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I scoffed at his question as my thoughts drifted back to Kilian. When I first met him last Friday, I sensed something was off. On Monday, he seemed relatively put together, but when we talked in the hallway, I could still see it—the darkness lurking deep in his eyes, which he tried to cover up with an irresistibly charming smile.

I promised myself to concentrate on my work, and I had done pretty well with that over the past two days. Kilian had been busy with his lighting plan, and every time I saw him from afar, he was yawning and appeared sleep-deprived. It wasn’t until today that he seemed to be recovering, and when we unexpectedly crossed paths backstage, he greeted me with his usual directness.

“Want to grab lunch together?”

For a split second, I considered saying yes, but then I remembered my other resolution: Kilian won’t get what he wants—at least not from me.

“I need to rehearse my lines,” I lied as an excuse.

“You know you’ll be left in the dark if I lose interest in you,” he said.

I couldn’t help but laugh at that comment.

“Who are you thinking about?” Nico asked out of nowhere.

“What?”

“I can tell you’re thinking about someone. Man or woman?”

Taking a deep breath, I pushed the thoughts of Kilian aside and shook my head thoughtfully. “We’ve been over this. No discussions about—”

“This has nothing to do with sex.”

“Your tone was pretty … well, let’s just say it’s ambiguous.”

“Oh man! Come on! You’re hiding something from me! Or better yet, someone. I want to know! You’re my best friend. Is it someone at the theater?”

“Stop it,” I grumbled. “I’m serious about these three months. It’s important to me.”

“It has to do with sex,” Nico exclaimed. “That’s cool! You’re slowly coming out of your shell.”

I bit my tongue, because everything I was about to reveal would only point to Kilian. That bastard was pulling me out of my cave when I still had until mid-July to deal with my issues. And it was only the end of May!

For a while, silence fell between us, and I cursed Kilian for sneaking into my thoughts again. There was something about him that wouldn’t let go, and it frustrated me that I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Definitely not his eyes. Even though I was lying to myself, I’d never admit that I liked his dark, intense gaze.

And certainly not his massive ego. That was just annoying.

Maybe his fashion sense? I had to give it to him—he had style. The way he broke up his otherwise polished look with worn-out sneakers was something I liked. When I went into the workshop on Tuesday to grab a hammer for a prop, I spotted Kilian intently focused in front of a computer. With his glasses on, he looked seriously hot. When he took them off and rubbed his weary eyes with his free hand, I immediately averted my gaze away from him.

“Are you working tomorrow night?” Nico asked, playing with a branch he had picked up during our walk.

“No. We have rehearsal until four, then I have …”—I didn’t like the sound of this—“the night off until Saturday evening.” I couldn’t bring myself to be happy about it.

“Hector and I are going to an opening day tomorrow. You should come with us. It’ll probably be fun.”

“Fun?” I chuckled. “Sorry, but it’s hard for me to associate ‘fun’ with Hector.”

“He’s really into bizarre art, and there’s a young artist exhibiting there whose painting he already owns. Plus, his—well, ‘roommate’ isn’t the right term—I don’t know, the guy who lives with him and his boyfriend will be there too. They’re nice. It won’t be boring.”

“An exhibition?” I thought out loud. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to one.”

“Same here,” Nico said. “I’m not even sure if I’ve ever been to one. Does the art show in fifth grade count?”

“No.”

“Well, then I guess this will be my first,” Nico said with a shrug. “Please! Come with us! You get along with Hector, don’t you?”