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“Don’t even think about rushing me,” she told Cole and Phil, gesturing with one of her fries. “I may get two more orders of these.”
“Was it that bad?” Phil asked.
Maggie shot her eyes at Cole. Back in civilization and with an audience, she’d reassembled her self-control. There was no more undisguised awe—and there was definitely no excuse for Cole to hold her.
Civilization kind of sucked.
“No,” she admitted. “And the view from the top was pretty special. But I might not be in scaling-a-mountain shape.”
“Whether it was a hill or not is a matter of debate.” That was the only controversy he could see. Maggie’s shape was perfect.
“I’m going to write REI and ask them to weigh in. I may include a small bribe to make sure they rule the right way.”
Phil’s quizzical expression had Cole and Maggie dissolving into laughter.
But even after they’d tried explaining the story and Maggie had polished off her fries with what seemed like an entire bottle of ketchup, the warmth of the shared joke had Cole breathless the entire drive back to the hotel.
Chapter 12
INT. REHEARSAL SPACE
“So when do you think Geordie started having sex?”
Cole, perched on the edge of a mound of vinyl tumbling blocks, sputtered in response to Maggie’s question. “I ... have no idea.”
She hadn’t seen him since their hike. She’d texted the picture he’d taken of them to him, and he’d replied,Thank you for coming. I had a good time.
In between the prep work she’d done for this blocking rehearsal, she’d given too much thought to every single one of those words. Was the euphemism intentional? Wasgoodtoo muted? If he’d really meant it, would he have said it had been a wonderful time? An extraordinary time? In the picture, he looked elated, but he posed for pictures for a living. Projecting emotions was what he did.
Even so, it was possible Maggie had made the pic her lock screen and then had switched it back to one of Savannah and several of their fellow teachers at a boozy book club.
And then had gone back to Cole.
Then back to Savannah and the book club.
Making the safe choice didn’t help when she was still imagining the moment when every cell in her brain had been shouting that he was going to kiss her. Absurd. Totally absurd. But they’d been on the top ofa mountain, for crying out loud, and the view had been breathtaking, and the wind had been pushing them together, and—
Maggie had to delete that memory somehow. To get in there with a Brillo pad and brain bleach and scrub those moments away. Because this icy-winter-molten-lava shimmer Cole set off in her gut was unprofessional and pointless and ... confusing.
She was going to get it together. Starting now.
Tasha cleared her throat. As per usual, she was not amused, but now, her ire was directed at Cole, not Maggie. That was new.
“But don’t you think that matters?” the actress snapped. “Take Effie. She’s definitely a virgin. I think she’s kissed other men. Maybe fooled around. She’s never had an orgasm with a partner before, though. This is all new to her. This scene has to feel like a fucking revelation. I mean that literally: fucking is a revelation for her.” None of those ideas were in the script; that was entirely Tasha’s backstory for her character. Since Tasha had decided to get on board with the intimacy coordination, she was all the way on board.
“Okay, okay. Sorry for laughing.” Cole considered this. “Geordie’s definitely not a virgin. He has some sexual history, and not just with Madge. Sleeping with a woman like that—someone who isn’t in his social class, someone he doesn’t really care about, and also not taking any precautions for birth control—that’s careless. It’s selfish. I think he’s done it before. Right?” He looked up, wanting confirmation.
For several months now, Maggie had watched him hedge and downplay his insights into the character. He had an obvious inferiority complex. His youthful missteps had scarred him, and he dealt with it by not always taking himself seriously. It was defensive, and it hurt her to see him do it.
Cole was intuitive about his work, collaborative, and always, always kind. Those were rare qualities. She wished he could believe in himself as much as she’d come to.
“Yeah, I can definitely see that,” she said. “So what’s different with Effie? Why does he approach this affair differently?”
It helped the work when the actors could empathize with their characters and be vulnerable with each other. This was much easier with Cole and Tasha since they were already so close.
“She’s his match in every way,” Cole said. “He’s going to be a lot more careful with her, and more open with her, than with the other women he’s been with.”
He was watching Maggie closely, so closely that she almost wasn’t certain what they were talking about.
