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“Do you want to get a drink?” I blurted out. “I mean, I have to work first, but we could get one after. And I’m a bartender, which means I make really good drinks.”
He grinned. I grinned back at him. The connection struck like electricity. I was certain I could feel it.
And then he rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, uh, I can’t. I think I have other plans tonight.”
I think I have other plans tonight. Translation: he was going out with someone hotter than me. Or hoping to go out with someone hotter than me. Because he was out of my league, and we both knew it.
“Right, no problem,” I said awkwardly.
“Maybe some other time?”
“Some other time,” I agreed, even though I knew he was just being nice.
I gathered up my bag and mumbled goodnight, and headed for the door.
The stage hand in the tight tank top, the redhead who had installed the malfunctioning lights, was standing a short distance away. A coil of electrical cable hung from his muscular arm, and his gaze was fixed on me. He smiled ruefully and shook his head.
Perfect. An audience for my rejection.
I ignored him and headed out into the crisp New York night.
3
Braden
You ever have one of those dreams that’s so lifelike, so vivid, that you wake up feeling completely changed? Like your thoughts and emotions had been overwritten with a new software version?
Tonight at rehearsal was like that.
After weeks of rehearsing with Tatiana, running through my lines with Nadia tonight was like letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. She was a fantastic actress, and it brought out the best in me. It was the kind of acting I’d dreamed of, a connection passing between us while we pretended to be different people.
It was so fucking real.
Getting hard during intimate scenes wasn’t a big deal. All actors dealt with that—an uncomfortable part of the job. But I never got hard with Tatiana during our scenes. She was too… I don’t know. Fake. Like a plastic Barbie doll whose string someone had pulled, spewing out words without any meaning or emotion behind them.
But Nadia…
She was something else. She’d been totally adorable just now, big doe eyes looking back at me after even the smallest compliment about her acting. I wanted to act out the scene with her again, and again. I wanted to do more than just practice lines. I wanted to take her home and rip her clothes off. To run my lips along the line of her panties, nuzzling and kissing and inhaling her scent, breathing in everything that was her.
If only she’d asked me out any other night.
“Hey there cowboy,” Ryan said, giving me a reassuring smack on the shoulder. He tossed aside the coil of electrical cable he’d been wrapping and said, “Big night ahead of us.”
“Don’t you and Andy have to stay to work on the lights?” I asked, hoping it would delay our plans. But Ryan shook his head.
“Fuck no. That bullshit can wait ‘til tomorrow. You ready to bring your A-game tonight?”
“Yeah,” I said absently. “We’ll see if it works.”
“Don’t be so negative, bro,” Ryan insisted. “You’re the face of this whole thing. It doesn’t work without you.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Come on. Let’s go get ready.”
He slapped me on the back and led me away, but I was still staring at the door Nadia had exited out of, wondering if I was missing something better.
4
