Chapter 12

I wasn't sure what made Sophia change her mind and agree to do the interview. Maybe she planned on further destroying my reputation. Maybe she decided the exposure would be good for her career. Or maybe she just had nothing better to do and decided to go for the hell of it. Whatever her reasoning was, I was sure I was about to find out – on national television, not in private. In private apparently wasn't Sophia's thing.

Some of the set workers had placed us at the edge of the set's entrance a few minutes ago. All that was left to do was wait for our signal to enter and join Renee Brown.

"I think you're supposed to go in first," I whispered to Sophia. "You should stand in front of me."

"No, you're supposed to go in first," Sophia corrected in a whisper.

"No, they specifically said –"

"No, they didn't, they –"

"Would you let me finish a sentence?" I snapped.

"Would you let me finish a sentence?"

I sighed. We were supposed to appear on Renee Brown at any second now and things were already going downhill with us. I had hoped today would go more smoothly than this considering how well the pre-interview had gone. Well, alright, "well" was probably an overstatement, but we had kept the bickering to a minimum. Nothing like this.

"I hate it when you do that," I said after a moment. "Why are you so rude to me?"

"Why are you so ugly?"

Real mature, Sophia. "Why do you keep saying that? I'm not even ugly."

There was no way she actually thought I was ugly. I mean, seriously. I was pretty sure no one on this planet could say I was ugly and actually mean it. I wasn't proud of it exactly, but I couldn't deny that my looks had played an instrumental role in getting me to where I was that day.

"Because it's true," Sophia said. "Do you need me to say it differently?"

"No."

Of course, my response wasn't even necessary because she completely ignored me and kept talking, anyway. Why did I even bother responding when she was just going to do whatever the fuck she wanted anyway?

"Here," she said. "If ugliness were a crime... you'd definitely get the death penalty."

"You can't honestly believe I'm ugly," I said. When I realized my voice had come out a little louder than intended, I lowered my voice. "I mean, look at me." I gestured towards myself because let's be honest, that was all I really needed to do to prove my point.

She still didn't appear to be too impressed. She stared at me with a blank expression on her face for a few seconds before her face lit up and she exclaimed, "Oh, my god!"

"What now?" I sighed.

"I get it now, Christian. I understand what people mean when they say you're dark and handsome."

I couldn't help the smug smirk that crossed my face. They always gave in. Even the ones who liked to play hard to get couldn't help but cave and admit they were attracted to me. "I knew you would eventually."

"They mean that when it's dark, you're handsome!"

I dropped the smug smirk pretty quickly after she said that. "I hate you."

This time, it was her that had a smug little smirk on her face. Was I that annoying when I smirked like that? Because it wasn't endearing on her at all.

A man wearing a black headset interrupted our stare-down. He looked at Sophia and then at me before settling on me, apparently. He came closer and whispered in my ear. "You guys are uh, you're on air. You have been for the past minute or so."

I felt my eyes widening as he spoke. "We're what?"

"What?" Sophia looked between the guy with the headset and me. "What's wrong?"

"We've been on air for the past minute or so," I said. I didn't even bother lowering my voice any further. They were probably enhancing the sound to get every last word we uttered, anyway.

"Oh." Sophia looked around at our surroundings. Her gaze settled on a camera in the corner that was pointed directly at us. How had neither of us noticed that? I could understand that she hadn't noticed it, but how had I not noticed it? She was the newbie, not me. I knew how these things worked. I knew how sneaky these people could be if it meant getting the shot. "Hi, mom," she continued, looking at the camera and waving.

This was probably a set-up. They told us to wait for a signal that came later than it was supposed to. Could it have been a coincidence? Sure. But I didn't think it was. She'd witnessed our bickering during the pre-interview and wanted to catch it live when we didn't think there were any cameras around.

"Joining us tonight are the stars of the upcoming film Kidnap My Heart!" Renee Brown announced from her seat on the set. "Let's welcome the smoking hot tamale that is Christian Ryder and the feisty Sophia Hastings!"

"There's our cue finally," I muttered. "Let's go." Without thinking, I grabbed Sophia by the waist to try to get her to move forward.

That was apparently the wrong thing to do because instead of moving forward, Sophia jumped and slapped my hand away from her. "Don't touch me."

"I was just—"

"I don't care. Now go," she said. She didn't enter the set, stopping just short of it instead. Why was she like this? Goddamn.

"Ladies first," I said. She was the one who was supposed to go first. I didn't want to be the one to fuck this up any further.

"Then which one of us is supposed to go first?" she retorted.

That wasn't even a funny retort. She thought she was cleverer than she actually was. Still, I was well aware of the fact that we were still on air and that we needed to walk onto the set sooner than later. We'd already been introduced. We didn't have time for her shit.

I let out a loud breath and said, "I'm going to be the sensible one here and go before we screw this up even more."

She had another one of those stupid little smirks on her face as she said, "Be my guest, miss."

I shot her one last dirty look before finally walking onto the set. I gave the studio audience my best smile, resisting the urge to smile smugly at the swooning faces of the mostly female audience. I didn't look back at Sophia, but I assumed she was following my lead.

I sat down on the couch next to Renee Brown's individual seat. It was to her right, but slightly in front of her. Sophia took a seat next to me, making sure there was an adequate amount of space between us. We didn't want any dating rumors popping up. I was sure that the space between us was mostly due to the fact that she didn't want to be near me, though.

Once we had settled in, Renee said, "Okay, I gotta come out with this. I think we're all dying to know. How handsome is Christian in the dark?"

Sophia laughed at first but her laughter quickly died down. I didn't get it at first, either. It sounded like Renee was just referring to the comment Sophia had made earlier, but I think Sophia and I both recognized the hidden meaning behind Renee's seemingly innocent question at the same time.

"I wouldn't know," Sophia said. "I'm only stuck with him during the day."

"I'll have you know I'm beautiful in the dark," I said in a joking tone to try to lighten the awkward mood Sophia and Renee were creating.

"And you're definitely not bad on the eyes in the light, either." Renee winked at me. "Now, Christian. Christian, Christian, Christian. How excited are you for this new movie? It's kind of going back to what you started your career with. Teeny-bopper romantic comedies that make you bring out the tissues and the ice cream and the squash. You know."

Renee was a popular television host, but she was one of the more eccentric ones. I wasn't sure if this was her actual personality or if it was just for ratings. Whatever the case, it worked. I'd only interacted with her on the set of her show. If it was just for ratings, she put on a hell of a good show because I wasn't even sure if she was faking it or not.

I shrugged, choosing my words carefully. I wasn't thrilled to be doing another one of these movies, if I was being completely honest, but I also didn't want to bite the hand that had fed me for years. Like she said, this was how I got started. These types of movies had made me quite a bit of money and given me even more notoriety and fame. Now wasn't the time to talk down on them. "These films are always fun. Besides, I like my character and the story, and that's always the most important thing."

From the corner of my eye, I saw the mildly confused look on her face. She wasn't used to Renee's eccentricity.

"Would you say you're a lot like your character, William Knight? You've definitely got the handsome part down," Renee said with another wink.

"We definitely have a lot in common, personality wise and situation wise," I said. I glanced over at Sophia. "I can relate to being stuck in a less than ideal situation with someone you don't exactly get along with."

Sophia looked right at me when she said, "What a coincidence. So can I."

Renee looked between the two of us with a delighted look on her face. "It looks like we got a little drama on set, folks. Now, I heard you got pretty into your audition, Sophia. Even took one for the team and bit Christian over here. Even left a marl. That's wild. Rough living."

"Yeah, I got the taste of his grimy hand out of my mouth eventually," Sophia said with a laugh.

Renee let out an obnoxious stream of laughter that almost made me cringe before continuing her montage of questions. "Soph – can I call you Soph? Yeah? Okay. You went from being a normal girl to a star so suddenly. Is there anything you miss about your old life?"

"Of course," Sophia said. "It's a huge change. I miss my family and my friends every day. I'm lucky to have my best friend, Tori, here with me, but everyone else I know is back home."

Wow. So the insufferable Sophia Hastings did have feelings after all.

"But I can't really complain," she continued with a shrug. "I'm living my dream and I couldn't be more excited."

"I hear things are going pretty good for you, too, Chris. You've got a few new movies coming out, and a new cologne, which, by the way, smells divine," Renee said, singing the word "divine" in a piercingly loud opera voice. I stifled a chuckle when I saw Sophia jump in her seat out of surprise. I knew to expect pretty much anything from Renee, but this was Sophia's first time on her show. It was always funny watching newbies come on Renee Brown for this reason alone.

"My husband has it and I love it," Renee added. "Makes me want to jump his bones all the time."

Okay then. Renee also didn't have a sense of what was too much information to give to near strangers – or to give on national television.

"I hope this one comes with instructions," Sophia said. "I swear Christian bathes in his cologne some days."

"You're such a drama queen." I rolled my eyes. "Clearly you have some sort of medical problem if your nose is really that sensitive."

"I don't have a medical problem. I know what I'm talking about. I'm the one who's stuck with you all day."

"And you never let me forget it."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Don't act like you're such a ray of sunshine yourself. You're the poster boy for manstruation."

I wrinkled my nose at her. "Quit saying that. It's weird."

"Why? Is it that time of the month for you? Do you need a manpon?" She sniggered at her own joke, which wasn't even that funny, anyway. This was just another example of her thinking she was funnier than she actually was.

"Okay. I hate to interrupt this, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it anyway," Renee said, rubbing her hands together in excitement. "I think this question is on everyone's mind, not just mine. As a newly freed man, you're probably out there searching the market for something new, right, Christian? So is there something going on between the two of you? Because I, uh, sense a little something-something here." Renee winked at us. "You get what I'm saying?"

I glanced over at Sophia to gauge her reaction. I wasn't sure why that was my first instinct. It's not like I was going to lie and say there was something going on between the two of us when we obviously had problems sitting in the same room together, much less having any sort of positive interaction. Sophia was grimacing at the situation, like it was the worst suggestion in the world.

Seriously, lady, I wasn't even that bad. Actually, I was a fucking catch. And I wasn't just saying that because that was what my mom told everyone. It was true. She'd be lucky to be Christian Ryder's next girlfriend. Being my girl brought more fame and fortune than she would even know what to do with. She was the one throwing the opportunity away by pushing me away.

Her grimace somehow turned into a giggle. And once the giggling started, it didn't stop. No, instead, it turned into full-fledged laugher.

I tried to hide my irritation but probably didn't do a very good job at us. "There definitely isn't anything going on between us," I said, answering for the both of us because clearly Sophia wasn't going to stop laughing anytime soon.