“You look like you were up all night,” I said.

“I was.” He winked.

Rolling my eyes, I grabbed a script. “Who was it now, a Victoria’s Secret model? No—two Victoria’s Secret models?”

“Jealous?” he asked.

“As if.” I scoffed. “I feel sorry for them. You use them for sex and toss them away like used tissues.”

“They know what they’re getting into. I’m just as much a notch in their belts as they are in mine. Not everyone is as prudish as you.” His eyes never left mine. It felt like he was looking right through me.

“I’m not a prude.”

“Yeah, okay—”

“Didn’t you want to read lines? Where is your script?”

“Just start from where you would like.”

“Fine,” I muttered, opening to the middle. “‘Do you ever think of quitting?’”

“‘What would I do?’” Noah replied, staring at me.

I shifted in my seat but kept reading. “‘Anything we want to do? We could go to Paris, Rome, Istanbul. Anywhere, just you and me—”

“‘You still haven’t answered my question, Blair. What would we do, not where would we live. We’re thieves—always have been and always will be. Or is that not who you are anymore?’” I glanced up at him as he recited it perfectly, his voice annoyed and steady.

“‘Damon—‘”

“‘Answer me. Are you done? If you want to go, babe, then go. But I can’t go with you. This is who I am until the day I die. I don’t know how to do anything else. I don’t want to do anything else. My two greatest joys in life are taking what I want and taking you. I’d rather resent myself for not being able to walk away than resent you for making me give this up.’”

After that scene, Blair strips down and kisses down his chest.

So I flipped to another section and read “‘What do you mean what did I do?’”

“‘I told you to knock him out, not kill him.’”

I paused, putting the script down to look at Noah, who was still staring at me. “You memorized the whole script?”

He finally looked at me, confused. “Haven’t you?”

No, I hadn’t. Most of my lines, but not to the point where he was.

“You’ve gotten lazy.” He closed the book and slid it back to me. “The old Amelia used to know every line of all her scripts to the point where she would correct the other actors.”

“Yeah, and you’d call me annoying or make fun of me,” I muttered, looking out the window. The clouds drifted right by us.

“I was a kid.”

“And what’s your excuse now that you’re an adult?”

He opened his mouth to speak and then stopped, sighing before asking, “When are you going to stop holding the past against me?”

When it no longer hurts to think about.

“Why should I? After all these years, it’s not like you’re a different person. Like always, everything must work on your time. You were horrible then, and you’re still horrible now,” I snapped, which stirred a few people around me. Smiling apologetically to them, I focused my attention back on Noah.

“You have no idea what it was like dating you,” he said, shaking his head. “The amount of pressure you added to my life then. Jesus. I felt like I couldn’t walk out of the bathroom without some bastard telling me, ‘Don’t break Amelia’s heart. Don’t do anything stupid. How’d you manage to date Amelia?’ My favorite were the times when people thought we shouldn’t be together because they saw us play siblings. Dating you was a nightmare.”

“What?” My mouth dropped open. He could have shot me in the face, and it still would have felt better than hearing that.

He frowned and shrugged like it was nothing to him. “Do you remember just how many fan letters you got each day and how many parents would bring their kids to set? You were always surrounded by guys, all of them trying to date you. All of them taking your attention away. All of that on top of the fact that we never saw each other. Our relationship was doomed from the start. The only love that lasts in Hollywood is the one we fake and sell to others.”

“So back then, you figured, ‘Hey why not just end it sooner?’ Is that why you cheated on me?”

“Now that you know, maybe you’ll be able to stop grumbling over me and focus on your work.” He yawned, leaning back and closing his eyes.

“Wow.” I had no words.

“Let’s call a truce already.”

“Fine,” I replied, still trying to wrap my head around his confession. It didn’t make sense, and it only pissed me off more.

I was sixteen! He had no idea how it felt waking up one morning and finding out in the paper that he’d been spotted making out with some model. I felt like the world had crumbled at my feet. I cried for days. Now he was telling me it was my fault and that I should get over it already.

Glancing up at him and noticing how his chest rose and fell over and over again, I couldn’t help but remember the times we did have together. He would surprise me in my trailer with gummy bears—only the red kind—and leave a handwritten note with two words on it: “You’re beautiful.”

Ugh, I don’t want to think about this!

I pulled out our itinerary. The moment we landed, we’d be whisked off to get ready for a promotional event, followed by a dinner for the cast and crew. The next morning, we’d be blocking the sets, followed by actually acting. It was March now, and they wanted to release by Valentine’s Day next year.

Using my tablet, I searched “Damon and Blair.” The very first thing that came up was a page for fans picking their dream cast for the movie. I didn’t understand why everyone loved them so much. Damon and Blair were bad people who only cared about each other, no matter who else got hurt.

“I wished someone loved me as passionately as Damon loves Blair. He’d die for her,” one blogger wrote. Right under that was a link to the petition to replace me. Overnight, it had gained another three thousand supporters. Before I threw my tablet back in my purse, I noticed a link to a piece about Noah.

From Cute to Hot to Sinful, the headline read.

The very first picture under “cute” was the two of us when we were kids. His hair was longer and a little lighter. I remember them wanting a blonde but settling on dying his hair a warm brown instead. He always wore a shark tooth around his neck. There was even a photo of him during his own TV miniseries, The Adventures of Young Clark Kent.

The second picture of him, as “hot,” was when he acted in Hawaii as Child Ninja. He stood on a rock in the middle of the beach, shirtless and with his fist extended, the most serious expression on his face. I almost wanted to laugh. But that was his last big movie as the lead. The others flopped, and then he mostly acted in supporting roles.

Lastly, most recently, his “sinful” look, was from a photo shoot dated only a month ago. He was dressed in a full fitted suit, a smirk across his lips, a women’s leg over his shoulder while another woman sat at his feet. There was another shot where he stood shirtless, fake glasses on, and a cigarette between his lips.

“He’s hot and totally who I see as Damon, but I really hope he doesn’t blow it in this movie. His other movies sucked.”

I glanced up at him, oddly comforted that he was in the same boat as I was. Maybe this could work?

Rolling my eyes, I threw the tablet into my bag and reached for the script. I spent the whole flight reading. In fact, I didn’t even notice when we touched down until Noah got up, not saying a word. He took out his phone and grabbed his bag when the cabin door opened.

“You didn’t kill each other?” Ollie came over to me as I got up.

“At least not yet anyway,” I said, following him out. There were two cars waiting for us. Noah, however, threw his leg over the back of a black motorcycle, revved up the engine and sped off.

“Alright. We’re going to the hotel. It’s not far, and there, you all will do your first photo shoot. Hair and makeup are already in your room,” Ollie said, opening the door for me to slide in. “Have I mentioned how proud I am of you?”