“She basically called you a womanizer, but in many more words,” I whispered.

“What? She called me what?” His eyes scrunched up in confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”

I stared at my dessert plate. “She said that you sleep with different women in every town. You tell them what they want to hear so you can get some, and you leave a trail of broken hearts behind you.”

I locked my eyes on his. “She also said that you lie to women to make them feel like they’re your perfect match – that you’re a talented actor and a gifted liar and I was just another fool to fall for it. Stupid American girls… Then she said that once you leave to do your next movie and find your next conquest, you’ll forget all about me.”

Cal started to laugh. Apparently my comment was amusing to him.

“Oh my God! No way!” Kelly shouted. “Taryn, that’s such a lie! Ryan is the complete opposite of that!”

Ryan’s face turned red. “She’s a fucking piece of work, that girl. Why didn’t you tell me all of this before?” He was definitely angry.

“Because I was scared and I didn’t want to cause problems for you.” I hid my eyes under my hand. “I even thought that if I let you go, then you wouldn’t feel obligated and somehow you’d be better off. You have enough stress to deal with without me ruining your career. The last thing I want is to be another name on your stress list.”

“No wonder you were crying so hard. I went downstairs for fifteen minutes; when I left you with Marie everything was fine, and when I came back, you were falling to pieces and breaking up with me. It all makes sense now.”

“You tried to break up with him at the party?” Kelly shrieked in horror.

Ryan nodded at her and then glanced back to me.

“I’m going to rip her throat out when I see her,” he spit through his teeth.

Thoughts of his career and his movie being jeopardized because of me flashed through my mind.

“That’s why I didn’t tell you,” I muttered, feeling guilty.

“Taryn!” he started.

“Ryan, you have a multi-million dollar movie riding on the fact that you have to get along with her. And there’s a third movie which you are under contract to finish. I don’t want to be the catalyst to dissension.”

“She’s right, Ryan,” Kelly agreed. “As much as I despise that girl, you do have contractual obligations. And having you blow up at her in front of everyone would not be a good idea.”

“Why is she doing this to me?” His fingers clenched his hair. “We used to get along so well.”

“She obviously wants to keep other women away from you, so either she’s in love with you or…” Then it dawned on me. “Or she’s fending off the competition for a friend.”

He looked at me and it clicked. “Francesca,” he murmured.

His eyes flashed over to Cal and Kelly, who were both staring back in surprise.

“She knows about my slip with Francesca. I’m not keeping any secrets from Taryn. And just so you believe me…” He looked over at Cal. “Cal, would you please tell Taryn when, where, and why.”

“That’s not necessary,” I interjected.

Cal cleared his throat. “Well, I don’t know about the why, Ryan, only you can answer that one. But it’s been over a year now since…then.”

Cal focused on me. “We were in Maine filming the first movie. I remember it clearly like it was yesterday.” Something he recalled seemed to trouble him.

“Ryan had his first traumatic fan encounter. I believe you were completely overwhelmed,” he stated directly. “Fans were everywhere screaming.

We went into a club and some girl grabbed him around the neck. Her boyfriend either tried to remove her off of Ryan or he took a swing at him – I’m not sure, but Ryan ended up getting punched in the face.” The thought made his lips curl in disgust.

“Anyway, we tried to calm him down; he spent a few hours in the corner tossing back shots of whiskey.”

“Fran was always sniffing around his trailer; it was no secret that she had a crush on him,” Kelly added.

“But for the longest time, he just ignored her. Personally I think you were home-sick and freaked out,” Cal said.

“A lot of both actually.” Ryan grimaced.

The way Ryan spoke, I imagined he was quite lonely when he gave in to Francesca.

“After that one time, Fran started to act even stranger. Things have been weird ever since. And since we’ve gotten back to filming the second movie, the two girls have been inseparable,” Cal told me.

“Who was the girl that sold the story to the tabloid?” Kelly asked.

“That was the girl I was seeing from the theatre back home. You met her once when we shot the scenes in Acadia, remember? She came to Maine that one time. Who knows, maybe the bitch sisters got to her too? Ah, it doesn’t matter. She was more concerned about hooking up with my agent and getting me to make calls for her than she was about our relationship.” He shrugged the thought from his mind.

“I’m going to have to deal with this,” Ryan muttered. He chewed his lip – pondering again.

“Ryan, just let it go,” I advised. “Anything you do is going to make things worse. Just do your movies, play your part. A few years from now this will all be behind you.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” He gave me a brief smile and squeezed my hand.

I was glad he agreed. Suzanne seemed to have more than enough reasons to despise me.

Chapter 16 - Fused

Ryan held my hand as he drove us home; our arms rested on the center console.

“I really like driving this car,” he commented. “It handles great.”

“You look like you enjoy driving this car. And I’m enjoying getting driven around for once. I’m so used to driving that I never get to really look at the scenery.”

“We need to get the windows tinted darker though. That way the photographers can’t get too many daytime driving shots of you,” he grumbled.

I never gave any consideration to thoughts like that, although I never had to worry about having my picture taken either. Still, I loved hearing him say ‘we.’

He adjusted his grip on the steering wheel. “I never get to drive. I’m always jumping in the back seat of cars instead.”

“Or hurled into the back seat of cars,” I added.