Page 39 of Overexposed

“I could possibly check it out,” I murmured. “Will you be there?”

He laughed, a deep, throaty chuckle that did scandalous things to my insides. “Do you want me to be, Snow? If you asked nicely, I feel like I could squeeze it into my schedule. Just for you, though. The rest of the assholes working this movie are not the kind of people I’d willingly socialize with.”

My mouth opened and closed a couple of times, and I peered at my phone to check the call was still connected, and I wasn’t fucking imagining things.

“Olivier Griffiths, are youflirtingwith me?” I gasped, enjoying myself far too fucking much. Then again, hehadsaved my life, so surely it was only natural I’d developed a little infatuation.

“Call me Ollie, please,” he replied with a chuckle. “Only fawning press and fans call meOlivier. And as to whether I’m flirting…clearly, I need to do a better job of it if you’re unsure.”

Oh shit. Wait, maybe I had taken more head trauma than I realized after Dillon smacked my head into my car repeatedly. Suspicious as hell, I pinched myself just to be sure. I felt it but it didn’thurtso I did it again…just in case.

“Ow!” I exclaimed because that one really did hurt and left fingernail marks in my forearm.

“Ow?” Olivier—or ratherOllie—repeated in my ear. “Did you just fall from heaven?”

I snort laughed. “That was awful. You clearly aren’t allowed to improvise on set with cheesy shit like that as your go-to.”

“Ah, but it made you laugh. So…will I see you there?”

I bit my lip, trying to ignore the butterflies his voice was creating. What the fuck was wrong with me? I’d literally slept with his best friendtwice. Recently. And had a great time with him too.

“What about Gem?” I asked, unable to push that fact aside. IlikedGem. I just didn’t want to get fucked around by some celebrity who felt like slumming it. So why, genuinelywhy, was I entertaining this call from Ollie? He was surely no different from Gemini… In fact, he was still an active movie star himself, so an even bigger red flag than Gem. Right?

Ollie gave a thoughtful hum. “You want to see Gem at the wrap party? He’s not big on industry events, but I think if he knows you’ll be there?—”

“No, I meant…Ugh. I meant why are you flirting when you know I was with Gem like four days ago?” Not that I was mad about it, but at the same time…why? This seemed fishy.

He wasn’t quick to brush off my suspicions, which was a surprise. Instead he paused a moment before replying, making me feel like he maybe wasn’t 100 percent sure himself. Or maybe I was delusional.

“Well, Snow, the way I figure it, if you and Gem were going to be athing, you’d have at least given him your name and number. But you didn’t, which leads me to think you have no intention of walking the red carpet on his arm anytime soon.” He drawled his reason with a wry tone, bordering on teasing and oozing flirtation. “I also thought we had a bit of a vibe the other night. Am I wrong?”

My heart raced. What the fuck was happening? “You aren’t wrong…”

“Great. So maybe I’ll see you tonight. Or maybe not. No pressure or anything, but just in case I’ll text you the location of the back alleyway gate where lots of guests sneak in and out to avoid paparazzi out the front. I can almost guarantee you’ll get some moneymakers there.” He paused, then gave a small chuckle. “Then once I feel like our scores are settled, maybe I can take you out on a nonworking date some time.”

My jaw nearly hit the grass. “We’ll see,” I replied, aiming for cool and collected but actually sounding like a strangled pigeon.

Another of those deep chuckles that blew my fucking mind. “I guess we will. Thanks for the chat, Snow. You really brightened up my day.”

The call cut out, and I sat there foragesjust staring blankly into space wondering whether I was, in fact, in a coma somewhere after my psychotic, abusive ex-boyfriend beat me into brain damage.

But when I didn’t wake up to some nice nurse checking my blood pressure and IV line, I figured I may as well enjoy the delusion while it lasted. So I packed up my things and headed back to my car. If I was going to work tonight, I needed to make a plan.

I also needed to stop by Dad’s house and do some meal prep, so he wouldn’t keep surviving on tuna and rice with siracha foreverymeal. Come to think of it, I needed to do some grocery shopping for him and now that my bank account was nice and juicy, I could actually enjoy the task.

Several hours later, I found myself somewhat regretting going crazy at the store because Dad was raking me over the coals asking what images had earned me so much cash. I could hardly tell him that I’d sold my silence to Seven Harrison for a cool fifty grand, so I took the mature approach and made a bullshit excuse to leave earlier than intended.

The fact the conversation was merely on pause rather than ended followed me back to my apartment. Dad would want me to answer, and I would work on that between now and then. Still, maybe I could distract him with something else.

I checked the cast list for the latestMesozoicfilm: A-list, A-list, A-Minus-list. B-Plus, B, B-plus, holy shit…two A-plus plus stars. Those two were from the original film so them coming back for the final was huge, especially considering the first of the two had a nicepoliticalcareer, including six years as governor since then.

My nerves lit up like I’d been struck by lightning. When Olivier—Ollie, whatever—described their wrap parties as “getting out of hand,” he was completely underselling it. The previous wrap party was rumored to have lasted almost twenty-four hours, involved a lot of drugs, alcohol, and lube as well as a pool party. Theafter-party was a lot worse.

No wonder they kept the location on lockdown. Dad had actually nabbed a couple of the juiciest photos of his career between the previous wrap party and the after-party.

Threesomes sold like you wouldn’t believe, especially if you had the money shots—and he’d gotten one of the best ever. The director, his singer wife, and their very married actor friend as well as another costar. Three men, one woman.

So Ollie wasn’t kidding about the opportunities there. The money from Seven was going to do a lot of good, but the kind of photos I could get at the event could take care of the next couple of months of home nursing staff and the mortgage on the house.

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