Page 16 of Faking Love

“Sorry to call so late. But I knew you had that thing tonight, so I was hoping I could catch you before.” She sounded pleasant.

“You did.” He resisted the urge to add,And I caught you,still not sure what was going on. “Do you have a few minutes?”

“Of course. I called you back, didn’t I?”

He glared at the phone. “So I talked to Trent from Funami today.”

“Oh?” Her cheer vanished in the single syllable.

“Want to tell me what’s really going on?” He wasn’t going to lash out at her. She’d been his agent for five years. There was no reason to throw a fit until he had her side of the story.

“Not really.” Her voice was flat.

Or he could tear into her now. “What the hell are you doing? He’s got work for me, and you’re telling me they never want to talk to me again. Is it personal? Did he piss you off? Are they trying to jerk me around? Help me out, here.”

Her sigh echoed over the phone. “It’s personal.”

He didn’t expect that. “Did he insult you or something? I don’t want to be working with a company that isn’t treating us right. You only had to tell me.”

“No, it’s not that.” She sounded tired. “It doesn’t have anything to do with Funami, except they didn’t have a lot of work for you, so I figured you’d miss them the least.”

He frowned. That didn’t make any sense. “It’s not a high-profile, big-money industry. I pretty much miss every job I don’t get. What’s going on?”

“I just...” Her voice faded off.

He waited. And checked his phone to make sure she was still there. And waited. Then— “You what?”

“It’s like you said.” Her tone was more sincere now. The voice she used when she wasn’t playing a part, simply talking to him straight. “We’ve worked together for five years, and it’s hard not to notice what a great guy you are, after all that time.”

This was weird. “Thanks?”

“I can’t believe I’m doing this. It’s killing me to see you out there, hitting on other women and not even noticing me.”

The words took a moment to sink in, their full impact pounding in his skull when they did. He had to be misunderstanding her. “We have a great business relationship. If I’m not sayingthank youenough, I can try to be better about it. I appreciate everything you do for me.”

“This isn’t a professional thing.”

Shit. He understood correctly. “Okay?”

“I don’t want to be relegated to being your agent. I want you. I like you. A lot. I think I may have even fallen in love with you.”

He rubbed his face, shock coursing through him.Love. He couldn't imagine. Except he could—but it wasn’t Adeline dancing through his fantasy. “Even if I felt the same, us hooking up is a bad idea. You can’t represent meanddate me,” he said.

“So I’ll quit.” Hope clung to her offer.

“No, Adeline.” Damn it, he didn’t want to do this. She was a good agent. “That’s not what I mean. I don’t feel that way about you.”

“So what are you going to do instead?” An icy edge slid into her voice. “Spend the rest of your life picking up fan girls in hotels? Survive off one-night stands, until you’re too old to catch anyone’s eye? What kind of self-respecting woman, besides me, is going to understand your travel schedule? And if you did manage to convince someone to put up with it, could you really do that to her?”

The words hit hard. Could he? Someone like Molly didn’t want a guy who wasn’t home for her, because he played a cartoon character on TV. Pursuing her was guaranteed heartbreak. “You lied to me,” he said.

“I did it for us.” The sugar was back.

“No.” He snarled. “You did it for you. As far as I’m concerned, we don’t work together anymore.”

“Brandon, sweetie”—she didn’t sound sweet at all—“I can fuck your career if you leave me. Keep that in mind.”

“Good night, Adeline.” He disconnected. Back to the wall, he sank to the ground and set his phone next to him. How did he not see this coming? He should be terrified about the impact firing her would have on his career. But he was good at what he did, and his cousin was a lawyer.

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