Page 66 of Falling Like Stars

“I’m waiting for you to give it back.”

Rowan smiles and takes a sip of champagne. “Maybe I’m waiting for you to take it off me.”

A flush of heat rampages through me. “Rowan, are you flirting with me?”

She lifts one shoulder in a shrug. “I’m in a good mood.”

“So am I. Now.”

Her smile dims a little. “How are things? With Eva, I mean.” Her gaze is piercing. Studying. “Are you okay?”

“Sure. Of course,” I say. “I cut her off. No lasting scars.”

Rowan doesn’t smile. “You sure about that?”

I’m not sure about anything that happened that night, but what are my options? Confront Eva? That’d be like waking a rabid dog. Better to leave it alone.

“I’m good,” I say. “And I liked it better when we were flirting.”

Rowan looks like she wants to say more but lets it go. She turns her gaze to the huge crowd of what The Scandal Sheet would call “Hollywood’s glitterati.”

“How does it feel?” she asks.

“How does what feel?”

“Every single person at this party would surrender their Ozempic pens for a piece of your attention.”

I chuckle. “That is not remotely true.”

“Says the weirdly humble megastar.” She nods her chin at the partygoers. “Tell me something about your co-workers out here.”

“You want to hear gossip? I thought you avoided all that.”

“Nothing hurtful. Only what you know firsthand. I’ll tell you what us common folk think, and you tell me if we’re right.”

“Okay.” I scan the crowd. “See that actress in the red dress?”

Rowan follows my gaze and nods. “Oh, she’s good. Everyone loves her. She’s always so beautiful when she cries.”

“She’s great, but she also cries way too much.” Said actress must’ve felt eyes on her, because she turns and gives me a wave. I wave back.

Rowan frowns. “Too much?”

“Several years back, I did a summer production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with her at the Pasadena Playhouse. Me, George. Her, Martha. She cried or teared up in every damn scene.”

“And that’s bad?”

“The whole play is about these characters never showing their vulnerability. George and Martha are never real with each other until the end. If she’s crying throughout the whole thing, there’s no catharsis. No payoff. I was so fucking irritated during the entire run.” I smile. “Made playing George pretty easy, now that I think about it.”

Rowan looks thoughtful for a moment, then juts her chin at the crowd. “How about him?

I know who she means even without naming names. “He’s pretty good. A better actor than most people give him credit for. But…”

“But…?”

I lean closer. “He stinks.”

“You just said he was pretty good.”

---