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He reached across the couch and put his hand on mine. Electricity tingled from his fingers to mine. “It’s going to be fine. You’ll do great, I know it.”
From this close I could smell his deodorant, Old Spice Original. His eyes sparkled as he held my gaze, trying to instill me with confidence for tonight’s meeting.
But our weird little relationship was still bothering me. Between sleeping together that night weeks ago, and then becoming friends and roommates since then, along with practicing pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend for his parents… it left me confused and frustrated. And as Candy had said, it would be tough to pretend to be his girlfriend if I blushed every time he touched me during dinner.
I knew if I didn’t get it out in the open before tonight, I would struggle during dinner.
“Hey,” I said slowly. “What’s the deal with us?”
Braden tensed. “What do you mean?”
I pushed forward before I could chicken out. “You and I had a moment during rehearsal a few weeks ago, the first night I stepped in for Tatiana when she was late. Then we went on an awesome date before you knew I was your Tinder date, and then on the train ride home…”
I waited for his reaction. He stared blankly.
“What’s it all about?” I asked. “Why did you… why did we sleep together that night in the train station? Is there something between us? Or were you just… faking it?”
He sipped his coffee and then stared at the mug in his big hands. His sharp cheekbones seemed to bulge as he pursed his beautiful lips in thought.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. He still wouldn’t look directly at me. “I’ve been wondering that myself. My emotions are complicated. I wish they weren’t.” Finally he met my gaze. God, those eyes could melt me where I sat. “Let’s see how tonight goes. That will help me figure out what I’m feeling.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “What, you’re stringing me along until I convince your parents?”
He hastily shook his head. “It’s not that at all. My parents… Their opinion matters to me. I don’t know if I could date someone who they didn’t approve of.”
“Technically, they’ve never approved of any girl because they thought you’re gay,” I pointed out. “Right?”
“Which is why it matters so much to me.” He took my hand and squeezed. “But what happened that night at the bar, and then later at the train station, wasn’t fake. I was more real with you than I’ve ever been with another person.”
I felt a lump grow in my throat. Even if I knew what to say, I wouldn’t have been able to get the words out.
“Tonight,” Braden said. “Let’s get through tonight and then talk about it after that. Deal?”
Just what I need. More pressure to perform tonight. I guess it’s no worse than the pressure of a theater full of patrons watching me perform.
“Deal,” I agreed.
The front door opened and Andy and Ryan came strolling inside. “Catch any more bad guys without me?” I asked.
Andy went straight to the coffee machine. “No, but Ryan tackled Atkins like a defensive back.”
“Bro, you almost did the same thing from the other side. Don’t even play.”
“But I didn’t,” Andy pointed out, “and that makes all the difference in the world.”
Braden looked at his watch. “What was Director Atkins doing there at 8:00 a.m.?”
“Actually, he got there three hours ago,” Ryan said as he slumped into the chair next to us. “He got the producer to pony up the money for security cameras.”
“We spent the morning setting them up,” Andy explained, joining us with his coffee. “High-def IP cameras with IR sensors for motion tracking at night. I set them up with an AWS cloud server so we can store footage for up to 48 hours before it gets overwritten.”
“Wow,” I said. “How did he convince Vandercant to finally spend the money? Was it the sandbag traps, or the note to Tatiana?”
“Neither,” Ryan said bitterly. “A writer for the Times is coming to watch the rehearsal tonight. He’ll be doing a piece on the new theater and show. Vandercant wants to make sure everything goes smoothly, so he caved to Atkins’ request for extra security.”
Braden gawked. “Holy shit, really? Is he going to be doing interviews?”
“That’s the idea,” Andy said. “None of us are big enough to get interviewed, but you’d better brush up on your soundbites.”
