But she knew she hadn’t. She was the one with the broken heart.
ASHTON FELT LIKEshe’d slapped him. His entire body prickled, but it wasn’t anger—it was panic.
“Are you kidding me?” He ground out the words, too taken aback to articulate more.
She shook her head. “I’m perfectly serious.”
She couldn’t be. Desperation welled up inside him. This show was his big break, but Jasmine played the title character. If she quit, the show was over.
“Jasmine, think about this. Why would you do that?”
“Why not?” Her eyes flashed, whether with anger or pain, he wasn’t sure. “Why would I want to put myself through this again?”
Coño, she was right. He’d known better. He never should have gotten involved with her in the first place, and once he had, he should have told her about Yadiel. He hadn’t, and that was on him.
But the rest? With the show? That was business. Heneededthis show. For one thing, it paid more than telenovelas, and he had a lot of people relying on him to pay the bills. And the exposure was the next step on his road to that Best Actor nom. He wasn’t getting any younger here. He was certainly too old to have made a stupid mistake like having a fling with his costar and sabotaging his career. Yet here they were.
In the back of his mind, he felt bad thinking about it as a fling, and he felt bad about being angry at her. It took two to tango, and he’d been right there with her, diving headlong into a love neither could afford.
But anxiety and a sense of betrayal sparked his anger and came flowing out of his mouth. “I cannot believe you are sabotaging me this way.”
Her eyes went wide. “Excuse me?”
“You know what a good thing we have going here? ScreenFlix is the number one streaming service in the world. We might never get the chance to work on a Latinx-driven mainstream production like this again.”
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out to glance at the screen. His father was calling.
But Jasmine wasn’t taking his accusation quietly.
“Don’t act like you care about this show,” she scoffed. “It was like pulling teeth to get you to connect with the rest of the cast. And look, you’re not even paying attention now. My cousins were right. You are full of yourself.”
With an angry move, he sent the call to voice mail and tossed his phone across the room, onto the sofa cushions.
“There,” he bit off. “Happy now?”
“Do Ilooklike I’m happy?” she snapped, brow furrowed in exasperation.
He didn’t answer that. Instead, he tried to reason with her. “We’re both contracted for three seasons.”
She shrugged and looked away. “So?”
“Jasmine, this show is a great opportunity—forbothof us. Don’t make a—”
“A what?” She fisted her hands on her hips and stared him down.
“A...” What was he going to say? Something with “emotional,” but he realized that was a bad idea. “Don’t make a decision from... from your feelings...”
“Are you calling meemotional?” She narrowed her eyes at him and he knew he was in trouble.
“No. You—”Use “I” statements, idiot. That’s what Vera always reminded them during their rehearsals, although she’d never called him an idiot. “I mean,Ifeel that this is a rash decision. A mistake.”
Jasmine let out a strangled laugh. “Of course you do. Because this is all about you. You never once considered me, or my feelings, or thought that I would want to know—” She snapped her mouth shut.
“Is this because of Yadiel?”
She shot him an impatient glance. “No, it’s because you didn’ttell meabout Yadiel. Please tell me you understand the difference.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I haven’t toldanyoneabout him.”
