Starstruck - Book Four by Gemma Brooks

ocean blue eyes wide and serious. “Girl, I can tell you some stories…”
     
    “How do you know her?” I asked.
     
    “We used to go up for the same parts,” she said. “A long
time ago, when we were first getting into acting. She would always get the
parts. Probably because she was crazy enough to do…which was literally anything
and everything if you catch my drift.”
     
    Mia was too polite to go into details, but I could only
imagine. I’d only met Ava a handful of times, but I’d witnessed enough to know
she was willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted.
     
    “We were friends for a while,” Mia added. “A very short
while.”
     
    “What happened?” I asked.
     
    “She stole my boyfriend,” Mia sighed. “In retrospect it was
a good thing. He was an ass. And I think he ended up cheating on her too. What
goes around comes around.”
     
    Alec stood patiently behind Mia with his tape measure in
hand.
     
    “I’m sorry,” Mia said. “We totally got side tracked.”
     
    Alec whipped his tape measure out and Mia stood up.
     
    “Brynn, write these down for me,” he said as he began
spouting out Mia’s dimensions. I’d forgotten for a second that I was there to
do work.
     
    As Mia tried on garment after garment and laughed and joked
and flitted about like some giggly girlfriend, I was enchanted. In another
world, we’d have been best friends.
     
    “Thanks so much, Alec,” Mia said as she simultaneously
walked us to the front door and pulled the giant Velcro curlers from her hair.
Each released section bounced perfectly, resting on her lithe shoulders.
“Brynn, it was so nice meeting you. I’d love to get together sometime and hang
out. Maybe we can reminisce about home? Or talk about how much we can’t stand
Ava. Whatever you want.”
     
    She flashed her infectious smile once again, and I couldn’t
help but return it. “I’d love to. Alec has my number if you ever want to get a
hold of me.”
     
    “Sounds great,” she said before waving us off and shutting
the door.
     
    “Oh, my God,” I said to Alec when we got back to the car. “I
love her. I’m in love with her. Isn’t she the greatest thing ever?”
     
    “Yeah, you haven’t stopped smiling for the past hour,” he
said. “I knew you’d like her, but sheesh. Didn’t know you’d be that smitten.”
     
    “I’m a smitten kitten,” I joked. “But in a total girl crush,
friend kind of way.”
     
    Alec winked at me. “Mm, hm.”
     
    In the car on the way to his condo, Alec’s phone buzzed.
     
    “What’s that?” I asked.
     
    “It’s Mia,” he said. “She just texted me and told me to give
you her number. She wants to do coffee sometime.”
     
    “Are you serious?!”
     
    “Uh, yeah,” he said as he playfully rolled his eyes and
handed me his phone.
     
    “That was fast,” I said. “She must be smitten with me too.”
     
    I pulled my phone out to start putting her number in, but
the last thing I expected was to see that I had a missed call from Hudson. And
a voicemail. I promptly added Mia to my contact list then shoved the phone back
into my purse.  
     
     
     

CHAPTER 18
 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    The second I had a minute alone at Alec’s place, I whipped
my phone out and listened to the voicemail from Hudson. I wanted to be by
myself when I heard it because it was either going to be really bad or really
good.
     
    “Brynn,” he said, his velvety smooth voice making me melt on
the spot. “Come home. Please.”
     
    I heard him breathing, as if he wanted to say something
more, but he hung up. For once, he wasn’t using his convincing words. He wasn’t
telling me to calm down or that I was overreacting. Most importantly, he wasn’t
giving up on us. Despite everything he still had some fight left in him.
     
    He must be a glutton for punishment, I thought. That or he
must truly be crazy for me.
     
    I dialed him back as quickly as my fingers would let me, and
he answered in the