He was shirtless, of course. My mind was making him shirtless.
Then Oliver would start roving his hands all over Leo’s torso and start kissing his neck, and Leo would lean back to meet his lips…
“You had a thing with Leo,” I accused, pointing at him. “You did, and now you’re trying to get with Reese!”
He gritted his teeth, then looked down.
It was true. It was all true.
I felt like I’d rolled over a log and found a bunch of nasty bugs crawling underneath, scrambling to find a hiding place in the darkness.
“You tried to manipulate me,” I said.
“Oh, get off your goddamn high horse, farm boy,” he snapped. “You’re not above it. You went outside with Reese. You made your demands. And look what you got out of it!” he said, backing up towards the bonfire with his arms outstretched. “Welcome to the fucking cast,” he spat, as if his words were acid. “Thanks for nothing.”
And just like that, he turned and marched back to the bonfire.
I was brimming with bright green jealousy, fueled by it. I took a few steps to follow him, but he was already too far ahead of me.
My mind kept tormenting me with images of Oliver kissing Leo, their bodies wrapped around each other, writhing in a bed.
Just when I was reaching out to grab his shoulder, it was too late. He was already at the bonfire. He crushed the empty White Claw can with one hand, cast it into the flames, and then pulled Leo in for a kiss.
Everyone stopped chattering, and all eyes were on the two men.
After a lingering second, Leo pulled away first, put his hand against Oliver’s chest and said, “What are you doing?!”
“Refusing to keep this a secret anymore,” Oliver said, his words tumbling out of his mouth with a slur.
Dozens of eyes danced between Leo and Oliver. I’d never seen an audience so captivated.
“I’m straight,” Leo said. “I have a girlfriend.”
When Oliver told me that Leo’s girlfriend was fake, I only half-believed him. I knew that I was willing it to be true, clinging onto the thread of a possibility that he might be into me.
But now listening to the way that he proclaimed he had a girlfriend in front of all of his coworkers, I knew it could only be a lie.
He was trying too hard to pull a veil in front of everyone’s eyes.
“You’re not straight,” Oliver said. “We hooked up!”
Several people around the fire gasped.
Alina was watching with horror in her eyes, trying to figure out how she could defuse the situation. Mason was watching with a delighted smile on his face and took a sip from his beer.
“Don’t make up lies just because you want attention,” Leo snapped.
“Pretty pathetic,” Mason said from where he was sitting.
“Shut up,” Leo snarled.
That only made Mason smile more. His eyes were darting from Leo to Oliver, then to me.
I knew there was some kind of evil plan unfolding in that dark mind of his.
I was still paralyzed, feeling like the wind was knocked out of me. The truth seeped into my bones like poison leaking into a reservoir.
Oliver and Leo hooked up. Oliver and Leo hooked up. Oliver and Leo hooked up…
The jealousy was blotting out all of my thoughts and I squeezed my glass too hard.
The wine glass’ stem snapped off, and then all the eyes were on me.
“Clumsy!” Oliver shouted, desperate for scraps of attention. “Guess what, everyone? Charlie and Reese are hooking up!”
There were several more gasps as the audience looked from me to Reese. Reese stood up.
“That’s enough, Oliver. You’re drunk.”
“Is it true?” A crew member shouted, pointing to me. “Are you two fucking? Is that why the Google Doc with the script added his name this evening?”
“This is getting out of control,” Reese said with his arms out.
“No, we want to know!” Another crew member cried. “Are you two fucking? Is that how easy it is to get a part in The Black Castle?”
“You’re fired,” Reese hissed, the bonfire dancing in his eyes.
“What?!” The crew member cried. “Why?!”
“Insubordination,” he said, his voice dripping with command. “In case you’ve forgotten, even though we’re in Italy, you’re still employed in California. And California is an at-will employer state!”
“But—”
“ANYONE ELSE?!” Reese cried, his white wine glass trembling in his hand.
The dozens of people around the fire fell silent.
“That’s what I thought. Any more talk of rumors that aren’t true, and we’ll talk.”
The air was quiet, and even the crickets had stopped chirping. The only sound was the roaring of the ocean. Though truthfully, I was surprised that it too wasn’t cowing down in Reese’s presence.
“I want her gone by tomorrow,” Reese said to one of his set managers.
“Understood,” he said, and then approached the woman.
She was uttering protests as the man marched her back towards the cluster of trailers on the beach.
As the moment died down, there was an awkward silence in the air. Though, since this was already a rowdy party and people were already drunk, it didn’t take long for the noise level to return to normal.
It was like nothing had ever happened.
Reese beckoned for me to come over to him.
As if following a magnet, I wound my way through the people and stood by his side.
“Are you okay?” he asked, his silvery eyes full of concern.
“I am now,” I said, my hand only now starting to steady. “Thank you,”
“That happens every time,” he said, looking off into the blackness of the sea.
“What?” I asked, taking a sip of my bitter pinot out of the stemless glass.
“Someone accuses me of sleeping with someone,” he said smoothly.
I thought of Mason, the one he supposedly had a relationship with. As soon as my mind landed on him, I could feel those cold blue eyes watching me from behind.
“Isn’t that kind of part of the package of being a director?”
