Page 11 of Love Scenes

I jiggle my cup of iced coffee on the table in front of me. The sun has barely come up, and caffeine has already dialed me to eleven. My pulse will not settle.

My day started with learning that my ex-boyfriend dropped an entire album about me overnight.

Now I’ve made Joseph talk about his dead mother.

It only gets worse when he sits on the couch, crossing his foot over his other leg, so close to me that our knees almost touch.

“You know, I wasn’t lying when I said I’m not the same guy I used to be,” he tells me.

“Really? Because I sat through some textbook Joseph Donovan shit yesterday.”

“Can I be honest?”

“Can you?”

He rubs his chin, fighting off a laugh or a scowl. “I didn’t give a shit aboutA Little Luck.”

“No kidding.”

“I thought the script was terrible, and I shouldn’t have agreed to do it so soon after my mam died. But everyone said it was good to keep busy.”

“Everyone lied to you.”

“They do that a lot.” He readjusts his legs. “I didn’t care about anything back then. This is different. I think I care about this too much.”

I roll my eyes. “Come on, man. If your excuse for ruining an entire day of production iscaring too much, it’s time to workshop a better story.”

“Probably.” He smiles at me. A cutting, devilish grin they’ll plaster across the eventualEntertainment Weeklyspread they do on this movie, where Joseph will pretend to dance for the camera, forever frozen in a little Gene Kelly skip, hamming it up for a giggling Haven Church.

I know better than to be duped by a man this charming. This isexactlyhow I got an entire album written about my shortcomings. I listened to a handsome creative type talk about his problems, and I did everything I could to help him feel better instead of telling him the truth.

That resulted in Kearns Adam, indie folk star, rasping his way through a chorus about me that features the lyricsSolemn girl in blinding light.Never looked me in the eyes.Always took me by surprise.When she kissed me in the dark.

I will not make the same mistake twice.

Joseph takes the script from my hands and starts flipping through the pages. “If you want to leave, I can tell your family you came and worked with me.”

“Absolutely not. If you go out there and suck again, it’s nowmyfault.”

He pauses to study me. It would be too much to look away, so I take it, steely eyes glaring right back, daring him to make any sort of visible assessment. “You really don’t have a single bit of faith in me,” he says, almost like this is a revelation to him.

“You’ve never once shown me why I should.”

“Have you given me a proper chance to?”

My cheeks are getting hot. “Was two months in Ireland together not enough time? Or our entire press junket afterward? Or twelve hours on set yesterday? I forgot you deserved a minimum of ten chances at redemption. My bad.”

He turns his head to look through the open blinds over the couch. He’s close enough for me to see facial hair that’s started to grow back after a recent shave. In profile, the clench of his jaw is evident, creating something like a dimple.

I already hate myself for agreeing to this. “We’re going to start at the beginning of yesterday’s scene, even though we already shot some of it.”

“Sure,” he says, distant.

“Look, let me level with you for a moment.” There’s a touch of pleading in my tone, which I have to correct. He does not get to do this to me. Notagain. “Clearly no one’s ever told you the truth before in your life. I don’t want this to be any more awkward than it already is, and I really don’t want you to go on set today and do whatever it was you were doing yesterday. So let’s agree to wipe out our past bad feelings for the moment and start fresh. Okay?”

“Sure,” he repeats with the exact same inflection.

“Oh my god. This is yourjob.One that will be making you lots of money. You’re not being held against your will to be here.”