That Blue Gibson

CH 92

"Nope!" Liz yelped and spun around on her heel to head back inside when a hand clamped around her arm. She tried to shake him off, but Johnny held on.

"All I want to do is talk, Lizzy," he said softly. "Just talk to me."

"We have absolutely nothing to talk about," she countered, looking over her shoulder at Sophie who was frantically tapping away on her phone. She thought she was meeting with the flirty guy from the investor meeting, not Pepe Le Peu in human form.

"Just give me an hour," he begged. "Just an hour and I'll write you a check."

"I'll fund my own film, thank you," she said curtly and pried his fingers off her leather jacket. "Might be nice to have a producer credit next to my name."

"Your boyfriend doesn't need to know," he said arrogantly. "What's one drink going to hurt?"

Liz whipped back around in a fury. How dare he bring up Dave. He knew they would be photographed and that the news of them on a 'date' would hit the press long before she could ever get to Dave and explain, which with how fragile they were at the moment, would completely kill any future they might have together. Realizing that was exactly his game, she took a deep breath to tell him off, but an idea swirled around in her brain and she dropped her glare for one that she hoped looked a little less menacing. "I will get in that car on one condition."

"Anything," he breathed, clearly stunned that she was agreeing to this.

"You drive me directly to him. We can discuss business in the car. No dinner, no drinks, just Dave."

He contemplated this for a moment, then countered. "One drink. Then... him."

She hesitated, wondering if there was any possible way out of this one. "One drink," she finally agreed, holding up her finger. "But on my terms. We go where I want to go."

"Fine," he conceded and let go of her arm. "Where to?"

Liz clicked past him in her stiletto heels and gracefully climbed into the back of the limo, feeling much more confident now that she was calling the shots. "The Rainbow, please."

Before he was able to climb in next to her, she took a quick look around the limo to orient herself, finding it was stocked to the hilt with liquor. Great.

"So, Lizzy. How's your-"

"It's fine now, thank you," she said curtly, arranging her hair over the barely visible scar in her hairline. It still pissed her off that she had been dumped at the hospital in London with no one to advocate for her, though she knew it wasn't really his fault. Him being seen at the hospital would have been an admission of guilt on behalf of the studio and it was all just a tangled web of Hollywood politics. Much like the web she was sitting in at the moment.

"... good," he murmured, still staring hard at her. "And how is David?"

"He's wonderful," Liz gushed, hoping that her Oscar was so well earned that even another actor couldn't find cracks in her delivery.

"I keep waiting to hear wedding bells," he said smoothly. "Maybe hear of an impending little one on the way, but it sounds like you're both taking things slowly."

"We're perfectly happy the way we are," she tried to sound as casual as possible, but her brain was reeling. Marriage and babies? she thought, Slow your roll, weirdo.

"Living two hours away from each other makes you happy?"

Liz began to stare hard at the bar across from her knees and mentally mixed herself a drink while wondering if everyone in LA knew where she lived. "Distance makes the heart grow fonder, you know."