Read Page 22

"Did you know that he broke it off?" she asks haltingly.

"Blair, I don't know anything, okay?"Advertisement

"He broke it off because of that girl."

"What girl?"

"Clay, please don't make this any weirder - "

"I don't know what girl you're talking about."

"I'm talking about the girl you wanted to bring to the dinner party," she says. "That's who he left me for." She pauses again for emphasis. "That's who he's with now."

I break the silence by saying, "You're lying."

"Clay - "

"You're lying because you want me here and - "

"Stop it," she shouts.

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"But I don't know what you're saying."

"Rain. Her name's Rain Turner. That's the girl you wanted to bring, right? When Julian broke it off with me she was the reason. They've been together ever since." Again she pauses for effect. "He's still with her."

"How ... do you know this?" I ask. "I thought you didn't talk to him."

"I don't talk to Julian," she says, "but I know they're together."

I throw the glass against the wall.

Blair looks away, embarrassed.

"You're that upset over her? I mean how long have you even been with her?" Blair asks, her voice cracking. "A couple of weeks?"

Concentrating on the flower arrangement in the middle of the suite is my only hope of focusing while Blair continues.

"I made Trent take her on as a client because Julian asked me to, without telling me he was seeing her. It was a favor I did for him. I thought she was just a friend. Another actress who needed help ... I did it because ... " She stops. "Because I liked Julian."

I'm murmuring to myself. "That's why she was at your house."

Blair realizes something after I say this. "You never asked her why she was there, did you?" Another silence. "Jesus, it's still all about you, isn't it? Didn't you ever wonder what the hell she was doing there?" Blair's voice keeps climbing. "Do you know anything about her except how she makes you feel?"

"I don't believe any of this."

"Why not?"

"Because ... she's with me."

Finally, I stagger toward the door.

"Wait," Blair says quietly. "I better leave first."

"What does it matter?" I ask, wiping my face.

"Because I think I'm being followed."

I text Rain: If I don't hear from you I'm going to make them give the part to someone else. In a matter of minutes I get a text from her. Hey Crazy, I'm back! Let's hang. Xo.

In my office, sitting at my desk pretending to work on a script, I'm really watching Rain, who has just shown up, and she's tan and pacing the floor, holding a glass of ice with some tequila in it, chatting casually about how crazy her mother is and her younger stepbrother who's in the military and when she falls onto the lounge chair in the corner of the office it takes all the strength I have to get up and walk over to her and not say anything about Julian. She looks up at me and keeps talking, only lightly distracted, but when I don't answer a question she touches her knee against mine and then I reach for her arm and pull her off the chair and when she reminds me about the reservation at Dan Tana's I tell her, "I want to f**k you first," and start pulling her toward the bedroom.

"Come on," she says. "I'm hungry. Let's go to Dan Tana's."

"I thought you didn't want to go to Dan Tana's," I say, pressing into her. "I thought you wanted to go someplace else."

"I changed my mind."

"Why? Who didn't you want to see there?"

"Can't we just hang?"

"No," I say.

"Look," she says. "Maybe after dinner? I just want to chill." She strokes my face and then kisses me lightly on the lips and then she pulls her arm away and walks out of the office. I follow her through the living room and into the kitchen, where she heads for the tequila bottle and does another shot.

"Who was in San Diego?" I ask.

"What?"

"Who was in San Diego?" I ask again.

"My mother. I told you that about a hundred times."

"Who else?"

"Stop it, Crazy," she says. "Hey, did you talk to Jon and Mark?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?" She makes a face. "What does that mean?" pqdm.com