Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 58992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58992 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 295(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
She nibbles on her lower lip, then smiles wickedly as the opening credits begin.
13
JUST A TROUBLEMAKER
Drew
When the movie ends, Patrick and Cara walk ahead, gabbing the whole way out. Once we’re on Ocean Avenue, I’m not surprised at all when my friend suggests, “Want to grab a beer? Shave ice? Smoothie?”
The question’s directed at the group but I know who it’s really for. He’s a goner already. Maybe Cara is too, because she chimes in with an enthused, “Definitely.”
But Brooke yawns rather than answers.
“It’s past your bedtime,” Cara teases. “It’s already nine.”
“Yes, someone has been working early and late,” Brooke says, with another yawn. “But I don’t mind if you want to stay.”
“I’ll drive you home,” Cara says brightly. Maybe she feels guilty that she wanted to stay since they’re sharing a car.
“I’ll drive you, Brooke,” I offer. “My car’s nearby.”
Cara’s big eyes widen more. “You don’t mind?”
“I don’t mind at all,” I say, my poker face tight.
Brooke turns away from me, but she’s smiling. “Thanks. That’s sweet of you.”
Venice is about four miles away. But in Los Angeles, that trip could take fifteen minutes or an hour.
Good thing I like the company.
“So, are you really tired?” I ask as I open the passenger side door to my car in the parking garage.
Brooke shoots me a coy look. “What do you think?”
With a lopsided grin, I walk around to the driver’s side. “You little enabler,” I tease as I start the car and back out.
“Well, have you ever seen two people hit it off so fast?”
“It was pretty instant. Just add clown phobia and popcorn.”
She laughs. “Cara hasn’t dated anyone in a long time. She’s been so focused on school and classes. But those two had that bam! chemistry.”
“I think I know what that’s like,” I say.
“Me too,” she says as I exit the garage and pull onto the street.
And right into traffic.
Of course there’s traffic at nine-fifteen on a Wednesday night.
“Sorry, Drew,” she says. “I should have taken a Lyft.”
I slice that notion off at the knees. “Do I look like I don’t want to spend time with you?”
She smiles, apologetic. “But this is bad,” she says, gesturing to the long slog of cars ahead of us.
“I did offer,” I say as I slow even more at a light. “And I know what this town is like. Besides, I figure we need to do our movie review for Fake Play.”
That earns me a grin. Nothing apologetic in it at all. “Well, a fake romance between the quarterback and the girl next door is hard to resist,” she says with a wistful sigh. “It only works because he’s so enchanted with her but takes forever to realize it.”
I let that sink in for a moment. “Huh. I never saw it that way.”
“You don’t?”
“I think he knows from the start that she revs his engine, and that’s why he suggests her when his agent says he needs a fake date.”
Brooke holds up a finger to make a point. “But he only realizes he’s attracted to her. He’s sort of delightfully clueless that he’s falling for her.”
She has a point, but I still think the hero was into her for a long time. “I think it just took him an age to say it out loud. It’s funny how two people can see the same film and take away different things from it.”
“It is. I also notice different aspects of the story now that I’m older.”
“For sure. When I first saw it as a middle schooler, I just loved the football scenes. The romance part was way over my head,” I admit, then furrow my brow. “Maybe my younger self was protecting me. I did see it with my mom.”
“Is she a movie fan too?”
I tap the gas lightly, scooting a car length ahead. “Sure is. Movies were our guilty pleasure growing up. It was just the two of us, and we tried to hit all the big releases. The superhero flicks, the talking dog movies, the PG romances, the adventure tales. She made air-popped popcorn and tucked a Ziploc bag of it in her purse.”
Brooke laughs. “I love her already. Smart woman with her big-purse life hack.”
“I used to tease her that she could carry a tent in her purse, and she’d say, You think I don’t have one in there already?”
“Do you still go with her to the movies?”
“Sometimes. I try to take the twins too, when I go, though it’s tough during the season. I took them a lot during the off-season. I can pretty much sing any song from any animated princess flick.”
“‘Let My Hair Down,’” Brooke says, firing off the signature tune from a Rapunzel remake.
I scoff, then sing the opening lines.
Brooke claps in approval. “Well done.”
“Why, thank you very much,” I say.
“Now, speaking of your mom, I have to know—does she call you Andrew a lot?” Brooke asks as we cruise along another block. “You said she was the only one who called you that, but only when you were in trouble.”