Forcing Gravity (20 page)

“About your magical bedroom.
It can’t be too magical if you’ve never had a girl in there with you.”

He laughed. “Well, I don’t know, I just showed it to you from the doorway, and you in turn invited yourself back there. I’d
say that’s pretty magical
.”

“Touché,” I said, taking a sip
of
my
iced tea.

Jase just winked at me, and I knew immediately why girls threw themselves at him. I was qu
ite tempted to screw eating al
together and go explore his magical bedroom right then and there.

After dinner Jase put on some music
,
an Andrew Bird album I’d bought earlier in the year.
I
listened to the music as I
leaned back against the pillows stacked behind me, feeling qui
te comfortable and content. He
disappeared inside and returned with two glasses of wine. He settled down next to me and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close to him. I looked up at the millions of stars overheard, surprised that they were visible. Usually
either
the smog or the marine layer made it hard to see the sky
in L.A.
, but tonight the air was clear.

“What was it like having your love life splayed all over the tabloids?” I asked him.

“You tell me,” he said, as he landed a kiss on my temple.

“That wasn’t my real love life,” I clarified.

“Yeah, and what the rags printed about Chloe and me wasn’t completely true either, but millions of people in America read the story, saw the pictures
, and believed what was written.
It’s amazing how much a little twisting and alluding can make a story all the more exciting
,
and at the same time,
so
fantastically far from the truth
.”

“So, you’re saying Chloe didn’t cheat?” I asked, inhaling against
his
button-down shirt
the scent I could easily become addicted to.

“Oh no, she cheated, but it was more of the details that the tabloids embellished.
They thought I found out when they ran that first story, but in reality, I sort of already knew what she was doing. I just didn’t have any
real
proof, so I wasn’t as shocked as they led on. And then in the follow-up stories, they
kept t
alking about how I
’d
wanted to marry her
and
that I
was devastated that we wouldn’t be together forever.
”

“That wasn’t true?”

He looked down at me. “I’m twenty years old, and she was twenty-two. Neither of us
were
talking about marriage.”

“So, do you really
like zucchini but
hate squash?”

“Yeah
, I do. H
ow did you know that? I don’t think they printed that in the
‘
Chloe and Jason
:
It’s Over for Good’
article.”

I sighed, and hugged him a little tighter around his waist.
“Confession.
I’m a
Celebrity Weekly
addict, and I read the article about your twenty
-five
favorite things
they published last month
.”

Jase just laughed. “Did you
now
?”

I nodded. “Guilty, but I kind of liked learning those things about you. I saved the article – you know, in case I needed some talking points for tonight.
Were
they
all true?
”

“Yes,” he said. “Those twent
y-five things were all true, and with that disclosure,
what would you like to talk about first? I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“Wow, that’s kind of exciting. What have I always wanted to know about Jason Brady?”

“Jase Brady,” he said. “Jason Brady is a different guy.”

I looked up at him. “You know, I think I’m starting to realize that.”

Before I could say anything else, Jase leaned down and kissed me. “I’m really glad to have met you, Logan Kessler,” he said then, his amazing green eyes penetrating my gaze.

“Right back at you, Jase Brady,” I said, before he crushed his lips down on mine again.

“Magical bedroom?”
I asked around his lips.

“You want to?” he asked, pulling back to appraise me.

I nodded. “Yes, please.”

-
10
-

“So, how would you like to come see me at work?” Jase asked
when he called me
a few days later.

He’d started shooting the new horror movie he was starring in with Garrett. I’d heard about his first few days on set when we’d talked
the day before
, and I’d also heard Garrett’s accounts when I had dinner with him and Ethan
two nights earlier
. They were apparently filming in an old house in Pasadena, and there were a lot of cool special effects t
hat the actors had to work with while they were shooting. Garrett had
recounted a scene in which he got
chased down an old wooden stai
rcase by an unseen force and had
to leap over the end of the balcony to avoid getting
crushed by a falling armoire
. It sounded pretty cool.

“Really?”
I asked, suddenly very excited.

I’d been on movie sets before with my mother. When I was little she’d bring me and show me off, and let me eat whatever I wanted from the craft services table. It had been kind of boring watching her work, mostly just a lot of shooting the same scenes and sitting around. My mother knitted during her down time, and I wasn’t supposed to bother her
,
because she used that time to mentally center herself for her next scene, so I had to find ways to entertain myself. But the idea of seeing Jase work gave me a new kind of thrill.

I looked forward to seeing the nice guy I knew transform into someone so cocky and mean. It was such a departure from the Jase I’d gotten to know over the past month.
I
t would
also
be f
un to see Garrett in action
.
I’d only ever seen his finished products, unless you counted witnessing him rehearse for hours on end for the
community theater
he did while growing up. I didn’t.

“Yeah,” Jase said, almost shy.
“I’d like you to see what I do.”

“Won’t that turn a few heads if I show up with you?” I asked,
ever
aware of what the media might pounce on.

Since I’d been back in L.A. the paparazzi had photographed me out a few times, and I hadn’t even realized it. It seemed the combination of me being tied to Garrett and being Alana Davis’s daughter gave me some minor notoriety. I didn’t see the allure, but I guess other people found me interesting.

“Nah, it’ll be fine. The set is pretty secure, so we can slip in and out unnoticed. No one in the cast or crew will care either way. We’ll just tell them we
’
re friends, which is true.”

Yeah, I’m pretty sure friends don’t make out like we had the other night, well, unless you count the mistake Garrett and I made, but that was truly a mistake, and we
were
just friends. Th
en I suddenly panicked that that
was
Jase’s
way of telling me he just wanted to be friends.

“Logan?” he asked, when I didn’t say anything.

“Yeah?”
I squeaked out.

“What do you think? Will Friday work? You only have one class on Friday, right?”

I hadn’t even realized he’d proposed a date at that point, but I took stock in the fact that he remembered my Friday afternoon class had been cancelled that week.

“Yeah, sure.
Friday is good.”

“Okay good,” Jase said, and I could hear the elevation of excitement in his voice.

That had to be a good sign. He wouldn’t be that excited if he ju
st wanted to be friends.
I really liked him, and it sort of scared me
to know he was just as invested
, but on the flip side, the idea of him calling things off felt a whole lot worse.

“It’s a shorter day of shooting for me,” he went on to explain. “I’ll pick you up at eleven-thirty at your dorm, and then maybe we can grab dinner after I’m done. There’s this little Italian place in Pasadena where I’m pretty sure we won’t be recognized.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, trying to force some confidence back into my voice.

“Me too,” he said
, and
the glee
I caught
in his
tone
was
just
what I needed
to calm
down all the way
.

***

“Hey Dad,” I said, when he called a few hours later.

I was studying for an upcoming
calc
test I had, and the mater
ial was kicking my ass. Math had
never
been
my best subject, but it was required for a degree in a science field.

“You’re in
Celebrity Weekly
again,
Lo
,” he said by way of a greeting.

“Yes, I’m aware.”

I’d started subscribing, so I got the magazine before it hit the newsstands. 

“You’re pumping gas,” he said in disbelief. “How is that interesting?”

“It’s not,” I agreed. “But I’m guessing it was a slow week. Did you see the picture last week of me shopping alone?
The paparazzi apparently think
I moved out here to win Garrett back, so they’ve been tailing me from time to time.”

“Really,” he deadpanned, and I could tell he wasn’t thrilled with the idea of me being put in danger.

“Dad,
it’
s
fine. It’s not like they’re staking out my dorm or chasing me down the 405, but I’ve noticed them around when I’m out at night. Ethan’s been acting like my fake boyfriend, so they’ve kind of backed off.”

Ethan and I were photographed coming out of a club the previous weekend because the
photogs
thought he was his brother. They were disappointed to find out we were just two relative nobodies. Garrett had been with us that night, but he and Sophie, who was
unfortunately
still hanging around, had gone out the back
entrance
to avoid the paparazzi.

The picture of Ethan and me had ended up online, and Ethan had been furious. The caption said something about me trying to replace Garrett with a look-a-like, and reading that, Ethan went off. He hated being compared to his brother, and I wondered if Garrett’s fame was having a negative effect on
his
usually upbeat personality. It was the only explanation I’d come up.

“Just be careful,” my dad
cautioned. “And tell Ethan thank you for me.”

“I will. It’s nice that you worry about me. Mom just gives me shit for not ensuring that I’m camera-ready at all times.”

My mother had actually called me
that morning,
for the first time in a few weeks
,
to let me
know I looked pale and washed out
in the
Celebrity Weekly
picture
, and told me it wouldn’t kill me to w
ear a little blush and some eye
liner. It took everything in me not to hang up on her.

“That’s your mother, Lo. She’s been this way her whole career. You know this.”

“I know. It’s just frustrating.”

“How is she doing?” he asked tentatively.

I knew he still cared about my mom, which made it hard to talk about her with him. I didn’t think she felt the same way about him. All she ever did was put him down whenever I brought up the fact that we’d talked. It was a little exhausting to say the least, and it pissed me off that she
couldn’t
see
what an amazing man he was. At least his girlfriend, Sasha, who he’d been dating for the past year, and who I hoped he would marry, could see what a great catch he was.

“She’s the same. She’s leaving for Irelan
d next week to film a new movie, and
I think she’s dating someone new, but she also may be sleeping with her masseuse, so who knows. I haven’t talked to her much since I moved into my dorm, but I’m having dinner with her
and Skylar on Sunday night.
I’m dragging Ethan along, so it won’t be
that
bad.”