Hollywood Hype: A Sexy Billionaire Romance (The Director's Assistant Book 3) Read Free Page B

said listen to me . Sit there and be quiet for once,” she said fondly. “Hollywood makes it all seem so simple. The truth is, it’s a lot more complicated than two hours of celluloid can ever be. But it does exist .” She smiled. “You and Archer—don’t give up so quickly on him, okay?”
    Tears were flowing down my cheeks. “Why not Mom? It’s over. Over even before it began.”
    She shook her head. “It isn’t, and you know why? I’ve seen that look in his eyes before.” She reached out, gently, to squeeze my cheek.
    I took her hand. “What look Mom? Where have you seen it?”
    She smiled as tears began to roll down her cheeks, too. “Before he passed, your father used to look at me just the same way.”
     
    * * *
     
    I closed the door softly as I exited. Mom had fallen asleep on the couch during the third movie, and I’d left here there, snoring gently, a knitted blanket tucked up around her shoulders. It was funny the way mothers and daughters switched places as they got older. Now I was the one tucking her into bed and she was the small, frail one.
    There was nothing wrong with her mind, however. She’d known something was wrong, and she’d known what it was about, too. Sharp as a tack , my mother, though perhaps showing up red eyed to gorge on buttered noodles might be considered, as an action, less than covert.
    Did she have a point, though, about Archer? Surely it couldn’t be as simple as Mom made it sound—she’d seen something in his eyes, and knew, just knew that we were meant to be together.
    Before last night, I might have been inclined to believe her. But Archer hadn’t called, and he’d even gone so far as to say he didn’t want to see me again. That had to mean it was over, didn’t it? It had to mean I could give Janus the tape.
    Because if Archer didn’t love me, there was no reason I should keep it. What did I care if Janus won, in the long run? What did I care if Archer’s documentary failed, and his evidence was destroyed? He’d even said I could do it! As long as I protected myself, right? That was the main thing.
    Rick hadn’t thought that way, in Casablanca . He’d started off like that, at the beginning of the movie. But in the end, he’d chosen a different path—decided that his love for Ilsa meant more to him than saving his own skin. He’d decided to look after her, instead of himself. Here's looking at you kid.
    In that movie, true love took a different form. It wasn’t about whether the love was reciprocated. It was about the pure, unadulterated act of loving someone, in and of itself. Ilsa flew away with someone else, and Rick was happier for it, because he knew it made her happy.
    Wasn’t that, in a way, what Archer had done for me when he’d given me the tape? I knew the tape meant a lot to him—it was the star witness in his case, so important that he’d made backups, and carried the original on him at all times.
    Yet, he’d given it all up instantly, because he knew it would make me happy—without a thought, and without a worry, he’d pushed the original into my hands. ‘You’re more important than a hundred audio recordings. I want you to have it, if it makes you happy.’
    In that moment, he’d been Rick, and I’d been Ilsa. And with his actions, he’d proven everything I should ever need him to prove. Should I really be upset that after he thought I’d betrayed him he would want to move on—be happy with someone else? I’m sure if the movie kept rolling after the credits had ended, Rick would no t have stayed single for the rest of his life, either.
    If I gave that tape to Janus, I probably would get my debt wiped. I was small fry, in the scheme of things. Janus would want to get me out of the picture.
    But somehow, I think I’d always known that the same wouldn’t be true of Archer. He’d tried to take Janus down, and they wouldn’t like that, not at all. To my way of thinking, giving Janus the tape might solve my problems, but it