Page 32 of Seeking Stars
He leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. "Tell me, then. I'll decide about Coulton after."
"Okay. Well, Diana wanted to talk about two things. One, she wanted an update on the filming, if I thought I was getting the content I needed. She had some suggestions and stuff."
She looked up to the sky, and something about the gesture told Liam that Ana wasn't pleased with that part of it.
"Is that what's awkward?" he asked.
"No, that's just… pressure, I'd say. She had some suggestions on the angles I should be pursuing for the film." She dismissed it with a shake of her head. "I think she bought my reasons why I'm not pursuing anangleso that wasn't the problem. The awkward part is more to do with the other thing she wanted to discuss."
"Ana, just tell me."
She pursed her lips to the side. "She also wanted to let me know that there has been some conversation on social media about us. That there are people who not only think we're together, but that are… campaigning, let's say, for our relationship to last."
"Oh." Relief pulled a chuckle out of him. "That's it? That we have shippers?"
"Shippers!" she exclaimed. Her eyes lit up with mirth. "Can you believe it?"
He smiled. "I can. It took longer than I thought, to be honest."
"It's ridiculous. There are like, two things out there about this project. How can they put those two together and go, wow, they're so into each other."
"They don't need to know much to see what they want to see."
She sighed. "I remember you saying that."
She added salad to her plate and he ate more of his sandwich.
"Anyway," she continued, "Diana wanted me to know. She instructed me to post more to social media about the project and to clarify that we're not involved; that this is all purely professional."
"Are you… in trouble with her?"
Her eyes shot to his and stayed for a beat, but she took them away a second later. "I don't think so. She said that she expected this to happen, too, and that she'd send me some guidelines about how to handle it later. She wanted to know if anything was happening between us and of course I said there's nothing romantic going on."
"Right." He drank water and hoped the cold liquid would quelch the small fire in his belly at her statement. "Do you want me to help with posting something?"
"What are you thinking?"
"We can both post some pictures online. Plan something together."
"Do you need to discuss it with Coulton? Or your PR team?"
He lifted a shoulder and took the last bite of his sandwich. "No. Coulton doesn't say much about social media— he thinks it's beneath him— unless my PR team is so frustrated with me 'cause of my constant rejection of them that they complain to him."
He gave her a quick grin and she laughed in response. "What could you do that makes them so angry they need to rat you out?"
"I don't post enough, according to them, and I won't let them take over either. I've also refused to do things like pretending I'm dating models and stuff."
"They've wanted you to fake relationships?"
"Oh yeah, it happens all the time, but I don't want to do it. They'd push more, but I fired the last team that got really pushy that way."
"Wow. I thought that stuff didn't happen."
"But it does."
Ana chewed and swallowed a big bite of bread before speaking again. "Well, if you don't need to ask for permission like us lowly talent, then it could be cool to post something we came up with together."
He shook his head atlowly talentbut ignored it. "Okay. Give me your phone."
