After All(43)

"And where are you finding these guys?"

I swallow. "Dating apps." I don't know why I suddenly find it so embarrassing when that's how everyone is doing it these days.

"That's what you get for using those."

"Easy for you to say, you're Cruiser McGill and Doctor Death. You don't need them, you can just snap your fingers and girls will appear in front of you. Naked, probably."

He smiles and looks off, running his hand over his jaw. When he looks back to me, his eyes are dancing like he has a secret. "You want to know something? Before I got the role of the Doctor, I was using dating apps too."

I blink at him in surprise. "Really?"

He nods slowly. "Yes. And you know what I discovered? That the women in this city were constantly looking over my shoulder for someone better. It goes both ways, you know."

"Then it's too bad we didn't end up on a date with each other."

"It is too bad," he says this almost wistfully. "I would have liked that."

The way he's staring at me is causing all sorts of raucous inside. I clear my throat, not sure what to do with his sincerity. Is it acting or is it real?

"But you're not really a city girl, are you?" he asks me. "You're from Penticton."

I shouldn't be surprised he knows that. Autumn probably did his homework.

"Yep."

"Did you like growing up there?"

I nod. "I love it out there. I miss it, actually. Cold winters, hot summers, none of this doom and gloom. I love how dry it is, like a desert. I miss the smell of the sagebrush in the morning, the calm of the lake. The vineyards and the big, big sky."


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Shit. All this talk is making me want to take a quick trip to visit my mother now. I wonder if I can get away with doing that without having Emmett come along. I feel like my mother would pick him apart.

"So why did you move to Vancouver?" he asks.

Here it comes. I try and play it off. "Why does everyone move to Vancouver? Opportunity. A taste of the city life."

"But why did you move here? What brought Alyssa Martin out further west? What did this place promise you?"

The way he's staring at me is like he's looking right through me and if I don't tell him the truth, he won't be satisfied. He knows something is there, even if he doesn't know what it is.

"Honestly?" I say slowly. "I wanted to be an actress."

He stares at me with a blank expression. "Are you serious?"

"Yup," I tell him and smile at the waitress as she approaches. The oysters look good but my dirty martini looks even better. Emmett, of course, is having a Manhattan.

When she's gone, he's back to grilling me.

"I had no idea," he says, watching as I drink. "What happened?"

I swallow a mouthful, feeling the delicious burn. "What happens to most people. The dream didn't work out. I couldn't afford it."

"But it's not that expensive," he says, then trails off.

"Did you just say Vancouver isn't that expensive? When double-income couples who have no debt and make over two hundred grand a year still can't afford to buy a home here?"

"I mean that acting shouldn't cost that much. Just headshots, maybe some classes."

"And time. Time is money, especially when you live here. I went to auditions and took classes all while working waitressing jobs. But it wasn't going anywhere and I wasn't making enough money, so after a while I realized I needed to smarten up. I put it on hold, promising myself that I'd give myself another shot at it later. But I needed a proper job. My mom couldn't support me, we barely had any money growing up. My sisters are all scattered around the world, even then, and I'm the youngest so I was on my own. I got a real job, administration for an engineering firm, and then life just … got in the way."

"How come I didn't know this about you?"

I smirk at him over my drink. "Because this is all fake and we don't know a thing about each other." I take another sip and give him a steadying gaze. "I know you must hear this all the time, but you're one of the lucky ones, Emmett. You had a dream, you went for it, and you got it. You didn't have the struggle."

At that he bursts out laughing, head thrown back. "Struggle? Baby, all I did was struggle." 

"Didn't you have a rich aunt or something that helped fund you when you first started?" I'm trying to remember the Wikipedia page on him but judging by the look on his face, I'm not sure how accurate it is.