Page 10 of A Summer of Stars

“That was Kieran Alexander,” Serena said in awe.

“Yes, it was.” I tried to catch one more glimpse of him before leaving.

Hours of shoulder-shaking music, loud laughter, and familiar faces from fashion magazines passed in what felt like only a moment. But I had yet to see Kieran again.

Drowsiness was showing in my posture, and the drinks I had were catching up with my bladder. Gin and tonics: 1, my bladder: 0.

Looked like my luck had run out for the night and I wouldn’t be seeing him after all. So I located the women’s bathroom down one of the winding hallways, coming to a halt when I heard my name.

Kieran Alexander had said my name.

And it was followed by the words “uptight princess.”

I took a short step back and found him across the hall, without a jacket, talking to someone. His hair was dry now, curling at thenape of his neck. The dim light cast a shadow across his face in a romantic manner as he spoke, with a hint of an accent I couldn’t pinpoint. I’d been in New York so long now; it seemed like everyone had an accent. But as words left his mouth, it felt like a spotlight struck my face.

“You’re sure she’s like that?” a male stranger across from Kieran asked.

Kieran responded, “You don’t see it? She’s nothing but calculated and stuck-up. She may be beautiful, but there’s nothing else there than a narcissistic athlete. She plays tennis, for God’s sake—it’s the most pretentious, expensive sport you could pick.”

My nails curled into my palm, and my heart pounded so ferociously.It’s trying to escape from my chest, I thought.Thump. Thump. Thump.Worst of all, it made me feelsmall. Organs had been pushed aside to make room for the intense gloom flooding in. I didn’t go to many premiere parties, and I was beginning to regret it until now. I stayed for a moment, hoping it was a mistake, but he continued on. It was like he was listing off headlines my PR team tried to bury.

“What an excuse for a tennis player; paying more attention to her appearance than her job. All she cares about is herself. You could never love someone like that.”

You could never love someone like that.

I tore my gaze away as the stranger laughed at his words, like my life was a punchline. I gripped my purse.

Tears flooded my eyes the way rain filled up potholes in side streets. I shoved the bathroom door inward and found solace in a stall.

In and out, in and out. Out out out out.I couldn’t control my breath; it was impossible after hearing that. Tears were choking me, and Kieran’s voice in my head kept the tears flowing. My fingers itched to scrub the makeup off my eyes, and my mouth urgedto open up and wail. Instead, I only pressed my eyelids shut and let the tears fall through the cracks.

Uptight princess, narcissistic, excuse, calculated, stuck-up.

Over and over. It was one thing to read it online, but it was another to hear it in person. Not from someone who was a stranger, but someone who existed in a space as scrutinized as yours. People who you thought would relate to you.

I immediately called Cecilia before grabbing a cab, too embarrassed to be seen waiting for my car with puffy eyes. By the time I got into the car, we were going back and forth guessing Kieran Alexander’s red flags to make me feel better.

“He wears outside clothes on the bed,” I guessed.

“You’re so lame, that’s nothing. He… gets pedicures,” Cecilia countered.

“Walt gets pedicures!” I said, defending my brother.

“Fine, fine. Kieran Alexander… makes you park the car when it’s street parking.”

“Kieran Alexander… calls every woman he datesdollbecause he can’t remember their names,” I followed up.

She hollered with laughter. “That’sgood.”

I hadn’t expected the cab driver to be listening so intently.

That week, it was in the press.

“Undisclosed Source Reveals that Kieran Alexander Can’t Remember the Names of the Women He Dates”

Sympathy should have nuzzled its way into my chest. Especially since he was in the middle of promoting a romantic comedy as the lead… (That’d be difficult now.) But he had made me feelso small.

Uptight princess, narcissistic, excuse, calculated, stuck-up.