“Oh, my god. Chase Cooper, what did you do?”
“Cyn, it’s me. I didn’tdoanything.” I don’t think now is the exact moment I want to tell Cynthia I’ve got the hots for a teacher and I’m trying to make a move on her. “It’s a tech school where I did a signing the other night with Jamie. I want to, you know, do something nice. Hypothetically.”
“Okay, and that’s it?”
“Yes.” No.
“Stop bullshitting me, Cooper. What happened? Please tell me you only backed into someone’s car or something simple like that?”
That’s the relationship we have—she knows when to call me on my shit. She also knows that the extent of my embarrassing public behavior as a movie star would be something as mild as backing into someone’s car while stone sober and apologizing for twenty years. I’m not here for scandals.
“I kind of asked a teacher out,” I say, cringing as I prepare for her reaction.
“You asked her out with a smart board? Points for originality, but, come on, what did you do?”
“I chickened out on talking to her in person. Devin gave me the idea for the screen. He said flowers were lame. I also gave her a card with my number and, uhm, asked her to dinner.”
“Wait, you seriously asked a teacher out by sending her a two thousand dollar gift?”She sounds more surprised than upset.
“Five thousand, but, uhm, yeah.”
“Chase, that’s fantastic! Not the money part. We’ll talk about that later. I’ll see what I can do about keeping it out of the papers. Where are you taking her? Do I need to set up a security crew?”
“She hasn’t actually said yes yet, but she hasn’t said no, either. The press shouldn’t be an issue since I’m taking her somewhere exclusive. No cameras allowed, and I know a guy who will take us in and out the back way.”
“Good idea, hun. Alright, I’ll call around about the TV things and see what kind of deal we can work out. Commercials okay? At least voice over?”
“Fuck yeah, I’ll be in a damn series of commercials if it helps get those things, sure.”
“Chase,”I can hear the smile as she says my name.“She’ll say yes, and when she does, have fun, okay? You deserve it. You deserve to be happy.”
“Thanks, Cyn.”
As I end the call, my phone vibrates as a text that sends the butterflies into overdrive comes through. She’s sent me an address that I’ll have to Google later, but she also sent a message.
Unknown Number
Yes, I believe I do like magic.
And blue.
She winked! Okay, it’s a stupid emoji, but… she winked. I’m definitely going to read too much into that until I pick her up tonight. My chest feels like it’s full of helium or something.
Blue. I can totally do blue.
CHAPTER6
EVERYBODY TALKS
NEON TREES
I’msurprised I’m not dead after the brutal workout this morning. When Steve said we were going fucking hard after my phone call—he meant it. He even made me take a stupid selfie with him and posted the damn thing. That’s all over the internet now, which normally causes my phone to blow up, but I deleted the app for the day because I don’t want the distraction. I also don’t care about anything the press has to say about my body or what outlandish gossip the click-baiters will start today. Today, I’m way too pumped for that kind of bullshit.
So pumped that I’ve been standing in front of the mirror for fifteen minutes, trying to decide if I should shave or leave the scruff. I end up texting James’s wife, Lexi. She says if I shave, she’s going to come over to the house and take my dogs. Rude, but she made her point. She was a fan of mine long before she fell for my best friend. Now, she’s another sister I never had, right there with Dani.
I drop onto the edge of the bed and pull up the address Ren sent me to see how long it’s going to take. For all I know, she could live clear across the city or down in Long Beach, but I have a vague recollection of Dani mentioning they lived pretty close by.
I could have met Ren ages ago if Dani had introduced us, but I was in a shitty headspace before. The decision to take back control of my life took time, and until a few months ago, I wouldn’t have given Ren and me a shot in hell. Life is so damn weird, but I’m glad it waited for better times to introduce her to me.
