouchable.
I wasn’t sure how many scenes we had left to shoot together, so I didn’t want to say anything that would make the tension between us worse. However, there was only so much a girl could take in one day.
“Our days working together are numbered. I wish I could say it was a pleasure getting to be on the same project as you, but I’m not a liar.” I sighed heavily. “I hope our paths never cross again, Salinger.”
I hung up the phone, determined to get through the rest of my time on the series with as little contact and interaction with the problematic teenager as possible. I meant what I said when I told him I never wanted to see him again once shooting was done.
He could be someone else’s headache while I tried to figure out my life.
After I was kicked off my series and out of my starring role, the one and only good thing that happened was that Salinger Dolan did indeed disappear from my life for a long time. It was impossible to forget about him when his face was pretty much everywhere I turned, but eventually the resentment and anger I harbored toward him faded from a raging inferno to a low simmer. I told myself it was silly to hold a teenager responsible for everything that went wrong. I had to be accountable for my own choices and for putting my faith in the wrong people.
I planned to move on; live and let live. I knew the best revenge would be living my life well and finding success on my own terms.
It didn’t quite work out how I envisioned. Salinger was gone, but far from forgotten, and success was a lot harder to come by when you’d been blacklisted and branded as problematic.
It took a little bit of luck, and years of taking on roles that I never would have considered before, to get my life back on track. There was a hiccup or two in the decade it took me to rebuild things, but nothing had the lasting impact that trying to save Salinger had. And just when it seemed like my life was finally going to level out and be drama-free, Salinger Dolan came roaring back into it like a runaway train.
Maren
“SO, YOUR DIVORCE is finalized? I never thought I’d see the day.”
I clinked the rim of my delicate wine glass against the rim of the beautiful blonde’s seated across from me. Lennon Carter had been my agent for the last