The Lies of Pride

by Lily Zante

  “I like Nina, and I want to make it up to her.”

  “You like her? Why?” Frankie reminds me of an overprotective father, mother and grandparents all rolled into one.

  This is harder than negotiating a percentage of profits for a film role. I breathe in slowly, thinking on the spot. “I like her because she’s not like the others. She’s just not interested. I came to thank her and she barely acknowledged me.”

  Frankie chortles. “That’s Nina for you.”

  I lean towards her. “The papers made out a story about my injuries—”

  “I know. All the waitresses were talking about you.”

  “And Nina, who saved me, didn’t say a word. Did she? She didn’t tell you the truth, did she? She didn’t even tell her brother and his girlfriend about what happened. That kind of … “ I struggle to find the right word. “That kind of uniqueness, is rare. She’s different.”

  “She is.”

  “I just want to get to know her.”

  “I’m not so sure she’ll want to get to know you.”

  I’ve never had to work harder to get access to someone before. “How about you get her to deliver my lunch to the set every day?”

  Frankie’s brows push together and she cocks her head. “Why would I do that?”

  “So that I can get to know her. She’s not giving me a chance.”

  “She doesn’t give anyone a chance,” Frankie retorts. “What exactly are you doing this all for?”

  “You know what she’s like. She won’t give me an in.”

  “Maybe she’s not interested.”

  “I accept that. Just let me get to know her. I’m not going to do anything,” I throw my hands up, for effect. “She’s just got to come to the set and give me my lunch. It’s hardly a date. It’s just business.”

  “If you’re looking to ask her for a date, don’t hold your breath.”

  “So you will?”

  “We don’t usually do delivery, but I’ll make an exception.”

  “I appreciate it, and of course, I’ll make it worth your while.”

  “You’d better not hurt that girl. I shouldn’t do this, but she’s not going to make any friends just working here and going to night school.”

  I feel as if she’s convincing herself that she’s doing the right thing.

  “I’ll never do a thing. I swear. If she was easy to talk to, I wouldn’t need to resort to this.”

  “Okay. We’ll give it a shot. Let me think about it.”

  She still needs to think about it? “I need to check your story about you getting attacked. If I find out you lied, this isn’t happening.”

  “Fine. Go right ahead.” In a way, her protectiveness over Nina is endearing. “Thank you. This stays between you and me,” I tell her.

  “You bet it does. Nina would kill me if she found out I was in on it.”

  * * *

  NINA

  * * *

  “We’ve had a request. Someone wants a lunch delivery every day to their place of work.” Frankie’s giving me an odd look.

  “Ok-ayyy.” I wonder why she’s telling me, and not the other waitresses. “This is new. When did we start doing this?”

  “As of today. It’s your friend. He wants his lunch delivered to him on the set.”

  “What set?” What friend? And in that split second, I already know the answer to that question before Frankie replies. “Your actor friend.”

  “He’s not my actor friend.” My mind scrambles to figure out when this little plan was concocted.

  “He said you swooped in like Superwoman.” Frankie tries hard to suppress a grin.

  I narrow my eyes. “He said what?”

  “You heard.”

  Damn that guy. He’s gone and told Frankie about that night as well. For someone who’s supposed to be preserving his image, he’s doing a bad job of it. Why did he need to tell Frankie?

  “I need you to go.”

  “But I’m on my lunchbreak,” I protest.

  “You can take a break when you get back.”

  Over my dead body.

  I’m about to protest, but the expression on Frankie’s face tells me I have no choice.

  Whatever Callum Sandersby has up his sleeve I won’t be a party to it. “Why does it have to be me? Why can’t someone else do it?”

  “You never get out. You’re either at night school or in here.”

  I fold my arms. I’m not buying this. “That’s your reason? Can you get someone else to do it?”

  “I want you to do it.” She walks right up to me. “I can’t trust anyone else. They’ll end up on an extra hour-long break. You get a taxi there and back. Simple. Your security pass has all been sorted.”

  I frown. “My security pass?”

  “To go on set.”

  “When did this happen?” I ask, suspicious.

  “Don’t you worry when it happened. Think of it as you helping me to spread the word about Frankie’s Kitchen. Who knows, it could lead to more business for me.”

  We stare at one another. “Be a good girl, Nina and follow my orders for a change.”

  A short while later, I’m at the film set, and I’ve gone through security. I’m expecting someone to take Callum’s take out from me, but instead I get told where his trailer is.

  I knock on the door, and I’m surprised when he opens it. I’m not sure why I was expecting, or hoping, that it would be someone else.

  “Hey.” He flashes me a beautiful smile, one that reaches his eyes and lights them up, but I’m not falling for it.

  “Your delivery,” I say, holding his bag up in front of me. “Take it.”

  “Come in.” He doesn’t take the bag from me, but goes back into his room, and sits down on the chair in front of the dresser. I dump his food on the coffee table, then turn to leave.

  “Hey, don’t go!”

  “I’ve done my bit; you’ve got the food.”

  “That’s it?” he asks, sounding surprised.

  “I have a real job. I have to get back.”

  “A real job?” he asks, obviously not liking my comment.

  I cut to the chase. “Why am I doing this? Why did it have to be me?”

  He looks slightly startled. “Uh, it’s just easier having one person because of the security pass and all that ...”

  “Is it that much of a bother to get a security pass sorted?”

  He scratches the stubble on his jaw. “Yeah. You wouldn’t believe what a pain those things are. Anyway, thanks for my lunch. I hope I didn’t get you in trouble with your brother.”

  “He was mad.”

  “I noticed. He’s never been happy when I’m around.”

  “I understand that,” I reply.

  He picks up the brown delivery bag, and looks inside, then takes a sniff. “Hmmm. Delicious.” He pulls out the milkshake and slurps it. “Did you want to look around the set?”

  “No.”

  I can tell that my response isn’t what he was expecting. “Just in case you wanted to see what it’s like, you know, being on a movie set and all.”

  “It’s not something I lie awake at night thinking about.”

  “What do you lie awake thinking about?”

  Ugh. My stomach churns at such cheesy lines. I’m out of here. I turn on my heels, and step towards the door, only, he rushes up and beats me to it.

  “Don’t go. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

  I don’t understand why this guy wants me to hang around. I’m not feeling anything. I don’t give a hoot who he is, and I don’t care to be on this set.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to look around?”

  “Positive.” Most of the women he meets must be so easy to impress. Though he also seems kind of desperate for me to stick around. I don’t have him down for being a lonely guy, but he seems both desperate and lonely to me right now. Or he’s after something. “I’ll have to show you around the kitchen at the diner, when you’re next over,” I shoot back.<
br />
  “I look forward to it.”

  “Just to get this out of the way,” I brace myself because it’s hard to say but he gives me no choice—this guy is so in my face. Office Guy is restrained by comparison, and Joni’s boyfriend is a jerk, but this actor guy, he’s too much. “I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I’m not interested in you.”

  “In me, as a person? Or are you talking about the actor population in general?”

  “I would never date an actor.”

  “Ever dated one before? We’re not such a bad species.”

  I shiver with exaggeration. “I’m really not going there.”

  “You never know, you might like it.”

  “You’re unbelievable.”

  I rush away before he can stop me.

  On the ride back to the diner I contemplate what happened and how transparent this guy is. I hate that Frankie’s making me do this, and I hate him even more for asking her to do this.

  Chapter Eleven

  CALLUM

  * * *

  “Today’s lunch.” Nina hands me the food takeout bag and hovers around the door as if she’s too scared to come into the trailer.

  “Thank you.” I reach for the bag. “This is my personal assistant, Dottie. Do you remember her from that night at the hospital?”

  “How could I forget that night?” she says, not without a touch of sarcasm.

  “Hey,” Dottie waves at her, then rushes out with her ear glued to her cell phone.

  “Care to come in?” I ask, expecting to be turned down. To my surprise, Nina steps inside and I move back, wary of scaring her off.

  “I’m curious about something,” she says slowly, taking in the contents of my room and examining it carefully. She does all this without moving an inch.

  “What?” I’m all ears, and I’m puzzled by her slight change in temperament. She doesn’t seem as eager to rush away today.

  “Why did you wait until the end to throw your wallet to the guys who mugged you?”

  I suck in a breath. My sudden elation at the fact that she’s stayed out here, as opposed to running away from me, suddenly deflates. I want to tell her the truth, but I also don’t want to talk about it. “I didn’t want to give it up.”

  “Designer label?” she asks, with a slight sneer.

  I shake my head slowly. “That wasn’t the reason.”

  “Was it made out of some hideously expensive animal hide?”

  I’m surprised by the aggression in her voice. It’s almost as if she hates me. “I’m not into stuff like that.”

  “So, why didn’t you give it up? It would have saved you the black eye and bruised ribs.”

  “I didn’t want to.” I’m struggling for an excuse. “It had sentimental value.” Every time I think of Ben, I tear up.

  “A present from a girlfriend?”

  “Something like that.”

  She’s asking a lot of questions, it’s almost like she’s testing me. I don’t like telling others about Ben, but if I back away, and don’t answer, she’ll think I’m hiding something, and this is the longest we’ve talked.

  “But you gave it to them eventually.”

  “I heard your voice, heard it was a female, and I was scared, even in my bloodied state lying on the floor, that they might go for you.”

  She squints at me. “You did it to save me?”

  “I didn’t want those jerks to do anything to you. So, I tossed it at them.”

  “After they had beaten you silly? You should know the first rule of getting robbed is that you give them what they want.”

  “I wasn’t planning on getting robbed.”

  “It’s not exactly safe, especially where you ended up. I’m surprised you didn’t know better.”

  She could be Rudy, for all the advice she’s giving me. “You’re just like Rudy. Freakily like him.”

  “Who’s Rudy?”

  “My publicist. The guy at the hospital who tried to pay you off.”

  “That jerk,” she mumbles, loud enough that I hear it.

  I chortle. “He was rude to you. I apologize for that.”

  “He was, and it’s not your place to apologize for him. Don’t you have bodyguards or something?”

  “I avoid them as much as possible. I have to have them in large crowds, and when we’re going to film premieres and stuff like that, otherwise I try to live as normal a life as possible.”

  “Is it hard? Trying to be normal?”

  “It’s not easy. People flock around me wherever I go. That’s why disguises are my best defense. It’s either a disguise or a bodyguard, and I’d rather have a disguise any day. A bodyguard just ups the ante, whereas a disguise gives me anonymity. If I could be invisible, that would be the best.”

  “You want to be invisible?” she asks, as if this surprises her.

  “Yes.”

  “And yet you’re an actor. You want to be on screen, everywhere, worldwide. Isn’t that the aim?”

  “But in my private life, I want to be left alone.”

  “I expect your brother’s probably experiencing some of that, what with being thrust into the limelight so suddenly?” I’m proud of myself for moving the conversation to seamlessly to Elias. Let’s face it, he’s the reason I’ve gone to all this trouble.

  “He hates it.”

  “The fame?”

  “The spotlight. Being a boxer is a lot different to being an actor. Elias doesn’t court the publicity.”

  I’m about to tell her that I don’t either, but I don’t want to end up in a disagreement for no reason. “He’s hard to get a hold of,” I venture.

  “He has a lot going on.”

  “With the rematch, I guess.”

  “It’s a big fight.”

  “The biggest. Is he scared?” I ask her.

  “We don’t talk about it much.”

  “No?”

  She stares at me, as if she’s appraising me and trying to figure me out. I’m getting mixed signals from her, as if she’s interested in my story, but not me.

  “Why do you always push me away, Nina?”

  “Because I’m not interested in you. I guess that must come as a shock even to your Mount Everest sized ego.”

  I’m about to tell her that I have something that’s Mount Everest sized, but I stop myself before I say something that might make her blush. Smirking, I tell her, “If you’re too proud to ask for my autograph, I can sign your hand.”

  She makes a face as if I’ve asked her to eat vomit. “I don’t want your autograph. Why would I? I didn’t even know who you were when you got attacked that night.” Her attention diverts to something else. “Leanne Rose,” she says, moving towards a card I’ve got on my dresser. She peers at it, but doesn’t pick it up. “I like her. You were in a film together.”

  “Amazonian Adventure,” I recite the title. That was one of my earlier films.

  “I like the way she put you in your place. She had a badass role in that film.”

  I grin, remembering. “She was good, and she’s good at putting me in my place, on screen and off.”

  “Yeah?” I wonder if Nina is trying to find out if I’m single or not. This surprises me. It’s good that we seem to be getting on fine. I just hope she doesn’t think I’m hitting on her. Some Sandersby and Elias Cardoza interaction might be good for my reputation. I wouldn’t want Nina to think that I was making any moves on her.

  “That picture was taken many years ago and we’ve been good friends ever since.” Leanne is a sweetheart, and she sent me a Good Luck card, with a picture of her and me taken on set during that film.

  “Interesting,” says Nina, gliding over to the door.

  “This has been interesting,” I agree. She was almost friendly towards me today.

  Chapter Twelve

  NINA

  * * *

  I hate Joni’s boyfriend. I’ve passed enough veiled comments to Joni about him when she gushes about what a misunderstood guy he is, and how he
has a nice side to him. I can see him for what he is; an abusive, controlling pig, and I hate myself for letting her convince me to come to this party.

  The music is loud, but it’s not that loud that I can pretend I didn’t hear him. Scott is saying something to me, and I smile at him every now and then, making him think I’m listening, or interested.

  We’re in the kitchen which is overflowing with people. The smell of weed and alcohol permeates the air. I’m seriously considering going home in the next half an hour.

  “Don’t look so miserable,” Joni wails, shoving a glass of something in my face. I take a sniff. It smells like paint stripper. I decide not to drink it.

  “I shouldn’t have come out tonight. I had an assignment to finish.”

  “You and your assignments,” Joni cries. “That’s all your ever do.”

  Scott comes over to us, with a bottle of beer in his hand. “How about you and I go for a drink sometime?” he says to me.

  “You’re not going to have any luck with her,” Joni giggles. She’s already had a glass of that paint stripper-like liquid and she’s on her second one. “She’s set her sights higher.”

  When her tongue is loose, I forget how easily she talks. Scott looks visibly shocked. “You’re seeing someone?” The laughter and noise around us suddenly seem to lessen.

  “Someone’s seeing her,” Joni doesn’t make sense and she’s not trying to.

  “Who?” Scott asks.

  I rush to put the facts straight. “I’m not seeing anyone.”

  “That’s not what she said,” he nods his head in Joni’s direction. I stare at Joni and pray that she’ll keep her mouth shut. “She’s had a lot to drink. I wouldn’t trust what she says.”

  “I want to know. What does she mean?”

  “Callum Sandersby,” Joni drawls out slowly. “That gorgeous actor guy. You know the one. He always making those action movies. The guy with the dark hair, sexy eyes.”

  Scott looks confused. “As if I’d … oh, that guy?” His mouth falls open. “He’s in Chicago filming his latest film? You’re seeing him?”

  “She turned every other guy down, but not him.” Joni can’t help adding more fuel to the fire. Scott’s face hardens.