A STELLAR AFFAIR (A Hollywood Bad Boy Romance) (24 page)

Ava watched with pride
and joy bursting in his heart as Wes descended the stage to receive his Best Supporting Actor award. He was accompanied by a standing ovation.

He stood at the podium, seemingly nervous.
 

“Wow,” he started. “Thank you, North American Film Awards. I’ve been nominated here three times. This only proves, third time’s the charm.”

Laughs from the audience.

Wes looked straight at her.

“First, I’d like to thank my Empress. She did choose my clothes tonight and I think I look good enough to hold this trophy. Thank you, baby.” He raised the trophy in her direction. “The past weeks have surely been interesting. Whew!” He gave a short laugh. “But here we are now. We survived.”

Laughs and more applause.

Ava’s face was on fire but it was giddiness she felt.
 

Wes was being mischievous again, and at the NAFA, to boot! She could only imagine the headlines tomorrow. But whereas the first time he did this at the AMVAs she was so mortified, now she felt like crying in happiness.

“Av?”

Ava was surprised that Tyrone would approach her in public like this, after all the mess that happened between them. “Ty…”

“Can we talk?”

She glanced behind her. Wes was some meters away, being congratulated by his peers, looking victorious.

She faced Tyrone again. She’d give him a few minutes, for old time’s sake. “S-sure, Ty.”

He seemed to struggle with what to say. Strange because Tyrone was one of the most confident performers she’d ever worked with on and off the stage.
 

“Av, I know it’s been a while…”

“Yeah…How are you?”
 

He shrugged. “I’m sure you know…”

She’d heard rumors that he and Skylar have split. But Hollywood gossip ceased to matter to her since she and Wes got together. Her focus was all on Wes that she didn’t care anymore about her issues with Tyrone and Skylar, not even with the fact that Stoneryder had completely dominated the gossip headlines the past weeks, making Tylar and anything connected to the couple irrelevant and lackluster.

“I’m sorry,” she simply said. She really didn’t want to ask about Skylar. What was happening to their marriage was their business. She just hoped Tyrone was handling it well.

He smiled. “Don’t be. It’s for the best. It hasn’t been working for some time now.”

She was surprised by his reply. The tabloids had been screaming Tylar PDAs for years.

“I’ve filed for divorce. It’s official. It’s done. And you’re the first to know.”

She didn’t want to be the first to know.“W-why? I thought…?”

“It really hasn’t been working from the start, Av.”

Well, shit, how would she respond to that revelation?

“I know I messed up so bad, Av. With you.”

“Ty, please. It’s in the past. I’m over it. Totally.”

“But I’m not. I never have.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Please Ty. You’re not even divorced yet.”

“I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me, Av?”

Damn. Should this actually happen at the NAFA? “I’ve forgiven you a long time ago.”

A big smile broke on his lips. “Then we can be friends again?”

“I…why not?”

“I missed you, Av.”

She glanced behind her, grateful Wes was busy with his friends. “Ty…

“I missed working with you, too. You’re the only one who could connect with me artistically, you know. We clicked so well together. We made such great music together.”

“You’re doing quite well on your own now.”

“But it’s never the same without you, Av. I’m absolutely sure now, you’re my soulmate. Artistically…” he paused, looking earnest. “And in all the other aspects of my life. Nobody gets me like you do, Av. Nobody. God, I’ve missed you.”

She was speechless.
 

“Mom and Dad have been asking a lot about you. They miss you so much, too.”

This was the person she’d shared her dreams with since their childhood. They started in the business together. He’d composed their greatest hits together. His parents were practically hers, too. They were neighbors in Nashville. But he betrayed her in the most painful way.

But she had nothing but good memories of his parents, at least. “I miss them too.”

“Say we visit them together sometime soon?”

“Uhm…I don’t know…”

“Think about it, Av. About us. We’ve been on our own a few years, have proven to ourselves we can be successful in our own right. Ego’s gone, Av. Gone. I’m just me. Just your ol’ small town boy, the Tyrone you used to know. I miss the old days. Just you and me. We can still have those days. The future awaits us.”

“Ty, please, stop…”

He grasped her hands.

“How cozy.”

She froze and wrenched her hands from Ty’s hold. She was afraid to turn around and meet Wesley’s eyes. How much had he heard? Oh god.

A look of malice entered Ty’s face. “Wesley. Congratulations.”

Wes’ arms wrapped around her waist possessively, pulling her toward his body. She could feel the tension emanating from his rigid stance. He was very angry.

“Thank you. I’m sorry I can’t say the same thing to you.”

Ava knew it was a dig. Ty’s latest album, though a huge hit, was lambasted by the critics.

“I can see you were having a little reunion with my woman.”

Tyrone smirked. “Your woman? Really? I heard Stoneryder’s an elaborate show. You can quit pretending with me. I know Ava still loves me.”

Ava froze. She couldn’t believe Tyrone’s gall.

“You can continue dreaming about that, man, but Ava’s with me now. Really with me. Isn’t that right, Av?”

“Guys, stop it. People are watching.” She could smell the tension between the two men and she was caught right in the middle. They didn’t seem to give a shit about the attention they were drawing.
 

Ava was panicking. This was the NAFA. She didn’t want to be blacklisted from the guest list over her love life! Or the sordidness of it.

She turned around. “Wes, let’s go.” She held his arm and met his eyes squarely.

They were dark and cold. Darko cold. “Let’s go,” she repeated firmly.

She was relieved when he smiled a bit and shrugged. “As you wish my Empress.” He threw Tyrone a look but he tipped his head as a by-you-leave.

“I’ll be calling you, Av. We’ve so much to talk about. I’ve enough material written for an entire album. For you.”

“She’s not interested,” Wes said to Tyrone brusquely.

“Why don’t you let her decide for herself?” Tyrone shot back.

“Ty, please!” Ava snapped at her ex to shut up. They were causing a scene already and this was so not the place for this drama. “Not now,” she told him warningly.

Tyrone smiled smugly. “Later then.”

“You tell him you’re not interested. Now, Ava,” Wes ordered her like she had no mind of her own. She seethed inside, hating his high-handed tone and she hated Tyrone for deliberately goading Wes, too.
 

“I’m waiting Av. Tell him,” Wes repeated.

“Come on, don’t be an ass, man.” Tyrone took a step forward.
 

Wes turned to Tyrone, his eyes, menacing.
 

Ava could have groaned aloud.
Shit. This isn’t happening!

“Me, an asshole? Let’s see, if I’m an asshole, what does that make you? Screwing her own bestfriend behind her back?”

Tyrone flushed a shade darker. “You can never take away the fact that I was Ava’s first love. I know she will always, ALWAYS love me.”

Wes smiled, a cruel glint in his eyes. “You can never take away the fact that I popped her cherry. I know she’ll never EVER forget me.”

Ava was shocked speechless. She could only imagine the headlines tomorrow from that exchange. Her sex life was an open book now she will never hear the end of it!

Tyrone paled, then violence erupted out of him. He swung at Wes.

Wes ducked and counter-punched, sending Tyrone crashing on his ass.

It didn’t end there.

Ava wanted to sink into the floor in absolute shame.

Men were fighting over her like rabid dogs. On the red carpet!
 

He slammed the door shut.
“Don’t walk away when I’m talking to you.”

But Ava wanted to put distance between them. “Not now, Wes.”

“Now, Ava.”

“Fine! Why did you do that?!”

“I did nothing.”

“Nothing?! You…look at you!”

“He swung at me first. What was I supposed to do?”

He wiped his bleeding nose with the hem of his white shirt. He had discarded his outer coat.

“You could have walked away!”

He sighed. “So, I didn’t. You know why? I didn’t want to walk away because that dipshit hurt you, Av. I’ll admit, I’ve been hoping I’d encounter him at one point and beat the shit out of him for what he did to you.”

“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me!”
 

“But I want to.”

“But not like that! God Wes, I’ve been in the headlines for months now, scandal after scandal! I didn’t need this shit!”

“Did you think about scandal when you contracted me to be your pseudo boyfriend?” he sneered.

“I wanted out of the deal but it was you who pushed it! Or have you forgotten?!”

He stared at her. “You’re not really angry at me because of the scandal. You’re angry at me because I beat your ex. You still want him, Av? You still love him?”

Her eyes widened at his ridiculous accusation. “What…? Are you crazy?”

“Answer me.”

She just had it with men trying to control her. First it was Tyrone. Now this! “I don’t need to answer anything. I’m not answerable to anybody but myself!”

He advanced toward her, violence, palpable in his eyes. “So you don’t give a shit what I think? Is that it? You don’t give a shit how I feel?”

She shook her head. Things were getting lost in translation and it was getting worse with every word uttered between them. “Wes, please, can we do this tomorrow?”

“I saw he still wants you. Do you still want him, Av? Is this the reason why you haven’t taken the test yet? You’re not sure what you want? Are you still hung up on your ex?”
 

She lost it. “You have no right to tell me what I should or shouldn’t want! This is my body, my life, my career! I’m not some bimbo you nailed on the wall who’d drop everything in her life just to be at your beck and call!”

He shook head, a sad smile on his face. “I would never ask that of you, though I would be the luckiest man if you would drop a World Tour just to be with me. I’ll tell you now, I’ll drop Super X just to be with you. I knew I lost it when I landed the first punch on your scumbag ex. It was a tough choice but it was all worth it.”

“Wesley, you’re not being fair at all!”

“Am I not?”

“I’ll never ask you to give up anything for me.”

“Then we’re different. Because I can give up a lot for you, Ava. Everything.”

She shook her head. “Impossible. You can’t just say that after a month of…pure sex.”
 

“I can’t believe you’re saying this now. You’re the one who sings love songs, Av. It’s sad that you don’t believe your own lyrics.”

“Oh don’t give me that shit! I’m not the one who’s been sleeping around with supermodels and starlets and all the skanky socialites walking around Hollywood!”
 

“Before you. Before us. Now, I only have you.”

“Oh come on! This is Hollywood. There’s never a before and after in relationships, only in between.”

 
“You don’t think we have something serious going?”

“We don’t…what do we have, Wes?”

“You tell me, baby. I know you feel it, too.”

“We just have sex! Career-breaking sex!”

“Thanks, that’s the ultimate compliment. Never thought anything could ever threaten your rock-solid career.”

She stamped her foot. “Are you never serious, Wesley Stoner?!”

“I am. Very serious. And you need to be reminded what you have. What we have.”

“No. Not like this—”

“Tyrone is your past. I’m your present AND your future. And if he comes near you again, I’m going to seriously rearrange his pretty face his fans will mistake him for Freddy Krueger.”