Page 19 of Beyond the Fame

“That’s exactly what I told her,” Lana says.

I sigh. “Yeah, yeah. I’m already working on the love part. Here's the problem, though. The mad king finds out about her assassination plan. He has spies everywhere. He also knows the queen and the knight are soulmates, so he goes to the village witch and has her put a curse on himself and his knight. If the queen kills the king, the knight dies too. The witch is the only one who can remove the curse. Not even her death can remove it. So, the king has the witch killed to prevent the curse from breaking.”

“Holy shit,” Jensen says with awe.

“Right?” Lana adds, equally impressed.

Jensen sits back in his chair and crosses his husky arms over his expansive chest. The sleeves of his shirt bunch up, allowing me a peek at the rest of the ink on his right arm. The entire thing is a galaxy with stars and planets and some sort of spaceship that looks to be firing lasers. There's a weird furry creature—a Sasquatch, maybe?—and a couple of robots, one tall and gold, the other resembling a trash can. Wait... I know where this is from. Star Trek, I think? Or is it the other Star one? Both are movies I stayed far away from fearing I’d get made fun of for liking them. Whichever movie it comes from, I want to trace my fingertips over the art, appreciating its beauty. Or is it the beauty beyond the ink I want to appreciate?

“That sounds like a great story. Why are you having a hard time with it?”

“Because she wants the mad king to die so badly, she doesn’t believe her love for the knight is strong enough to save him.”

He doesn’t respond for the longest time, and I can feel his eyes on the side of my face.

“Have you never been in love before, Becky?”

“Why would you ask me that?”

He shrugs. “Just curious. If you’ve never been in love, then that might be why you’re struggling to write about it.”

“Have you ever been in love?” I snap.

Silence. Again. When I finally turn to look at him, his eyes are down, inspecting the contents of his glass. He lifts it to his lips and pours it all down his throat. Before the bottom of the glass hits the table, a server is at his side asking if he wants another. Jensen nods and gives the man his empty glass.

I’ve seen this side of Jensen a few times before. It’s the same man who disappeared that day in the conference room during script negotiations after showing me his vulnerability in the bathroom. The man who broke down the night of the wrap party for Tyler’s Team and refused to let me in.

Before I can say a word and ask him what the hell his problem is, Ginger stands and clinks her glass with a fork.

“Thank you all for being here tonight.” She waves her hand to all of us around the table. “After my father passed away when I was in my twenties, and I lost my mother a few years ago, I had no one left because I was an only child. You are the family I chose, and I am so grateful you chose me too. Thank you for traveling to spend this special moment with me and my future husband, my Ehemann, Bruno. I know a destination wedding isn’t the most convenient and definitely not cheap, but you’re all rich, so I don’t feel that bad.”

Lana snorts and I smile before glancing at Jensen. He’s still inspecting his new drink as if it has all the answers to life.

“Tonight is special, just us, our chosen family. Because tomorrow Bruno’s parents, Lana’s grandparents, and all the other guests will arrive as we celebrate the beginning of our forever.” Ginger raises her glass. “Cheers!”

She places a gentle smooch on Bruno’s lips that he decides isn’t enough and goes in for a deeper kiss.

I’m so caught up in their love story that I startle when the server appears by my side to ask if I want more wine. I hadn’t realized I'd already drank it all. The man moves on to Jensen, who just finished his second glass of hard liquor.

Jesus, this is going to be a long night.

The dinner was divine. I had two pork manapua with a side of veggies. The sandwich is like Chinese bao with a fluffy white bun and sweet pork inside. Jensen got an ahi tuna poke bowl and I grimace because I am not a fan of fish—any fish, even tuna. For dessert, I ordered a chocolate Haupia Cream pie. The sweetness burst inside my mouth, and I swear I nearly orgasmed.

I noticed Jensen staring at me after each bite of food I took, not just dessert, but the manapua too. When I questioned him about it, he glanced away and kept his head down, eating his poke.

By the end of the night, Jensen had had at least five Tom Collins. I can’t believe he’s still sitting upright.

Jensen lets out a gurgle of a laugh, and I sigh before looking at him.

“What’s so funny?”

Lana and Mylan have already called it a night. Eloise stayed and is chatting enthusiastically with Bruno and Ginger about the ceremony. She even brought her camera and has been showing them test shots. I noticed Ginger hadn’t been drinking tonight.

I already hate myself for drinking too much. Enough that I’m pretty dang tipsy. Still, I don’t stop the server from bringing me another glass of wine.

Jensen leans into me, his arm brushing against mine. “I was just thinking,” he begins, his words slurred, “about how we’ve never kissed, yet I've had my fingers inside you, and you’ve now fondled my cock and balls.”

My eyes widen, and I turn to see if our friends overheard. They don’t stop their conversation to gawk our way in shock, so I assume they didn’t.

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