Page 70 of Love on the Byline

“Won’t he be concerned about me questioning you withouthim?”

“Oh, definitely,” he confessed, surprising her.

“Sure you don’t need him to feed you your lines? How willyou know what to say to me?” She held his gaze, daring him to feign ignorance.

“Ah,” he said. “The texts.”

“The texts.”

He sobered quickly and met her gaze. “I’m really sorry forhow shitty I was to you back in Philly. If I’m honest, I don’t really remembera lot of the stupid shit I got up to back then. But that’s no excuse. Thatwhole thing, with the Dean and the paper, must have hurt you or affected you insome way for you to still resent me. I’m truly sorry.”

She nodded slowly. “Uh huh. That was actually a decent apology.Is it a monologue from one of your roles?”

His head dropped back onto the cushion. “You aren’t gonnacut me a break, are you? I guess I’ll have to open a vein.” He mimed rolling uphis sleeves and picking up a knife.

“Alright, alright. That won’t be necessary,” she laugheddespite herself. “Apology accepted.”

He looked at her, surprised. “Really?”

“Yes, Brandon. You are forgiven.”

They fell quiet as he stared at her. He always seemed likethe type of person who liked to deliver the big reveal, so Blake sat back andwaited. Finally, he set the cup down and steepled his fingers on the table.

“Ready to tell me why you wanted to talk to me away fromOllie?”

Smiling, Bran narrowed his eyes. “Don’t know what you mean.I thought you might want to actually interview me for this article you’rewriting. Or is that necessary? Maybe you’ve already drawn all your conclusions,and everything else—hanging out on set, coming to my house, here to LaJolla—that’s just window dressing.”

“And here I thought I was the cynic.”

“Not a cynic, I simply understand how this works.”

“How what works, exactly?” Not that he was entirelyoff-base, but she wasn’t sure if Bran was paranoid or merely self-centered.“What do you think is happening here?”

“I think your boss is counting dollar signs and hopes you’llfind something to corroborate that ridiculous story about Val,” Bran said,sounding angrier by the second. “I think you formed an opinion about me when wewere in college and you’re either too blind or too stubborn to see I’m not whoI was back then. Neither is Ollie, by the way.”

“There’s a lot to unpack there,” she said, frowning. “Iliterally just said I forgave you for what happened at school. Likeyou said, we were kids. But what story are you talking about? I have no ideawho or what Val is. And what does Ollie have to do with any of this?”

“You…you know he’s always been into you, right?” At herstunned silence, he went on. “Spring Fling, our junior year, they had thatmovie night on the quad. With the inflatable screen?”

She remembered. It had been a great night.

“They were showing some kids’ movie.”

“The Princess Bride.”

He frowned. “Huh?”

“It was The Princess Bride. It’s my favorite, andit’s not a kids’ movie.”

“If you say so. Not my jam. Anyway, Alpha Q had a privaterager. With most of the sorors at the movie, it was just going to be the guysand it was…chill. We hung out, played shitty pool, did even shittier shots…”

“I can’t imagine Ollie doing shots.”

“Oh, Ols wasn’t there. He went to the movie.” Eyes on hers,Bran took a sip of coffee. “The next morning, he wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“It’s a great film.”

“I’m not talking about the film. He wouldn’t stop talkingabout you. How amazing you looked, how cool you were, how dumb hewas.”

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