Page 6 of #Starstruck

Which was probably for the best. I decided to not think about his possible motives and just chalk it up to a fun experience I would someday tell my children about.

I turned on the car’s interior light and decided to study until Lexi returned. Might as well be productive instead of endlessly speculating on what Chase Covington was doing.

It didn’t really work.

About an hour later, the sun had come up enough that I could turn off the light and wait for my best friend. I saw her come out of the studio with Chase and Aaron, and she hugged each of them goodbye. I felt a swell of envy, but I tamped it down by reminding myself that I’d told her to go. She walked toward me, swinging her hips and stomping her heels like she was on a catwalk. Aaron watched her go, but Chase had already climbed into his waiting SUV.

She looked over her shoulder, and once she realized they were gone, she ran to the gate, urging the now-on-duty security guard to open it. I could see her grin as she rushed to the car.

Lexi threw open the door and jumped inside. Her eyes danced as she bounced up and down on the seat. “Zoe ... I can’t even ... there’s so much ...” She closed her eyes for a second and clapped her hands together. “Okay! First things first. I have the most amazing news in the entire world. Literally. I mean, I know I’ve said that before, but this is better.”

A lump formed in my throat. If she was going on a date with Chase, I would be happy for her. I would. Because what could be better than that?

She sucked in a deep breath and then let it out, smiling at me expectantly. She wasn’t going to just tell me. She wanted me to ask.

“The suspense has been adequately built,” I said, starting to get annoyed. “What is it?”

“We, you and I, the founding members of Chase Covington’s Marabella fan club, are going to be extras in Chase’s new movie!”

CHAPTER THREE

For a second I couldn’t feel my face. “What?”

Lexi looked like the cat who had swallowed an entire flock of canaries. “It’s all arranged. We report to the set on Monday.” She put on her seat belt. “Can you imagine? An actual movie set. Where we will be in an actual movie. That’s going to be so much more helpful on my résumé than a bunch of college plays.”

We had to get back. I had class. I started up the car and drove it through the parking lot, putting on the blinker so we could get back on the road. The movements were all automatic because my brain was so scattered. “Extras?”

“Okay. So I went with Aaron, and he took me into the radio station, and we said hello to the morning deejays that were there, and we had to wait because Chase was taping a bunch of sound bites for different stations in a booth, and he was so gorgeous I thought I was going to die. Oh, he is definitely six three, and his eyes are actually that blue. They do not edit them. Have you seen my phone? I forgot to bring it in with me. I didn’t get a picture of him.”

We both looked around, but I didn’t see it. Lexi reached under the front seat and emerged with it. “It must have slid out of my purse. Anyway, I finally got the chance to go in and say hi while fending off Aaron’s advances, and Chase freaking Covington hugged me and said hello, and I said, ‘I’m an actor, too.’ Like, of all the things I could have said to him, all the conversations we’d practiced for years, that’s what I say. It was so stupid. But he was so polite and chatted with me, and instead of getting my crap together and not acting like a moron, I decided to tell him you and I had been his biggest fans for years. And this is where it got weird.”

“Weird?”

“He stops and goes, ‘Zoe Miller? The one who works at the Ocean Life Foundation?’”

It’s a good thing we were at a stoplight, because I slammed my brakes. Hard. That must have been the link he’d clicked on to find my name. I had linked to an article about a bowling fund-raiser that I’d helped organize for the Foundation. I could see how it would have caught his eye, because he’d spoken out repeatedly about our need to protect marine life. It was his pet cause. I’d never quite been able to figure out if I came by my love of the sea naturally because of where I grew up, or if I loved it because Chase loved it.

Even though she was flung a little bit forward, Lexi didn’t notice. She just kept talking. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, she’s my bestie.’ I thought it was weird that he knew your name, but then I thought about how he’s all dedicated to ocean conservation and figured he probably recognized your name from that or something. Isn’t that strange?”

She had no idea how strange this all was, especially since everything she assumed was totally inaccurate. Lexi used only Instagram and thought all other social media was a total waste of her time. Which was why she still didn’t know about our Twitter exchange.

“Super strange.”

“He must have an amazing memory or something. Which makes sense, considering how many scripts he’s always memorizing. I told him the Foundation doesn’t pay you, and you just lost your job. I don’t know why I did that. I was seriously just babbling at that point. But it is so good that I did because he offered to get us parts as extras in his movie. I don’t even know how much we’re going to get paid, but who cares because WE ARE GOING TO BE IN A MOVIE WITH CHASE COVINGTON!”

She reached into her pocket and pulled something out. “Not to mention, I stole his straw. Now I own something his lips have been on.” It was one of those coffee straws—skinny, short, and brown. She’d always daydreamed about snagging a souvenir from him, something he had touched.

It was almost everything Lexi had ever wanted. “And then did he ask you out?”

She leaned her seat back as far as it would go. “Not yet. But I have time now, right? My heart was pumping so hard. You don’t even understand. He was even better-looking in person. I am seriously in love.”

“What about Gavin?”

“I really like Gavin. You know that. But if Chase is interested ...” She didn’t have to finish that sentence. I knew exactly what would happen. Lexi would drop Gavin like a radioactive potato. Which was a shame, because he really was a great guy and seemed perfect for my best friend.

Despite my wanting to beat the morning rush hour on the freeway, I was denied. We were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and I listened as Lexi relived her experience over and over again. How Chase had said her name several times, and how while talking to him she felt like the only person in the whole world who mattered.

I was happy for her. I was. I only wished I could have been part of it. And maybe asked him what he was doing by sending me tweets and DMs.

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