Olivia did not like his defeatist response, but she did like how Chuck, perhaps subconsciously, had taken a step toward her and angled his body like he was ready to step in as a shield. The memory of how he’d come to her defense when TJ crossed a line last time put a soft bubble of warmth in her chest.
“I’m happy to remind him where the line is,” Chuck said with a cold grin that felt like a threat, especially given the way he was standing with his hands on his hips.
“That won’t be necessary,” Parker quickly said. He took a sharp breath and clapped his hands as if to reset the scene. “How about we keep this going for a little while this morning, hmm? The two of you could hang out by the pool for a little longer. I mean, Olivia needs to dry off, perhaps on a lounge chair, and Chuck, well, maybe you’d like to take a swim after what I can only assume was an intense workout.” He grinned at them with the subtext ofPlease stay half naked for the cameras.
“Sure,” Olivia said.
“That’s fine,” Chuck echoed.
“Excellent!” Parker cheered. “Benny!” He looped his finger in the air despite them already rolling. “I’ll be back later for the interview. Have a good morning!” He left, guzzling his coffee and answering his phone, which had started ringing.
Olivia and Chuck stared at each other for a beat, Olivia still dripping, Chuck still sweating. The air seemed to thicken between them.
A wry smile tugged at one corner of Chuck’s mouth. It popped out the secret dimple that he reserved only for Olivia. The rest of the world got the million-dollar dazzler, but she got the boyish grin. He shook his head with a quiet laugh. “You had to packthatswimsuit, didn’t you.”
She mirrored his smile but with her full mouth, silentlysaying she knew exactly what he meant and exactly what she’d done. She turned on her bare foot and sent the strings tied at her hips swinging. The sun had come up over the house now and poured itself into an inviting golden pool directly atop the lounge chair where she’d left her towel and phone. Parker’s suggestion for her to dry off outside seemed like a great idea. Especially with Chuck gazing after her as if she were a tempting morsel.
Chuck sat on the other lounge chair to take off his shoes. Olivia wrung her hair out with the towel, then laid it along the chair. When she grabbed her phone before she sat, she saw she had four new text messages from Mansi.
I know you guys don’t have internet, so you probably haven’t seen this. I thought you should know. Let me know if you want me to do anything about it. Xo.
Olivia’s heart took a swan dive to her toes as if it had leapt off the diving board in front of her. The other three messages were screenshots of an online tabloid web page.
Sources have confirmed that a recent viral video of a couple’s breakup is serving as inspiration for a segment on the popular reality showName Your Price. Even better, the couple in question includes actor Chuck Walsh, whose recent firing fromSafe Gamblehas left him without many allies in Hollywood. The other member of the duo is Olivia Martin, daughter of the late actress Rebecca Martin and Hollywood manager Bradley Harris, a couple whosetorrid affair during the latter’s marriage to Astrid Larsson launched one of the biggest scandals of the early ’90s. To this day, beloved film star Astrid Larsson has famously never spoken publicly about the scandal, nor have the Martin or Harris families. While Olivia Martin has spent nearly her whole life out of the spotlight, the once-dubbed “love child that ruined Astrid Larsson’s marriage” was recently seen out to dinner in L.A. with a friend and will now be appearing on a TV show. Like mother, like daughter? Perhaps the Martin women have a taste for Hollywood men with bad reputations. Either way, we will be tuning in for the drama when the show airs.
Olivia had trouble swallowing the thick lump in her throat as she read. Her struggle to function was made all the worse by her suddenly speeding heart. She swiped through the rest of the messages and saw the photos included with the piece: one of her from that night outside the restaurant with Mansi looking like a deer about to get mowed down by a semitruck—it was exactly as unflattering as she expected. Another of her and Chuck, a still from the sidewalk breakup scene, him with his arms out in a shrug, chest bare, and her pointing at him with a face angry enough to spit fire.
The third—one she’d seen before but that still managed to punch her in the gut with the force of a battering ram—the one the tabloids had favored when the scandal broke: her parents leaving a hotel together with infant Olivia bundled in her mother’s arms. Her father, dark haired and handsome in a suit, had his arm out shielding her and her mother from the camera that caught the million-dollar image, while Rebecca held Olivia to her chest, her tiny head in her hand, and stared into thelens with a look of true fright. The bright flash had popped off their stunned faces and drowned everything else to inky black night behind them, as if they were insects trying to scurry from a flashlight. The harsh lighting only helped to serve the villain narrative.Caught. Guilty. Secret Love Child Exposed.The tabloids had had their pick of headlines to splash across the image back in the day. Her mother, served a disproportionate amount of the ridicule, had been called every derogatory term for a woman ever invented. Her father was demonized as an archetype of slimy Hollywood men given that he was fifteen years older and, in fact, Rebecca’s manager. And she, a baby, was crowned the love child that ruined Astrid Larsson’s marriage. At least now, none of the ugly words accompanied the infamous photo.
And, as always, to round out the plot lest anyone forget who the true victim was no matter how tangential the current story, the fourth photo attached to the article was one of Astrid Larsson. A red-carpet image with her looking like an elegantly aging goddess whose hands had remained clean in the whole matter.
Olivia had seen the latter photos before, but she did not expect to see them in a text from her friend while sitting poolside first thing in the morning. Nor did she expect to be pulled so wholly into the spotlight. The threat of being part of a scandal like her parents’ filled her veins with an anxious urge to flee.
“Liv? What’s wrong?” Chuck asked. She hadn’t noticed that he’d turned to face her. They sat with their knees together between the lounge chairs.
She looked up at the sincere concern on his face and found herself struggling to speak. When a plump tear rolled down her cheek, she only then noticed she was crying. She wiped it away, and Chuck looked like he was ready to go to war with whatever had put it there.
“What happened?” he asked, his voice low and serious.
Olivia sniffled, not sure what to say, and held out her phone. “There’s something about us online. Mansi sent me a few screenshots.”
He took it, and she watched his eyes scan the tiny print. His brow furrowed in focus, and where she might have expected him to hurl the phone across the yard, he let out a resigned sigh. “That’s really awful. I’m sorry. But you have to ignore things people say about you online; it’s the only way to survive in this industry.”
She flinched, not expecting a lecture. “But I’m not in this industry.” Her voice came out soft and reedy.
Chuck cocked his head and then glanced at Benny. “Liv. Yes, you are.”
An argument automatically formed on her tongue, but she swallowed it down, realizing he was right. She was actively filming a TV show, and even if her grandmother had shielded her from the spotlight, by heritage, Hollywood had a claim on her. And, obviously, people were still interested in poking their noses into her private life.
She looked up at Chuck with a vulnerable plea in her eyes. “So, what do I do?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. I stopped caring what people said about me online when everyone started calling me an asshole and spreading rumors. You’ll drive yourself crazy if you let it in.”
The defeat in his voice, the resignation, made her ache for him. It also sparked a tiny sense of admiration. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to shake it off so easily, and he hardly looked fazed. She wondered if now was her chance to take advantage of his valor and ask what had gotten him fired.
“Are you ever going to tell me why those rumors started?”
He glanced at the camera and shook his head. “Not today,” he said quietly.