I can almost picture her rolling her eyes. “I’m fine. I’ll be there.”
“You can’t blame me for being worried.”
She lets out a scoff. “You? Worried?”
I frown. “Yes, Madeline. I’m fucking worried for you. Is that so hard to believe?”
She’s quiet for a while, and I wonder if she’s thinking back to the party. I wonder If she really thinks I don’t care about her or if she saw through the jealousy and realized I want her. “I wouldn’t want to have to cancel the interview again,” I say to ease any suspicions she may have.
“That won’t happen,” she says. “I’ll make sure of it. I’m going to be there bright and early.”
“To pretend to be my girlfriend,” I fill in for her because that’s what we’re going to be doing. A whole day of smiling, touching, and pretending we’re dating for the cameras.
“That’s the deal.”That’s the deal. She says that as if it’s such a hardship for her, and once upon a time, it was for me too, but not anymore. I’m anticipating it, anticipating being able to touch her without her flinching or being able to smile at her when that’s all I ever want to do when I look at her.
“You’re a good actress, right?” I ask her like I haven’t seen it with my own eyes. Like I haven’t re-watched her audition tapes a handful of times. Ana had a copy, and when I asked her to see it, I told her I needed to see if she was good enough, which was a lie. I knew Madeline was amazing before I even laid eyes on that tape, but afterward? I was speechless, unable to understand how she hadn’t landed an audition yet.
“Why do you want to know?” she asks skeptically.
“So I know if I need to stop you from exposing us as faking a relationship.”
She laughs. “You doubt my skills that much?”
I smirk, leaning back into my bed, loving how we’re back to teasing each other after the whirlwind that was last week. “Hey, I’ve never seen you act,” I lie. “You can’t blame me for wondering.”
“And you never will,” she says.
My smirk widens.Little does she know.“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”
“How come?”
I let out a sigh. “Because you’re going to have to do a whole lot of pretending at the interview.”
What I don’t tell her is I doubt I’ll have to do any.
Chapter 21
Do we have a deal?
“Well, you two are just the cutest couple,” Sarah, the interviewer, gushes.
Lucas smiles at her, making me glance up at him. I was scared it would be awkward between Lucas and me once we got here and had to see each other again, but as soon as I saw him, we went back to teasing each other like that almost kiss never happened.
My stomach dropped with disappointment at how easy it seemed for him to forget about it when it was all I could think of. Did he not care? Did he… not want to kiss me? Maybe I was just reading into the whole thing, and my feelings were one-sided.
“Thank you,” he says.
She turns to the crowd, flicking her blonde hair behind her shoulder as she does. “Aren’t they just the cutest?” she asks them. A wave of cheers comes from the audience before Sarah turns back to face us. “Seriously, I mean, you guys make a beautiful couple.”
Lucas’ knees knock against mine, making my eyes lift to his. There’s not much room on the white plush couch we’re sitting on, and every so often, he reaches out to touch me in some way.
Necessary, I tell myself. We’re supposed to be affectionate. We’re dating, after all. Or at least that’s what the rest of the world thinks.
His eyes meet mine as he gives me a smile I feel all the way down to my toes. “That’s all her,” he says. A collective ‘aww’ resonates through the audience. His eyes remain on mine, and my heart swells with warmth as I feel a flutter in my stomach.
His hand reaches out and he places it on my thigh, rubbing his thumb back and forth over my leg. I’m wearing pants, but I still feel the burn of his touch through my clothes. “She’s without a doubt the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.”
Sarah smiles at us. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard,” she says. “So, how did you guys meet? How did a normal college girl end up datingtheLucas Silva?”
