Chapter 160: More Than I Should

Chapter 160: Chapter 160: More Than I Should

"That is a wrap, people."

The creative director clapped his hands. The bright studio lights flicked off, leaving only the warm overhead bulbs humming in the massive room.

Zoey dropped her fierce campaign glare. She rolled her shoulders, feeling the dull ache of posing for six hours straight. She walked directly to the styling table and picked up her phone.

Three missed calls. Two texts from Gregory.

She stared at the notifications. A familiar, suffocating knot tightened in her chest. She did not want to call him back. She did not want to go back to his house and answer questions about her day while he watched her with those analyzing eyes.

She opened the message thread again.

Her last message stared back at her.

I will be late tonight.

She locked the screen and tossed the phone back onto the table.

"Boyfriend?"

Zoey flinched. Alexander was standing right beside her. He was wiping a trace of stage makeup off his jaw with a damp towel.

She glared at him. "Why do you care?"

"I don’t," Alexander replied, tossing the towel into a bin.

"Then stop looking."

"I wasn’t looking."

"You were literally staring at my phone," Zoey pointed out.

"Your phone was practically in my face," Alexander countered smoothly.

Zoey grabbed her bag. "You kept stepping into my frame today."

Alexander let out a dry laugh and followed her down the hallway toward the dressing rooms. "Because you kept stealing mine."

"I am the focal point of the campaign," Zoey stated.

"We are co-leads," Alexander corrected. "Did you miss the memo?"

"Maybe the camera just prefers me."

Alexander shook his head. "Your ego is exhausting."

Zoey stopped at her dressing room door. She turned around and gave him a saccharine smile. "And yet you keep talking to me."

Alexander looked at her. He didn’t fire back a sarcastic remark. Instead, a genuine, quiet laugh escaped his chest.

Zoey blinked. She found herself smiling back before she could stop it.

The loud, chaotic energy of the crew faded as people packed up their equipment and filtered out of the building. The hallway grew quiet.

Alexander leaned against the wall next to her door. He looked tired. The polished, arrogant persona he usually wore seemed to slip just a fraction.

"You know, you are different when nobody is watching," Alexander said.

Zoey paused with her hand on the doorknob. She looked at him. "So are you."

He offered a faint, self-deprecating smile. "I guess we both put on a good show."

Zoey leaned back against her door. She did not really want to go into the empty dressing room yet. She did not want to check her phone again.

"You were distracted today," Zoey noted.

Alexander crossed his arms. He stared down at the concrete floor. "Yeah. I have been lately."

"Why?"

He hesitated. For a moment, Zoey thought he would throw up his usual defensive sarcasm.

"I thought I knew what I wanted," Alexander admitted quietly.

Zoey watched him. "And?"

"Turns out I was wrong."

He did not elaborate. He did not mention Audrey or the messy fallout of his own pride. He just stated the fact and let it hang in the quiet hallway.

Zoey did not push for details. She understood the feeling of realizing you were walking down the wrong path.

"Sometimes I think I built my entire life around making sure nobody could tell when I didn’t care," Zoey confessed.

The words slipped out before she could stop them. She rarely told anyone the truth about how she navigated the world. She always played the ambitious, untouchable model.

Alexander looked up from the floor.

"Do you care?" Alexander asked.

Zoey looked away. "More than I should."

It was the first real crack in her armor. She cared about her career. She cared about not failing. But she also cared that she was currently lying to a man who wanted to marry her, and she did not know how to stop.

Her phone buzzed from inside her open bag.

Gregory.

The screen glowed, illuminating the dark leather of her purse. Zoey stared at the name. She did not reach for it. She just let it vibrate.

Alexander noticed her frozen posture. "You should probably take that."

"He will survive," Zoey said.

"That is a dangerous attitude toward a boyfriend," Alexander pointed out.

Zoey bristled. The quiet, honest moment shattered. She grabbed her bag and pulled it onto her shoulder.

"You don’t know anything about my relationship," Zoey snapped.

Alexander did not back down. "You’re right."

He paused, letting his eyes roam over her tense posture and her guarded expression.

"But you don’t look happy," Alexander said.

The words felt like a physical blow. Gregory had said almost the exact same thing to her just days ago. Hearing it from a virtual stranger made it so much worse.

Zoey became defensive. "You really think you know me?"

"No," Alexander said calmly.

"Then don’t pretend you do."

"I am not pretending." Alexander met her furious gaze. "I am just saying what I see."

Zoey felt a surge of irritation. She hated that he could see through her. She hated that she had let her guard down for even two minutes.

She reached onto a nearby styling cart, grabbed a pink makeup sponge, and threw it directly at his head.

Alexander caught it effortlessly with one hand.

"Childish," Alexander noted, tossing the sponge back onto the cart.

"You deserved it," Zoey shot back.

"Aggressive."

"Annoying."

Alexander smirked. "There is the Zoey I know."

"Go away, Alexander."

"Gladly."

They were back to fighting. The comfortable, familiar dynamic returned, snapping them both out of their brief vulnerability.

Zoey opened her dressing room door and walked inside. She shut it, but not before she caught a glimpse of Alexander walking toward his own room, still shaking his head.

Thirty minutes later, Zoey walked out of the studio building. The night air was cool.

She walked toward the parking lot. Alexander was exiting the building right next to her. He reached out and held the glass door open for her.

Zoey walked through without breaking her stride.

"Don’t get used to being nice," Zoey warned him.

"Don’t get used to me being nice," Alexander replied smoothly.

She rolled her eyes and kept walking toward her car. Alexander headed in the opposite direction toward his own vehicle.

They did not say goodbye.

Zoey unlocked her car and opened the door. Before she got in, she paused. She looked back over her shoulder across the dark asphalt.

Alexander was standing by his car. He had paused too. He was looking back at her.

Neither of them said a word. The parking lot was quiet.

Alexander finally opened his door and got inside. Zoey did the same.

She sat in the driver’s seat and turned on the engine. The dashboard lit up, bringing her phone screen to life.

She had a new message.

Gregory: Where are you?

Zoey stared at the glowing words.

Usually, she would type a quick reply. She would invent an excuse about traffic or wardrobe delays. She would manage the situation to keep him calm.

She thought about Alexander telling her she did not look happy. She thought about Gregory sitting in his massive house, waiting for a version of her that did not really exist.

She locked her phone screen and tossed it onto the passenger seat.

For the first time since they started dating, she did not reply.

She put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot, leaving Gregory’s unanswered message behind her.