Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90736 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Oh, but I did.
I so did.
And now, all I want is to snatch the words back; I sound petty and ridiculous. I sound like a jealous teenage girl with no control over her emotions. I should never have gone on the internet and searched for his exes; I should have let him tell me these things so our relationship would progress like a normal relationship does!
Oh, the regret . . .
“The Paisley stuff,” Andy replies, pulling away from me to lean back on the couch, sinking into the cushions, legs crossed but his knee still bouncing. “Ah. Okay, that makes sense.”
He motions me over, and I sit closer to him.
“I don’t know why I blurted out her name like that,” I admit, feeling foolish. “I-I’m sure she was lovely.” Was lovely? Is. Present tense, seeing as how she’s not dead.
Andy chuckles quietly. He looks relaxed and chill, way more relaxed and chill than I am in this situation.
“She’s not all that lovely once you get to know her.”
“She’s not?” I find that hard to believe.
“Not always.”
“Not always?” What does he mean by that?
“I had no intention of bringing her up. Are you sure you want to talk about her?”
“I’m sure.” I clear my throat. “I don’t want to hear any details about . . . intimate stuff, but I do want to know why the two of you broke up, or it’s going to drive me bonkers.”
His brow seems perpetually raised into his hairline. “We definitely had issues—things were not perfect. We had problems the way everybody else has problems.”
What kind of issues could he possibly have had with a model? She was too gorgeous? Her boobs were too perky?
I readjust myself on the sofa, plucking at the button sewn into my decorative pillow. It’s shaped like a flower and has a button in the center—a button I can’t seem to stop picking at nervously.
“Let me clarify,” Andy says. “Let me say that she wasn’t always a genuine person, and her relationship with my parents was terrible.”
I had not considered his parents. “How so?”
“My mom thought Paisley was only dating me for clout and for endorsement deals.”
I have never heard of such a thing. “People do that?”
Andy tilts his head back and laughs. “Of course people do that.” He moves closer to me and whispers, “Can I let you in on a little secret? They’re called PR relationships. Celebs paired together for the media and to boost their status or career. Not saying that’s what Paisley and I did, but it didn’t hurt her to be seen with me.”
PR relationships? I have never heard of that.
In one single day, I have had more information thrown at me than I have in the past few months—and that’s saying a lot, considering I have met dozens of new people and discovered the realities about tech companies, advertising dollars, and influencers.
“She wasn’t a good fit,” he goes on. “My mother didn’t like her, my friends didn’t like her, my agent didn’t like her.”
“Why didn’t your mom like her?”
Andy’s mouth sets in a grim line. “She had only met her in public—never had a chance to do a holiday. I never brought her to the house in Ohio—Paisley hadn’t wanted to go.” He pauses, considering his next words. “I made the mistake of telling my mother my girlfriend refused to go to a ‘lame midwestern town in the middle of nowhere.’”
I cringe.
That does sound terribly superficial.
“So why did you date her?”
“I liked her. And I was lazy.”
“Lazy,” I repeat. “Make that make sense.”
“She sent my manager her number, and I called it.” He shrugs. “Does that make me sound like a giant asshole? She chased me, I didn’t have to do any of the work—and after our first date, she called me her boyfriend on Instagram, and the rest was history.”
My lips open.
Close.
I have no idea how to respond to that.
“It’s not like I was in a place in my life to make decisions for myself. I have a lot going on during the season. Her calling the shots made life easier. So like I said, lazy.”
“You broke up, like, five months ago.” I can feel my face scrunching up at the thought; not much time has passed since his breakup.
“True. But like I said, I was lazy. I let her run the show and was . . .” He waves a hand through the air breezily. “Not invested.”
“What does that mean? Not invested?”
He clears his throat. “After all the months we dated, I knew virtually nothing about her. I had never even been to her apartment—don’t actually know where she lived, if I’m being honest.”
I feel my eyes get wide. “You don’t know where she lived?”
That really does make him sound like a giant asshole. Ha!
“Does her career bother you?” Andy asks quietly. “Is that what’s bugging you about this?”