Take Two (The Jilted Bride #1)(54)

“I don’t know…Maybe in a week or so, but if he marries her I can’t. I can’t be someone’s second choice again. The first time was painful enough.”

“Are you going to the wedding?”

“No.”

I couldn’t fathom sitting in the media row with the rest of the writers, listening to them dissect everything about the event. I couldn’t see myself paying attention to anything but Matt—watching how he smiled at the audience, how he turned on his charm for the cameras, how he kissed her with the same lips that kissed me.

“You sure you’re not in love with him?” Jen smirked.

“Yes, I’m sure. I haven’t known him long enough to be in love.”

“What does time have to do with anything?”

“Will you go to the wedding in my place?”

“Ha! You think he would let me get out of there without harassing me about where you are and where you’ve been? Thanks, but I’ll pass. You want to know what I think?”

“No.”

“I’ll tell you anyway. I think you’re one hundred percent in love with Matt and you’re too stubborn to admit it. I think you should give him a second chance.”

“I’ll try…”

I woke up Saturday to another text message from Matt. I decided to open it: “I’m ordering pizza for lunch today. I’ll think of you while I eat…If you want to join me, let me know…I hope you’re okay…Call me later?

I went into my kitchen and pulled out a carton of eggs. I remembered how Matt scrambled them at the diner and tried to replicate his instructions.

I didn’t burn them at all.

Chapter 26

Matt

The hair and makeup stylist gave me a few finishing touches before backing away. The producer went over the questions with me three times. When she was sure I was ready, she signaled for the clapboard.

“Matt Sterling interview with OWN, take one, section three. Action!” the director’s voice yelled.

“Mr. Sterling, tell us about the exact moment that you knew you were in love,” the interviewer asked off camera.

“The exact moment?” I scratched my head. “I knew I was in love when I went one day without talking to her. Every time I did something on that day, all I could think of was telling her about it later. Then we went a week without talking, and then it was two weeks and um…I just can’t—couldn’t get her out of my mind. That’s when I knew I had fallen in love.”

“I see. Tell us about your favorite date together. Tell us as many details as you can.”

“That’s a tough one…We’ve had a lot of those.”

The interviewer laughed.

I looked up at the ceiling and then back at the camera. “I guess I would say the first time we went out on the ocean together. It was just the two of us out on my yacht. She was so nervous about jumping in the water. She’d never heard of polar-bearing before so, I um…I held her hand and we jumped together. She was screaming when we were in the air but she didn’t let my hand go. I think that would probably have to be my favorite date that we’ve had.”

“And what about your favorite thing to do together?”

“Movies. We watched a lot of movies together.”

“Cut!” the director shouted. The producer headed my way and sat across from me.

“We’re almost done Mr. Sterling,” she said. “We just have a few more questions regarding you and Miss Ross. We need to reshoot that last response though. Could you say “We watch movies” instead of “watched”? We want to keep everything in a certain tense.”

“Not a problem.”

“Quiet on the set!” the director bellowed.

Shelby took out a stack of scripts from her bag. She laid them across the table and numbered them one through nine.

“Okay,” she cheered. “Pick a number!”

“Three.”

She picked up the designated script and flipped open the jacket. “The genre is historical romance. A redneck’s only son—”

“Next!” I sighed. “Number seven.”

“Okay…This one is a romantic comedy. A man loses his memory and the woman he was married to—”

“Next! Number five.”

She rolled her eyes. “Another romantic comedy. A woman gets left at the altar and as she’s returning her dress she runs into her old college sweetheart…No next this time?”

“Continue.”

“He’s currently engaged to the woman he left her for in college, but he’s only getting married to merge the two families’ companies together. He falls in love with the jilted bride and has to make a decision between the two.”

How perfect.

“Let me guess, he chooses the jilted bride?”

She flipped to the last page of the script. “Nope. It looks like there’s a twist somewhere because he ends up marrying the fiancé and she’s kissing some other guy.”

“What other guy?”

“Read the script,” she tossed it to me. “We can go over the rest of these in a few minutes. Can I use your bathroom?”

“Go ahead,” I flipped through the script.