Page 10 of The Grumpy Actor

I force a smile at Julian. “What exactly are my duties here?”

“It’s a pretty tall order.” Julian gives me a sheepish grin and motions for me to sit. I sit down opposite him as he takes his seat, too. “You have to be at Liam’s beck and call basically every hour of the day.”

“What?”

“I mean every hour of the day that he spends awake,” Julian explains. “Which could mean anything since he’s here to shoot a movie, and sometimes shooting schedules run into the night.”

Great. Just great!

Now I have to spend almost every hour of the day with my annoying ex-boyfriend. Can things get any worse for me?

I hope not.

Chapter 4

Liam

Ifrown;mynosescrunchedin confusion.

“This doesn’t make any sense. Why on earth is he spending his days pining for her when he decided it was best to let her go because they had different views and ambitions?” I blurt out, throwing the script to the side. “No one seriously does that.”

Julian glances at me from where he’s lounging on the couch. He returns his attention to his phone, pretending not to hear what I just said.

“Honestly, my brain hurts just thinking about this script.”

“You start shooting in less than twenty minutes, and all you’ve done is grumble about the script.”

So now he’s decided to reply to me. Best friend, indeed.

“If the script wasn’t obviously so cringe, dumb, and unrealistic, I wouldn’t be complaining so much.”

“Funny how you’re saying that about a movie the whole world is looking forward to, "Julian says flatly."

“What world?”

“You must be kidding.” Julian sits up, placing his famous teasing gaze on me. “The great Tim Herbert is directing, and for the first time, the world’s favorite actor will be starring in a rom-com, which your fans have been begging for. Everyone expects it to be the movie of the year.”

I shake my head. “I wouldn’t put so much hope on something filled with so many contradicting and confusing actions. The male lead doesn’t even know what he wants. One minute, he says he’s better off without her. The next, he’s heartbroken because he never loved anyone like her. Come on!”

“There’s nothing confusing about that. It’s a universal experience with everyone who’s ever been in love,” Julian says. “Love makes you do plenty of shocking things, and when you don’t even know yet that it’s love, it can be confusing.”

I lean back in the armchair and squint at Julian. “You say that like you’ve been in love.”

“Because I have, and so have you,” Julian retorts.

“No, I haven’t.”

“Yeah, right. How do you explain your one that got away?”

Sophie? If only he knew.

“No, you have it all wrong. I let her go because I knew it was fruitless. And you don’t see me pining for her.” I scoff, propping my arms behind my head. “No excuses. This script is dumb. That’s why I hate romance movies.”

“Then you should have rejected this script.”

“You pitched it to me like it was the next best thing!”

“Me saying that has never stopped you from rejecting every other romance script I’ve ever shown you,” Julian counters smoothly. “And don’t give Lara Jones’s article about you as an excuse.”

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