Your Endless Love (The Bennett Family 9)

“How about the rumor that you were cheating on Amy with every woman in sight?” a question comes from the crowd. I stiffen, narrowing my eyes, trying to discern who asked. The topic of Amy should not be an issue today. She has nothing to do with this franchise. The fandom for the romantic comedies profiled as being different than the ones for my superhero movies.

“No questions about their personal lives, please,” the moderator says. Lena and I exchange a look.

“If he’s got nothing to hide, why doesn’t he answer? No one likes cheaters,” another voice peeps up.

And then a third. “Yeah, you think fans will line up to spend money on a cheating bastard?”

The crowd buzzes, an angry buzz that makes everyone at the table stand a little straighter. I nod at the moderator, leaning into my mic.

“I have nothing to hide. Amy and I said this before. We broke up because we grew apart. Working sixteen hours a day on different continents can do that to people.” My face is a mask of cool calm, even though the fakeness of the situation weighs on me.

I hadn’t thought that this rumor escalated so much, so fast.

“That’s bullshit. All you people say that when you can’t keep it in your pants. Don’t feed us lines.”

“You’d better not show up with a skank in one month and try to shove down our throats how you just met her. We’re not stupid.”

“Folks, let’s focus on the movie,” the moderator tries.

“Yeah, I’m offended no one asked about my regimen to gain the extra ten pounds of muscles,” Jake says with his usual humor. “None of you ladies noticed them on the posters?”

He wins back the crowd... for about ten minutes, and then they circle back to Amy and me. It’s like a goddamn ping-pong match. The ball’s in the movie domain for half the time, my personal affairs the other half. We skip the autograph session because there’s a real risk someone’s going to rip my head off.

When they lead us backstage, Preston is fuming. Jake, Lena, and my other costars throw me glances that range from murderous to sympathetic.

“What in the ever-loving fuck was that?” Jake asks, downing a soda.

“A fiasco,” Calvin, one of my other costars, supplies helpfully. “Alex, man, you need to get this shit under control, or we might as well cancel all the panels.”

Lena brushes her hands through her red hair, frowning. “I didn?

?t know there was such a huge fan crossover.”

“Me neither,” I admit. “But this is just one panel, one crowd.”

The group exchange glances.

Jake points his bottle of soda at me. “Yeah, man. But these are supposed to be our biggest fans. Not everyone gets tickets to these panels. If our biggest fans turn against you....”

I drag my hands down my face, leaning against a wall. “I’m sorry, guys. I wasn’t anticipating this. I figured this type of question would pop up at most when Amy and I will appear together for promos.”

Cynthia, our other female costar, shrugs. “You two were Hollywood’s golden couple. You were the fairy tale come true. Rich, beautiful, eternally in love. Now the fairy tale exploded in their face, and they want to blame it on someone.”

Jake throws his hands in the air. “Who cares why they’re doing this? The point is, it’s messing with our panels.”

The conversation goes on and on, until Preston steps in and says it’s time for me to go back to LAX. By his grim expression, I expect more bad news. He starts dishing it out the moment we’re inside the car.

“Got a call from Newman. He went berserk.” Newman is the director of the studio.

“You’re trending on Twitter. And the comments section in the Facebook live transmission was all about you and Amy. He’s got a lot riding on you. He’s concerned about people boycotting Bree Shannon Finds Love #2.”

“He’s a drama queen,” I say flatly. “People don’t boycott movies because the costars broke up.”

“Sometimes they do. Especially if they think the male lead is a cheating bastard.”

I sink lower into the leather seat of the car. Few things can damage an actor’s career almost to the point of no return: drug scandals, violence, and cheating.

“We need to calm Newman down, at least long enough to greenlight the spin-off,” Preston says.