Starlet's Web (The Starlet Series, #1) Read Free Page B

iPhone.”
    â€œ Lo siento .” Manuel put his arm around me. “What I’ve said, too?”
    â€œYeah. One time, you told her it would be incest if we dated. Anyway, she said it’s better for me to hear the truth firsthand so I’d know who my friends were.”
    â€œOh, sweetie, that was really mean.” He exhaled. “I shouldn’t have lied. I mean I’ve learned from our whole messy break-up to always tell the truth.”
    â€œYou lied?” I wondered what he lied about. “You mean you still love Beth?”
    Manuel exhaled again, “For me, my feelings for Beth didn’t end after we broke up. Dating her was a disaster but I love her and think she’s hot.” He studied my face, bit his lip, looked away, and sighed.  “My feelings for Kate ended though. I can’t believe she did that. No wonder you don’t have friends.”
    â€œI don’t see the point when I know what they think anyway.” I gazed at his loving eyes. “I trust you. I trust Evan, but he thinks like my mom.”
    â€œMarie, I promise that Beth likes you, Mitch adores you. Evan loves you, too. He’s just doing the best for your careers. I said those things to get Kate off my back about...” Manuel stopped mid-sentence and started a contingent thought. “It makes me sad that you’ve got, like, ten people around you at all times but don’t have more than about three friends, always lonely in a crowd. I don’t want you to feel abandoned when I start dating someone or…” Manuel stood up and switched the subject. “So you leave for Beverly Hills soon?”
    â€œYep. Elise is coming to run with me first, make sure I don’t look fat for tonight. Then Sashi’s driving me.” Elise was my personal trainer. I scanned my iPhone. “Elise is late. I have to be at the hotel to get ready for the Globes by ten this morning.”
    â€œSo the story is Evan cheated on you?”
    â€œYep. He says he still loves me but…” I shrugged my shoulders. “So we’re friends. Byron will be my date to everything.”
    Byron Jones was my co-star in the film we were currently working on, Constantine’s Muse . I had kissed him again since Manuel and I had talked. I needed to be even more direct with him at the Academy Awards in February.
    â€œYou’re quiet.” Manuel eyed me disapprovingly and crossed his arms across his chest. “You kissed him again, didn’t you?”
    â€œUgh, I stopped the kiss. I just don’t expect it. It’s like I forget that I don’t like him when I’m around him.” Trying to explain how I could not get Byron to stop kissing me was very difficult. Manuel gave me plenty of strategies to make Byron stop but nothing worked. “It just happens.”
    He shook his head and walked through the gate. We both peered around the street for the paparazzi that would be arriving at any moment.
    â€œDid Evan know?”
    â€œNo.”
    Manuel scrutinized me reproachfully. “Ironic. You were the cheater.”
    â€œNo, I wasn’t. I didn’t want Byron to kiss me. I always shut him down.”
    â€œYou need to be cold, an ice queen, to get him to back off.” Manuel concluded, “You’re too sweet for that, naturally. But that’s the only way, Marie.”
    I followed him. I saw an opportunity. I could test his reaction to me physically, see if he loved me without having to tell him how I felt.
    â€œYeah,” I agreed, “but it’s something about how smooth Byron moves and how he knows what I’m thinking that catches me off guard each time.” 
    I slid in front of Manuel, put my hand behind his neck, and pulled his lips to mine.
    The kiss happened in slow motion. My heart stopped as his body jolted. Probably within an instant of feeling his lips, he pushed me away with so much force that I tripped backwards and fell