Page 19 of Beneath the Fame

I grabbed the phone from the charging pad, putting it to my ear as soon as I pressed the button to answer.

“Hello?”

“Damn, you sitting in the dark like that?”

Huh?

I pulled the phone from my ear, and the barely there visual of Van’s face greeted me, igniting understanding.

Video call.

I tapped a few buttons on my phone, using my “smart” connection to bring up the lights in the room, just enough that she could actually see me.

“Is that better?” I asked, and she smiled at the screen.

“Yeah.”

When she didn’t say anything more than that, my eyebrow hiked. “Uh…everything okay?”

“Sorry.” She laughed. “Yeah. Everything is…fine, I guess.”

“I’ve never heard anyone sound more sure about anything,” I teased, and she shook her head.

“I know, it’s just…shit, now that you answered, this is actually hella awkward. Evenmoreawkward.”

“Even more awkward than…?”

She sighed. “More than…today,” she replied, shifting her gaze to something off-screen. “That was kinda weird, right? Pretending to hunch like that?”

“Hunch?” I laughed, laying back to be in a comfortable position, like it appeared she was. “That’s so childish.”

“You right.”

Damn.

The sound—and visual—of her giggling at that made my chest feel hot.

“I made you uncomfortable?” I asked, and she immediately shook her head.

“Nah, not at all. You were…”

Instead of finishing her statement, she let it trail off, a sly grin replacing her words as she shifted her gaze again, seemingly…embarrassed?

“I was what?” I prompted, wanting to know the rest of that, what could possibly have her lowkey blushing.

“I don’t know,” she whined, wrinkling her nose. “It’s just…I didn’t really know you had all that in you.”

“All what?”

“The hunching,duh!” She playfully rolled her eyes at the screen. “You like…picked me up, worked up a sweat with those fake strokes…how the hell do you fake that?”

You don’t.

I didn’t say that though, I just shook my head.

“What can I say—I committed to the script, just like all the others.”

“So…you only do it like that when it’s part of a role, is what you’re telling me?”

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