Page 51 of Once Upon a Star

“Are you saying that I’m not enough to keep him here?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t be. You might be the reason he wants to be here, but you shouldn’t be the only reason. It puts too much pressure on you and your relationship. He needs to have his own life, his own friends, his own goals. It can’t all be tied up with you and only you,” Layla said.

Ella put a reassuring hand on my arm and said, “I didn’t want to stay in New York just because of Dax. I had you two, I had a job, I had a life that I had created. He was a big part of it, but he wasn’t the only part. I think Layla is worried that you being the only reason will make it harder for both of you.”

“I think he wants to stay here because he wants to be a theater actor and that I am here. One is not more important than the other,” I said.

“Are you sure he doesn’t want to be a theater actor just because this is where you are and he knows you won’t leave?” Layla asked.

“He never said that. He never implied it. Yes, he knows that I want to be in New York, but we never discussed going to California,” I said.

“Would you go to California?” Layla asked.

It was a loaded question. I could hear in her voice that she didn’t want me to go and was even shocked I might consider it. I had her and Ella move to New York to be with me. It wouldn’t be fair for me to go and move across the country away from them.

“I don’t know. How is it fair of me to think that he needs to change his plans, his life, possibly derail his career for me, but I’m not willing to do the same?” I asked.

“She does have a point,” Ella said.

“It might be something you’re going to find out first hand, real soon,” Layla said.

“Why do you say that?”

Layla didn’t answer me but pulled out her phone, opened something, and then handed the phone to me. “Because of this,” she said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Read it,” Ella said.

I looked at the headline “Oscar-winning actor’s play DOA. Bash Anderson to return to his roots and star in an action film.” I had to read it a few times to comprehend what I was reading.

“When did this happen? Is this some sort of joke?” I asked and handed the phone back to Layla.

“It broke right after you left. We figured that Bash took you away so he could tell you he was leaving or convince you to come with him. He didn’t tell you anything about this?” Layla asked.

“No. Nothing. He made it sound like the play was going well. He said he needed to talk to Isla when he got back to see what the schedule was.”

“From what this article says, there is no schedule. There were creative differences between the writer and director and they split ways. There is no play.”

“He never said anything to me,” I was shocked and kept trying to find a hole in their story.

Why hadn’t he told me? Was he hiding it from me? Did he not want to tell me? I had thought it was odd that he had so much free time during the middle of rehearsals. I hadn’t questioned it because I didn’t want to. Had he been lying to me the whole time?

“The movie starts filming in a few weeks. He had already signed on to do it. He was always going to go back to California to do this movie. I’m sorry,” Ella said.

I stood up and walked away from my friends. I knew I was walking away from what they were saying. As if I could walk away from the problem. It wasn’t going to work but none of what I was reading or they were saying was making sense.

“This isn’t right. There must be some mistake. The article is wrong. Bash doesn’t want to be an action hero.”

“He doesn’t?” Ella asked, clearly not believing me.

“No, he doesn’t. He said as much to me less than three hours ago.”

“Are you sure? Or was he just telling you what you wanted to hear?” Layla asked.

“He was the one who brought it up. I was teasing him that I was going to have to go to California for the premieres of his movies. He was the one who said there wasn’t going to be any. This is wrong. There must be some sort of explanation.”

I turned to look at my friends. I could see they didn’t believe me. I could see where they were coming from. The man had left me before for his career. Why wouldn’t he do it again? Was I being naive to think that he wouldn’t? Was it wrong to put so much faith in him and what I thought we had.