by Lily Zante
I try to reach out again, but this time she steps back and sets the champagne glass on the bench. “I’ve remembered. I have an assignment to hand in tomorrow.” She makes her announcement with such conviction that I’m left wondering who she’s trying to convince. She starts to walk away, but she doesn’t go back the way she came.
“Nina, wait, stop.” I follow her. “Don’t you want to tell the others that you’re leaving?”
She spins around. “Don’t follow me, Callum. Please don’t make a scene. Please.”
There it is again, the pleading in her voice, pushing me away.
I can’t not do as she says, but I also can’t let her go with so many unanswered questions flying around in my head. “Your wrist,” I say, quietly.
“I told you,” she says tightly. “I accidentally cut myself when I was cutting the tomatoes.”
“Potatoes.”
“What?” She looks and sounds annoyed.
“You said potatoes before.”
She exhales in annoyance. “I’m always chopping things. I can’t remember what it was.”
“You’re a waitress, not a cook,” I remind her.
“What are you? A detective?”
“A guy who cares.”
“A user, more like.”
She marches off, and even though I want to go after her, I know it will only make things worse.
Chapter Twenty-Five
NINA
* * *
I hate that Callum is nosey. I hate that he saw the blood on my wrist. I blame Harper for that because when she grabbed my wrist, she made it bleed again.
I wanted to curl up and die when Callum called me on it. He’s more perceptive than I thought and I can’t throw him off as easily. He sees things. Senses things. This is unusual for a guy.
My brother is nothing like that. You’d have to hit Elias over the head with something if you want him to take notice. He lashes out first, then asks questions later. That’s probably not a bad thing, given the career path he’s chosen.
Callum has more of a sensitive side than I ever imagined. As annoyed as I was that he seems to be closing in on me, I was still curious enough to look him up online. It startled me, seeing the countless pictures of him with all those women. He seems to have a new girlfriend every few weeks. They’re all so pretty. So glamourous. So together.
I didn’t like seeing him with all those women. There are rumors of him and his co-star on this latest film. She’s pretty too. Tall and leggy with tumbling auburn hair. I found a few photos of him and her walking through the park. I couldn’t bear to keep looking.
I had to tell myself not to feel too down about it, because this guy isn’t really into me.
But, I wonder, am I into him?
I don’t want to think about it.
Harper has invited me over to dinner, and I really shouldn’t go. I don’t have the time as it is. Going to that event at City Hall was a waste of my entire evening. I hadn’t planned on staying too long, but I left much sooner that I had intended. I have another assignment to turn in, and I could do with staying in today, but Harper told me that Elias didn’t like it that I left so quickly, and without saying goodbye. We didn’t get much time to talk that night, and his schedule is getting busier.
So I have to go and see them tonight.
But when I turn up less than an hour later, Callum Sandersby is sitting on the couch with a bottle of beer in his hand, talking to Elias as if they were old time buddies. He’s the last person I want to see.
“What he’s doing here?” The words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them. Harper takes my jacket and hangs it up, while giving me a disapproving look.
“Be nice. Elias invited him.”
I frown. “They’re best pals now?”
Harper shrugs. “They hit it off the other night. How come you left so quickly?”
“I had an assignment to do.”
“You and your assignments.” Harper leads me into the main living room.
“I still have to finish it, so I won’t be staying that long tonight.” I drop the hint now so that she won’t be too surprised when I eat and get out quickly. I don’t need Callum eyeballing me all evening. He’s not stupid, but I don’t need his questioning any more than I need to have anything to do with him. Unfortunately, the guy is like a leech; stuck to my side, and impossible to shift.
“Hey,” Elias gets up to greet me as I walk in.
“Great to see you again,” Callum says, getting up and extending his hand. He flashes me that blinding smile of his which I’m sure works on many women, but not on me. “I didn’t know you’d be here tonight.” I shake his hand quickly, it’s more like a touch than a shake.
“Your brother invited me over.”
I look at Elias as if he’s suddenly grown three heads.
“We were just talking,” my brother says, sitting back down again. Callum does the same. Harper sticks a glass of wine in my hand, and I’m suddenly conscious of my arms and Callum’s scrutiny.
“Sit down,” Elias says. I can feel the heat of Callum’s stare on me, and I don’t dare to look at him. I’m paranoid that he’s looking at my wrist, that he must have questions. I sit down but I’m uneasy. My emotions are all over the place when it comes to this man. Is he being real, or is he playing a part?
“I’ll leave you guys to it,” I say, and get up again. I don’t want to be anywhere near Callum. “I’ll give Harper a hand in the kitchen.”
Elias gets up quickly, “Hey, no. Sit down. I’ll give her a hand. Making tacos is my specialty.” He leaves before I can protest.
This is new, too. Elias’s culinary skills are hardly legendary. I smell a big fat rat.
It’s just me and Callum in the living room. He’s sitting back on the couch, and I’m standing awkwardly, suddenly not sure what to do with my hands, or my face, and I forget how to make boring, insignificant conversation. So I dive right in. “You’re best buddies with my brother now?”
“Is that a problem for you?” He eyes me for a split second before lifting the beer bottle to his lips.
“It’s a problem for me that I have to run into you everywhere I go.” I don’t want to hear any cheesy comments from him so I add in, “Elias doesn’t have time for the likes of you.”
“The likes of me?”
“Actors.”
“Your brother is a friendly guy, once you get to know him.”
I frown. “What is it that you want from him?”
“Some words of wisdom. Anything that might deepen my understanding of what it takes to be a boxer.”
“Isn’t it too late for that? You’ve almost finished shooting the film.”
“It’s never too late,” he says, sitting up straighter. “I was going to call you. I’ve been worried about you.”
“You shouldn’t waste your time worrying about me.” I fix him with the meanest stare I can find. “You’ve managed to snake into Elias’s life, so you can quit the trying-to-be-friendly-to-me thing.”
“Snake into—?” he looks genuinely surprised. He’s obviously good at acting, but I have no doubt that he knows exactly what I’m talking about.
“You got what you wanted, my brother’s time. Good luck. Now please, leave me alone.”
“You push people away, I see that about you now. You don’t mean what you’re saying.” His voice is still low. He’s in my personal space, and I hate it.
“I do mean it.” I grit my teeth together because I don’t know where this is going. I know only that I’ve caught a hint of his aftershave, and for some strange and bizarre reason, it sends a tingle along my spine.
“You’re angry because I saw something you didn’t want me to,” he whispers. “I’m worried about you, Nina. Why was their blood on your wrist?” I glance over my shoulder, aware that Harper and Elias are only a stone’s throw away.
“I told you. I cut it at work.”
His eyes, filled with concern, stare back at me. Disbelief is writte
n all over his face. “That’s not the place you’d cut your wrist.”
“Dinner’s ready,” Harper calls out, and we spring apart, but it’s not soon enough, and she’s got a smug smile on her face when she sees us. There’s a glimmer in her eyes which I don’t like. “Come on into the kitchen,” she tells Callum.
I lead the way into the kitchen where Elias is sitting at the table. Harper sits next to him.
“This is a treat,” says Callum, sitting down opposite them. “Home cooked food. Thank you, both of you.”
“Don’t mention it,” says Elias.
“The food at the event was quite good, wasn’t it?” Harper asks enthusiastically.
“It was good,” adds Callum.
“You left early,” Elias says to me, completely changing the subject. I’m sitting next to Callum because that’s the only seat that makes sense to. I could sit at a few seats away, because the table is big and can easily seat ten people, but it would draw more attention if I did that.
“Why did you leave?” Elias persists, and I’m aware that everyone’s waiting for me to answer.
“I had an assignment to hand in.”
He heaps salad onto his plate. “Your assignments are never ending.” He glances at Callum. “When my sister isn’t working at the diner, she spends the rest of her time at night school, or studying. You must have noticed that about her.”
“Why would he have?” I ask my brother. I deeply abhor the way he’s suddenly become so friendly with Callum, but I’m relieved that he’s talking about something else now.
“Because he told me that you were delivering lunch to the set every day.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to say that this was Callum’s plan in order to get access to Elias, but I don’t have the heart to.
“You kept that quiet,” Elias says, making my job of keeping my mouth shut almost impossible.
“I didn’t realize it was an event I had to report on,” I say tightly, reaching over for a taco.
“How long do you have left to shoot?” Harper asks.
“Another month or so, followed by a whole round of promotion and marketing, and lots of parties to attend to, in order to hype up the buzz. Not unlike your event the other day.”
“I’ve never been one for parties and mixing with people,” says Elias, grabbing a taco for himself. “I like to keep myself to myself and focus on the thing that counts, the boxing.”
“He’s done more socializing these past few months than in his entire life,” Harper says.
Elias takes a huge bite, then chews thoughtfully. “That’s because I met you.” Harper smiles brightly. Her plate is half full of salad, and an uneaten taco.
“These are good,” Callum says, making an approving noise in this throat. He’s almost devoured his taco.
“Thanks,” says Harper. “They’re not all that difficult to make.”
“I thought it was your specialty?” I ask Elias. He left me and Callum alone for a reason, and I knew that making tacos wasn’t the reason.
“It needs the right blend of herbs, and the best lean ground beef.”
“These are good, really good,” Callum insists, as an uncomfortable hush fills the room.
“They heard you first time.” I can’t help myself.
“How long have you two been together?” Callum asks, expertly trying to smoothe things over while I fight the urge to let out a groan. I wish I hadn’t come tonight. I hate that I’m here, and I hate that Callum can see through me. I don’t want his pity. I don’t want this interest. I don’t want him.
People like Rhys and Scott are easier to push away.
This guy, not so easy.
Chapter Twenty-Six
CALLUM
* * *
Nina’s seems on edge tonight. I’ve been looking for the right time to explain myself, to apologize for what she heard me say to Dottie. She’s not giving me a chance though. It’s probably better if I talk to Elias and Harper more, and hope that I find time with Nina alone later.
“What?” says Harper, when she catches me looking at Elias.
The guy himself stops taking a bite out of his taco and looks up at me.
“You guys seem really tight, really good together,” I say, putting down my cutlery. I pick up my napkin then wipe my mouth. “How long have you guys been together?” This seems to be a safer conversation to have. For the fighting machine that Elias is, he seems all soft, and different when he’s around his girlfriend, and he seems completely taken by her.
Harper proceeds to tell me the story of how she and Elias met, while he interrupts occasionally, embellishing things further.
He was an angry young man who had issues while growing up, and that he’d often get into lots of fights. Elias Cardoza had the right background and mindset to become who he is—the guy who took on Trent Garrison and won against all the odds. The person I see before me right now doesn’t seem at all like the man I’ve read about.
I have a chance to delve deeper, to get into his head, but I find myself holding back. I sense, at some level, that Nina doesn’t like this. But it’s my chance, so I grab it. “Looking at you now,” I nod at Elias, You have world success, and wealth, and the respect and adoration of so many. “It’s hard to reconcile your past with the man you are today.”
“Which part are you having problems with?” Elias asks, and thankfully he has a wisp of a smile on his face as he says it.
“Just … you know…the angry young man. The guy who fought in fight clubs. I guess, you’ve earned it, and achieved all you wanted, and here you are. But, is it really that easy to forget the past and move on? Sorry, man, I don’t want to rake up your past.”
“Then stop asking such nosey and personal questions.” It’s the first time Nina’s had anything to say.
Silence falls and while I don’t want to make her look silly, I feel compelled to stand up for myself since they’re all looking at me. “I’m sorry. Maybe I’m crossing the line. As an actor, these things fascinate me.”
Nina shakes her head, as if she’s having an internal conversation, as if she’s irritated by me.
“Uh…so…uh,” Elias also seems caught off guard. He glances at Nina, before attacking the food on his plate. It’s not only me who senses the tension in the air. “What did you ask?” Elias seems to have completely lost his train of thought.
“I wanted to know how you were able to overcome your past and move on the way you—”
The sound of something hitting the floor clanks and reverberates through the air. Nina bends over and picks something up. “I dropped my fork,” she says, and puts it to the side.
Her face is ashen, indicating that she’s even more agitated than I first assumed.
“We’re going to Dwayne’s place in the mountains,” Elias says, matter-of-factly.
“Dwayne Banks?” The name rings a bell. “Wasn’t he the middleweight champion years ago?”
“You’ve done your homework.” Elias sounds surprised.
“Yes,” I announce proudly. “Had to. I didn’t know anything about boxing, apart from watching the fights. Saw yours against Garrison. Epic. Great fight. The best boxing match I’ve ever seen.”
“Thanks.”
“We can go through some old fighting footage, if it might help you?” he suggests. “I look at that stuff all the time, seeing how the legends used to move around. Studying their signature punches.” He shrugs. “I don’t know if something like that might help?”
“It will help. Most definitely. Thanks.” Me, sitting down with Cardoza and looking through footage of boxing matches? Yes it will help, and it will be something cool to boast about in future film interviews.
* * *
NINA
* * *
I can’t get this food down me. They’re all sitting around talking as if they’ve been best friends for decades.
“It’s a cool place, Dwayne’s mansion in the mountains,” says Harper, obviously eager to reset the mood. “I
went there when I was covering the life of Elias Cardoza before he was catapulted to fame.” She and my brother look at one another, and I know something happened on that training exercise.
“You should come along,” my brother suggests to Callum. To my horror, he seems to consider it. “Thanks for the offer. I’m honored that you would even ask me.” He refuses to meet my stare. “I would love to, but I can’t get any time off.”
“It’s a shame we can’t make a weekend of it,” Harper adds. “The four of us could go up, for a few days. You get weekends off, don’t you, Callum?”
I don’t even hear the reply, because my blood is boiling. Who the hell does Harper think she is. The four of us?
There is no four of us.
“Couldn’t you try and come for the weekend?” asks Harper. “We must go back to that nice little Italian restaurant we went to last time.” The muscles in my stomach tense. Why won’t she drop the subject?
“He says he doesn’t have a lot of time,” my brother reminds her. I want to shout out that there’s no four in this group. There’s no two in me and Callum, only what exists solely in Harper’s brain. That woman should switch from writing tech articles to writing fantasy fiction because she seems to be good at making stuff up.
Callum looks at me quickly, as if he’s trying to assess my mood. I’m already pissed off with the conversation, so I play around with the food on my plate. My appetite vanished before I’d even sat down.
“Lou and Margrit are going,” Elias reminds her. “Lou’s my trainer, and Margrit his wife does all the cooking when we go there,” he tells Callum.
“We had a great time, didn’t we?” says Harper, grinning.
Elias nods in agreement. “There’s a cinema room, and jacuzzi and sauna and a pool, in case you get bored of being stuck inside the whole time.”
I listen to this exchange and try to chew on my taco, which suddenly tastes like cardboard.