You Had Me at Hola(79)

Leading Ladies are whole and happy on their own.

When she’d first written down the Leading Lady Plan, she hadn’t believed it. But now, she understood that being whole and happy on her own was the only way the other two things—getting recognition for positive reasons and making jefa moves—could happen.

She didn’t know what she was going to do next, but whatever it was, it would be on her own terms. For now, she was getting the hell out of dodge and going back to her apartment in LA that didn’t contain any pesky memories of Ashton. She was going to put her head down and work while she waited for the reaction to Carmen in Charge. No dating. And then . . . they would see.

Too nervous to eat, she rummaged around in her suite’s kitchen and found a bottle of Patrón that Michelle had left behind. Jasmine was more of a wine drinker, so she didn’t have shot glasses on hand. Improvising, she poured two fingers’ worth into one of the drinking glasses, then knocked it back.

Oh, lord. The tequila hit like a sledgehammer all the way down. But it had the intended effect of strengthening her resolve, hardening her heart, and incinerating the tears building in her throat.

Before she could resort to turning on a playlist of breakup songs, Ashton knocked on the door.

She opened it, and all the witty, sarcastic greetings she’d practiced fled from her mind. Did he have to be so handsome? Or smell so good?

Or look so solemn?

“Come in,” she said quietly, stepping aside.

He went through the little hallway into the living room, but didn’t sit down.

“Do you want something to drink?” she asked, unnerved by his silence.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I can’t stay long. I have to check on my family.”

He could barely look at her, and the awkwardness was killing her slowly. Bracing herself, she got right to the point.

“I won’t drag this out,” she said. “But I want to be perfectly clear. We’re done.”

Jasmine balled her hands into fists. Apparently breakups felt awful even when you weren’t on the receiving end. Who knew?

Eyes downcast, Ashton nodded. “Understood. If there’s a season two—”

“There won’t be a season two.”

His eyes shot up at her interruption. “How do you know? Did you hear something?”

She shook her head. This would be the final nail in the coffin. “If it gets picked up, I’ll fight it. I’m done with Carmen.”

And you. She didn’t say it, it was too mean. But it was implied.

The look on his face was horror-stricken, like she’d broken his heart.

But she knew she hadn’t. She was the one with the broken heart.

ASHTON FELT LIKE she’d slapped him. His entire body prickled, but it wasn’t anger—it was panic.

“Are you kidding me?” He ground out the words, too taken aback to articulate more.

She shook her head. “I’m perfectly serious.”

She couldn’t be. Desperation welled up inside him. This show was his big break, but Jasmine played the title character. If she quit, the show was over.

“Jasmine, think about this. Why would you do that?”

“Why not?” Her eyes flashed, whether with anger or pain, he wasn’t sure. “Why would I want to put myself through this again?”

Co?o, she was right. He’d known better. He never should have gotten involved with her in the first place, and once he had, he should have told her about Yadiel. He hadn’t, and that was on him.

But the rest? With the show? That was business. He needed this show. For one thing, it paid more than telenovelas, and he had a lot of people relying on him to pay the bills. And the exposure was the next step on his road to that Best Actor nom. He wasn’t getting any younger here. He was certainly too old to have made a stupid mistake like having a fling with his costar and sabotaging his career. Yet here they were.

In the back of his mind, he felt bad thinking about it as a fling, and he felt bad about being angry at her. It took two to tango, and he’d been right there with her, diving headlong into a love neither could afford.

But anxiety and a sense of betrayal sparked his anger and came flowing out of his mouth. “I cannot believe you are sabotaging me this way.”

Her eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”

“You know what a good thing we have going here? ScreenFlix is the number one streaming service in the world. We might never get the chance to work on a Latinx-driven mainstream production like this again.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to glance at the screen. His father was calling.

But Jasmine wasn’t taking his accusation quietly.

“Don’t act like you care about this show,” she scoffed. “It was like pulling teeth to get you to connect with the rest of the cast. And look, you’re not even paying attention now. My cousins were right. You are full of yourself.”

With an angry move, he sent the call to voice mail and tossed his phone across the room, onto the sofa cushions.

“There,” he bit off. “Happy now?”

“Do I look like I’m happy?” she snapped, brow furrowed in exasperation.

He didn’t answer that. Instead, he tried to reason with her. “We’re both contracted for three seasons.”

She shrugged and looked away. “So?”