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“I wouldn’t know—I don’t have one,” Jade says and pulls up a chair to sit across from me.
She stares intently at my face, and it takes me a second to realize she isn’t staring atme—she’s staring at her work. I try to look anywhere but at her, but it’s hard. I want to look at her. I want to drink in her auburn hair and the light smatter of freckles across her nose. I want her to meet my gaze.
As if she can read my mind, her focus shifts, and then she’s looking at me. Her eyes collide with mine, and for a second I feel off-kilter. With the full weight of her attention, I get lost for a second in her eyes—green like the spring or sea glass. I should say something, continue our conversation, but my voice is stuck somewhere in my collarbones.
“Ready?” she asks kindly, and I nod.
Jade takes my chin between her fingers, the graze of her skin against mine electric. She tilts my chin up and stands close, gently dabbing a makeup sponge under my eyes. Last time we did this, I held back. I didn’t let myself enjoy her proximity. But I’m still high on the past twenty-four hours, so I don’t fight the instinct to touch her. I graze the backs of her thighs, the denim of her jeans rough against my hands. My fingers splay out against her legs, taking up space, claiming unexplored territory. Meanwhile, Jade is no longer holding my chin but cupping my cheek. It may be because she’s trying to keep my face still for the makeup, but the way her thumb strokes my jawline tells me it might be more than that.
Footsteps echo in the hall, but it isn’t until a familiar voice fills the room that Jade and I snap apart as if we’ve both touched a hot stove. My hands drop like weights from her legs, and Jade turns toward her makeup kit sitting on the counter.
“Hey! What’s up, nerd?” Seth strolls into the room, hopefully not having noticed what he just interrupted.
“Just getting my makeup done,” I say.
“Cute,” Seth says.
“I don’t think we’ve met.” Jade holds out her hand to Seth. They exchange names and pleasantries.
“Glad to finally meet you. Put a face to the name,” Seth says.
“Oh yeah?” Jade says, leaning against the counter. She folds her arms across her chest, pushing her cleavage up in her low-cut crop top. I try not to stare, but I’m not very successful. “We were just talking about reputations.”
“Speaking of which . . . your reputation is blowing up after your little incident at the party.” Seth pokes me in the shoulder.
“I have a reputation?” I ask, whipping my head toward Seth.
“You do now,” he says. “I wasn’t even at the party and I feel like I know every detail about it, even thoughyouhaven’t told me a thing.”
I drag my palms down my legs and try to ignore the sour taste at the back of my throat. I don’t want a reputation for anything other than my lighting design skills. What if I become known as a guy who fights at parties?
“What about outside the theater?” I ask. “You’re hearing things?”
“A little, yeah,” Seth says with a smile that seems better suited for telling me good news, not this news. “It’s not every day someone gets punched at The Row. So you want to tell me what happened—why you attacked Nick?” he asks.
“He didn’t attack Nick,” Jade says. “He punched him, which is no less than Nick deserves. He’s been harassing me for years, and Ian stood up for me.”
Jade pats my shoulder and flashes a big smile at Seth. Even I can see it’s an “eat shit” grin, but he doesn’t seem able to tell.
I don’t know if I could pinpoint the exact moment I started being able to read Jade, but it feels good. I sit a little taller in my seat.
“You won’t get any argument from me. I always thought he was a miserable shit and deserved to have his face punched, so good for you, man.” Seth pulls up a chair to sit with us.
I don’t know how I feel about him being here. On the one hand, I want him to meet Jade and see that she’s more than just her reputation, but on the other, I’d sort of rather be alone with her.
“So makeup, huh? You want to look good for your lunch with your future boss?”
“I want to look like I didn’t get punched,” I say.
Jade takes me by the chin, twisting my head to the side so Seth can see.
“It doesn’t look that bad,” he says, and Jade nods approvingly.
“That’s because I’ve been putting makeup on it. Needs more, though. Ready?” she asks me, and I nod.
Jade gets back to work, and I close my eyes even though I probably don’t really need to, but otherwise they’re going to land on Jade’s low-cut top and I don’t need a boneranda black eye.
“All right, well, this has been fun.” I hear Seth slap his legs and stand even though he just sat down. “Gotta get going—Alexis just texted me.”
