Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 370(@200wpm)___ 296(@250wpm)___ 246(@300wpm)
“That was so tits,” my cast mate Jerricka said as she held the curtain back for me. She wore a military-esque outfit with a black-and-white hat that matched mine. “Opening night! We did it!”
“We did,” I said, giving her a side hug. The thrill of finishing a show never got old, especially when it went as flawlessly as tonight’s had.
It made me want to celebrate for the rest of the night.
We walked through the dark hall that led to the large green room. It was loud in there, with the cast celebrating and hyping up our director. It was her first show and surely wouldn’t be her last.
I was about to go congratulate her when a hand landed on my shoulder. I whipped around and got hit with a full-body hug from Maddy. She smelled like vanilla and strawberries, her excited squeals rising in pitch with every hop she did.
“That. Was. Incredible.” She smiled from ear to ear. “You killed it.”
“Thank you, thank you,” I said.
She then stepped aside, and I realized someone else was behind her.
Ryan. He held out a big bouquet of deep red roses. They looked so perfect I was sure they were fake until I got a whiff of the sweet scent drifting off them. “For you,” he said, and for the first time since I met him, he seemed kind of shy. “I was going to have Maddy bring them backstage, but she insisted I come with her.”
“Insisted,” Maddy said with a wink. “All I did was casually mention coming backstage to see you, and Ryan over here nearly tripped on himself trying to follow me.”
He looked down at his white sneakers. “Guilty,” he said. He glanced around. The rest of the cast was busy doing their own thing. I realized he was being conscious of who saw us together.
Fuck. I really didn’t like that. It didn’t make me feel good, seeing him nervous like that. I grabbed the roses from him, and without giving it a second thought, I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Maybe it was leftover adrenaline from the show, but I really wanted to do it. His eyes lit up as bright as the stage lights from earlier. No one around us batted an eye.
Hmm. Maybe all this worry I had about people judging us was unfounded?
“Whoaaa, what’s going on here?” The shrill voice came from Timothy, one of the other leads in the show and a huge shit-talker.
Gah damn it.
I had been telling him yesterday about wanting to organize an event to protest the offshore drilling project. We had an hours-long conversation about my activism and how he could help get involved. He was also a snarky and very nosy guy. He knew everyone’s secrets on the cast.
“Mr. Jay is fraternizing with the environment’s worst enemy?” He looked Ryan up and down with the most cutting glare imaginable. “I can see why, at least.”
Ryan tensed, a muscle in his jaw twitching. I swallowed.
“Why are you always in everyone’s business?” Maddy answered with her arms crossed. She chewed her gum with an attitude that couldn’t be hidden.
“I’m observative, that’s all.”
“Go be observative somewhere else.” Maddy pointed over his shoulder. “Like over there, where your ex-girlfriend is chatting up your ex-boyfriend.”
Timothy narrowed his eyes. He looked at Ryan and me one more time before he turned on his heel and walked over to interrupt whatever was happening with his exes.
“He’s never getting either of them back,” Maddy said under her breath.
“Thanks for that,” Ryan said. He gave her a friendly shoulder bump.
“No problem. Weren’t you going to ask Jay something?” Her eyes lit up almost as bright as her pink hair.
“Oh, hah, right.” Ryan scratched the back of his head. He looked so damn handsome tonight. He must have gotten a haircut today because he sported a clean buzz cut that left his dark hair short and close to his scalp. It made his God-given bone structure pop. He wasn’t one to grow a beard, but even any stubble he might have had was freshly shaven. And he must have dug in his closet for his fancy clothes because I’d never seen him in this striped black-and-white button-up, designer letters on the pocket, matching the designer letters on his clean white sneakers.
“Are you free tonight?”
I blinked back my surprise. “Uh, yeah? Why?”
“I wanted to take you out. To celebrate your show going so well.”
“Is that the only reason?” Maddy asked, playful in her tone but sharp as nails in her glare.
“And because I want to spend more time with you.” Ryan chuckled, his cheeks rosy.
For a brief moment, I heard the word “Daddy” in my head, and I almost spontaneously dropped to my knees.
“What did you have in mind?” I asked.
“It’ll be private. So, you know, we won’t be interrupted.” He looked at Timothy, who bounced to an entirely different group, although they seemed as put off by him as I was. “But I want to surprise you.”