Chapter 20

I was on my third beer when I heard Bubba start barking out of nowhere from upstairs.

"It's your turn, dad," Blake said, leaning further back on the couch and kicking his legs up onto the glass table in front of him.

I rolled my eyes. "It's always my turn."

I felt like an overworked mom in this "co-parenting" role of ours. I was the one who took care of Bubba 97% of the time. Blake was mostly just here to be the "fun" parent.

I still got up to see what was going on and was halfway up the stairs when I heard a door slam shut. That definitely couldn't have been Bubba.

I furrowed my eyebrows, looking between upstairs and Blake. "What was that?"

Blake shrugged. "Maybe we're about to die. You can go investigate. I'll stay here and guard the living room."

"Right."

I kept going and found Bubba standing outside the door to my room, pawing at the door like he wanted to get back in. There was no way he could have managed to slam the door shut like that by himself. He was still a puppy.

"Hey, boy," I said. I lowered myself down onto one knee in front of Bubba. "What was that? What happened? Come here, Bubba."

I slowly opened the door to my room. I probably should've grabbed some sort of weapon in case it was a burglar or something, but I didn't.

Bubba barked at the bed and ran closer to it. He stood on his hind legs to reach the bed and sniffed at the covers, trying to stick his nose underneath them.

"Down, Bubba. No, my bed is off-limits. You have your own bed."

I thought I saw something move on the bed out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked back it was still again. It didn't look normal, though. I didn't usually make my bed unless I was expecting company – and I didn't mean Blake – but there was definitely something under there. More like someone. And I had a feeling I knew who it was, but I wanted her to sweat over it a little more.

I walked out of the room and pretended to check other rooms for the intruder. After checking an acceptable amount of rooms, I said, "Come on, Bubba. Let's go downstairs. Blake's still here and his leg's just waiting to be humped. Come on, boy."

I walked away from the door and waited by the other staircase that led to the back of the mansion. This place was ridiculously huge and more than I knew what to do with, but chicks liked it.

She had to have gotten in either through the garage or through the back door, or maybe through a window, but either way, she'd have to get back downstairs. I didn't think she'd managed to break in through a window on the second floor.

I heard the door to my room open, but just barely. She was trying to be more discreet this time. She didn't get very far before I made her stop in her tracks. "Going somewhere?" I asked.

Sophia stopped in her tracks and reluctantly turned around. "Christian. Hi."

"Any particular reason you're here, Soph?"

She cringed. Whether it was at being caught or the nickname, I didn't know. "No."

"That was you in the bed, wasn't it?" I asked. "That Bubba was sniffing at?"

She didn't reply, but she didn't need to. We both knew the answer to my question.

I laughed and crossed my arms, making sure my muscles flexed when I did so.

What? I liked showing off.

"You know, if you really wanted to get in my bed that badly, you could have just told me. I'm an understanding guy. I'd have helped you out."

She let out a sarcastic laugh. "You're funny."

"Tell you what. I'll let you get into bed with me on one condition."

She rolled her eyes but entertained me anyway. "What condition?"

My lips curved into a half smile. "Give up on this war and I'll be yours for one night."

That kind of made me sound like a prostitute. Or a gigolo since I was a dude. That sounded much smoother in my head than it did in real life.

She clenched her jaw, her amusement fading as quickly as it had appeared. "Not a chance. I'll see you at work."

With that, she left. I stepped out of her way when she started walking towards the stairs. I wasn't going to drag this out any longer. The banter had died off as soon as her attitude had turned extra sour and was no longer fun.

***

It didn't dawn on me to wonder why Sophia had come back until I went to my room to look for my phone and realized it was no longer there. I was sure I'd left it charging in my room and looked everywhere else it might be, but it was nowhere to be found. I didn't think it was a coincidence that Sophia had snuck into my room and minutes later, my phone was missing.

I didn't know what she was planning, but whatever it was, she'd need to crack my passcode first to access my phone, and that would take long enough for me to have time to get my phone back somehow.

The first thing I did when I arrived on set the next day was look for Sophia and confront her about my phone. I found her grabbing some breakfast in the catering room.

"Where's my phone?" I asked her.

She feigned innocence. "Your phone?"

"Yes, my phone. I know you took it. Where is it?"

"I don't have your phone," she said, furrowing her eyebrows. If I didn't know any better, I might have believed her. She could be pretty convincing. I guess she wasn't the worst actress. "I have my own phone, Chris. I don't need yours."

"You broke into my house twice last night and even broke into my room, where I left my phone charging. Doesn't that sound the least bit suspicious to you?"

"Maybe your dog ate it." She made a tsk sound and shook her head. "That Bubba. Maybe you shouldn't let him into your room unsupervised."

I rolled my eyes. There was no keeping Bubba out of my room. It wasn't really my room; it was our room.

"It doesn't matter what you want it for," I said. "You won't be able to use it. You'll never crack the password."

"We'll see about that."

I actually wasn't completely convinced she wouldn't crack it. I didn't know what strategy she was using, but it was obvious she hadn't started from the beginning because she would've cracked it by now. I'd thought 0000 was clever until I realized it was the first out of thousands of possible combinations.

My anguish over getting my phone back – and my anguish over her potentially cracking the code and having access to my most private thoughts and pictures – distracted me from reveling in the success of my retaliation. Well, that and the suppressed guilt I still felt over having executed that plan in the first place.

Sophia had released a statement to the press through her manager denying the accusations of her so-called assistant, but it didn't seem to do much in terms of discouraging gossip amongst our cast and crew. I would've felt worse about it if I hadn't known she was going to fight back and probably take it even farther – if that was possible. But I was starting to realize that with Sophia, anything was possible.

At the end of the day, I still didn't have my phone and failed to break into her trailer. Something told me she wouldn't have left it unattended in there, anyway, but it was worth a shot. I had to go home empty handed and find other ways to entertain myself that didn't involve my phone.

***

57 times. I called Sophia a total of 57 times and not once did she bother answering the phone. I even left a few voicemails, but not even that was enough to get her to return my calls. But if she thought that was the end of it, clearly she didn't know me at all. I had no problem pulling a Sophia and showing up at her doorstep.

I probably wouldn't have heard about it had Frank not called my home phone. I honestly forgot I had that thing most of the time. I always used my cell phone, although that currently wasn't an option for obvious reasons. I'd been completely out of the loop since I was too lazy to use my laptop to keep up to date on the news, so imagine my surprise when my manager called to ask me if I was seeing a man.

"What?"  I repeated. There was no way I'd heard him correctly.

"A man, Christian," Frank snapped. "Are you seeing a man? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Is this a fucking joke?"

"Go do a Google search of your name and then ask me if this is a fucking joke. If you couldn't tell by my voice, I'm not laughing."

I'd never fumbled around so much trying to turn on my MacBook and log on. It was like as soon as an action became crucial, I lost all coordination. I almost threw my Mac at the wall when I finally managed to log on and do as Frank said.

NSFW Ryder Pictures Leaked – Does Christian Ryder Have a Boyfriend?

All it took was the headline and the picture – the very Photoshopped picture of me and some guy I'd never seen before – for me to channel my rage towards Sophia and ultimately show up at her apartment.

I rang the doorbell enough times to probably wake up everyone on her floor. "Sophia, open the damn door!"

There was silence for a bit until she'd made her way to the door. "You're going to cause a scene," she said from behind the door.

"Do you think I care? Open the door or I'll kick it down."

"You're in the closet and exhibiting major anger management issues? Maybe you should tone it down a bit, Chris," she said.

"Sophia, I'm serious, open the fucking door."

She yawned loudly enough for me to hear her. "You know, I'm really tired and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I'm going back to bed."

"Damn it, Sophia." I let out a frustrated sigh. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Have a nice night," she called out, her voice slowly fading away. "Don't forget to catch the news. I think it might interest you."

I called out after her, but it was too late. I was sure she'd already gone back to her room. I kept shouting for a few more minutes hoping to lure her back over, but to no avail. Eventually, I got tired and left. If there was anyone I wasn't willing to compare stubbornness with, it was her. I knew she'd win every time.

Instead of camping out outside her door, I got to work bright and early and waited for her by her trailer.

"Just the girl I was waiting for," I said as she walked up to her trailer. I was sort of surprised she hadn't tried to avoid my trailer when she saw me, but I guess now that she had the upper hand, she was feeling more confident.

"How sweet," she said, sarcasm dripping from her tone. "You were waiting for me. What a gentleman."

"You're insane," I said, ignoring her annoying jabs. "Absolutely fucking insane. What you did was completely out of line. Do you know what guys have been sending me all night, and all morning? Nudes. Nudes, Sophia. I shouldn't have guys sending me nudes asking me to give them a chance. I should have girls sending them. You know damn well I'm not gay, so what the fuck was that all about?"

She didn't say anything. She just looked like she was trying to contain her laughter.

"Not only has my manhood been questioned, but my reputation is soiled now, too. I thought the girlfriend scandal had hurt it, but that was nothing compared to this. Do you have any idea what the press is speculating? What they're outright assuming? Everything that could be said about me is out there. All thanks to you. And now apparently I'm fair game to everyone, regardless of gender."

She didn't appear at all phased by anything I was saying. All she said was, "I told you you'd regret it."

"You went too far."

"I went too far? You went too far with the herpes thing."

"This is ten times worse!" All I'd done was circulate a rumor. She'd fucking Photoshopped a picture of me with some guy and circulated that, using it as "proof" for her rumor.

"It's supposed to be," she said. "I'm sorry it took you this long to realize it, but that's what happens when you mess with me. I don't play to get even, Christian. I play to win."

I snorted, trying to look like I had something up my sleeve when in reality I had nothing. Absolutely nothing. "We'll see about that," I said.