Touching the Billionaire - Holly Jaymes Page 0,46

so proud of him.”

“He didn’t mention it to me when I talked to him the other day.”

“Yes, well, you know he’s always so careful not to make you feel bad,” my mother explained.

Jesus Christ. I felt it said something about my parents that they didn’t realize just how close Oliver and I were. They tended to look at the world through their own lens, and therefore in their minds, Oliver thought about me and treated me the way they did; with utter disdain.

I’d long told myself that I didn’t give a shit about what my parents thought of me. At an early age, when I realized that there was probably nothing I could do to win their admiration, even if I went to law school or became a doctor, I decided I would go against the grain on purpose. So the majority of my childhood was me poking at them and earning the disdain that they had for me.

Some Midtown Manhattan shrink would have a field day deciphering all the dysfunction involved in that. He might even say that these regular calls were a sad attempt on my part to seek my parents’ approval. Because I was afraid that was true, I decided it was time to end the call.

“I have to go now. But I hope you’re both doing well.”

“No doubt there’s some call girl at the door,” I heard my father say.

I poked the off button.

The next day, I was second-guessing whether I should’ve made that call to my parents because as I walked onto the set, not only did I have the heavy feeling of disappointment about not being able to see Madeline, but heaped on top of it was the disapproval of my parents. Why couldn’t I let that go, at the very least?

Fortunately, today’s shoot didn't involve a whole lot of close-frame acting. Mostly we’d be filming filler shots of me walking or running; wide-view shots, so it didn’t really matter how I was feeling now.

Even so, when I was done and sitting in my trailer, drinking a bottle of water and trying to go over business notes but not having much luck giving them any attention, there was a knock on my door and Corrine stepped in, looking annoyed.

“You know, up until this week, I really thought we had a blockbuster movie that would garner at least 99% on Rotten Tomatoes.” She stood like a nagging mother with her hands on her hips as she looked down on me. “But after what I’ve seen this week. I’m wondering if you’re purposely trying to tank this movie. Maybe that article we read was true and now you and Madeline have had some kind of breakup and can’t stand to be around each other. If that’s the case, you have to suck it up, Theo. You’re an actor, so act like it.”

I massaged my forehead. “It’s not like that." It seemed like I was saying that a lot. Perhaps if I continued to say it over and over, I’d believe it too. I certainly wasn’t selling it very well because Corrine didn’t look like she bought one word of it.

She came in and took a seat at the little table in the trailer. “I don’t know what’s going on. Whatever it is, you need to put it right. Now, I wasn’t a big fan of the idea of you using your charm to schmooze and woo Madeline so that we could be sure to get the performance we wanted out of the both of you, but if that’s what it takes to get this movie back on track, you’ve got to start doing that again, Theo.”

Christ, we were back to that? I wanted to tell her that I wasn’t going to manipulate Madeline, and in fact I never really had. If anyone had been wooed had been me. From the minute I’d seen Madeline walking up the hall in that kick-ass leather skirt, she had bewitched me.

“I don’t need all the details about what is going on with you and her. I am not your shrink. But you need to figure out what is up and put it right. She’s off the schedule until midweek next week and you’re off until Monday. So maybe you and her need to get together and get your shit worked out.”

There was nothing I wanted more than to have a good excuse to run down to the eighth floor and get my shit right with Madeline. The problem was I