Page 21 of Seeking Stars
"I haven't had a lot of luck with that."
"You want to tell me more?"
She hoped she'd hit the right note in her question. She really wanted him to open up and share every detail of his life, but knew she couldn't push. Vulnerability was better in drops than in a waterfall.
They were coming out of the city, the car making its way into the hills.
"Ever since coming to Hollywood— the first year with all that filming and prep work, then being dropped into fame three years ago— I've lived most of my life within the industry. There are amazing things about my life and also not so good ones. Which I know is true for everyone, whether they're actors or engineers. One thing about my life is that I've a hard time adjusting to all the people around me who want to be known and crave fame. I don't want to be famous; I want to act and have freedom to choose the projects I want to get involved in. I also one hundred percent understand that I won't get that freedom unless people want to see me in any role. That is, I need fans. I need people to think of me and say,yeah, I like that guy! I want to see what he's up to, whether it's a rom com or a psychological thriller. So I do want fame, even though I don't enjoy it."
She took a deep breath. "That makes sense."
"To hop on a plane with me to go on a promo tour in Europe, people around me have to either do nothing but be happy keeping me company, or be able to drop things for weeks at a time, or do their job from a computer at random times from random places. Not a lot of people I care about can do that, and the people I've met in Hollywood that could travel like that, haven't been people I've really clicked with, yet."
"I see. Yeah, I think I get it. Ely wouldn't be able to hop on a plane like that, and making friends as an adult is such a pain. Sounds like it's been that way for you."
He sighed. "Plus the issue of knowing if people are your friends because they like you, or because you're a popular name right now, or they're hoping to jet about in chartered flights."
"Right. I don't know anything about that."
"I didn't, either, until I woke up one day and everyone knew who I was."
Ana's eyebrows shot up. Liam sat rigid on his side of the car, the only sign of movement the small adjustments his hands did on the wheel.
He shook his head as if to clear it. Ana was tempted to copy him.
"Let's press pause on all of that. I don't know about you but, to me, getting on the road means a stop for gas and the convenience store."
Swallowing the unfinished thoughts in her mind, she echoed the change in energy he brought to the space between them.
"Cheap, bad coffee and gross snacks for breakfast." She slapped her thigh. "Perfect."
"Exactly. Only I need to ask you a favor." He triggered the signal and turned into an exit to a gas station. "I need you to go into the convenience store for me. I'll stay out and fill up the tank."
"Sure. What do you want?"
"Just get me a hot breakfast sandwich and something crunchy. Even if my trainer kills me for it when I'm back."
"Got it."
He drove into the solitary gas station and parked by a pump. She hopped out of the car and, right before she closed the door, he called her name.
"Hey, Ana." As he talked, he reached for the glove compartment, took a baseball cap from it, and put it on. "Keep the receipt. I'm sending them all to TCA."
"It's fine, it's on me—" she started, distracted by the way his muscles and tendons shifted in his toned forearm.
He interrupted her. "No, really. Coulton did his best to make this into a work trip, so he's gonna have to pay. Literally."
She tore her eyes from his forearms and tried to look him in the eye, but the sunglasses got in the way. She saw herself reflected there instead, long hair floating in the breeze and an awkward line to her lips.
"Well… technically, the production company this is being filmed with is… me. He'll forward the receipts to me."
"Oh." He sat back, hand resting on top of the wheel.
"So… it really is fine. This is on me. I’m expensing it, too."
"That means you're my director, producer, and interviewer."
She cocked her head. "Yep."
