Page 20 of Fake It Till You Break It
Focus, Mia. Focus on his words.Maybe if I just concentrated on the wood grain on the table, my mind wouldn’t be mush anymore. “I wish I could. To be onstage. Maybe on Broadway someday. That’s the dream.”
“Mine, too.” His elbow nudged my arm. “You might as well start practicing now.”
I glanced over at the stage and let out a little sigh. If only it were so easy. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you kind of have to have talent to do that sort of thing.”
“And?”
“And I don’t?”
Ben laughed again. Louder this time. “How do you know until you’ve tried? I could even run the lines with you sometime if you want. Help you practice.”
I blinked at him in shock. “Now?”
His left hand reached up, and he rubbed the back of hisneck. “Yeah, now. Or maybe over the weekend we could meet up. Get some coffee while we’re at it.”
Weekend, coffee—hold on… was he asking me out?!?
“I hate coffee,” I blurted out without thinking. “No, wait, I mean, yeah, that sounds really great!”
Oops. Should I have played it cool first? Was it too late to backtrack and be coy? I brushed my hair behind my ear and shrugged, attempting to seem nonchalant. “If you don’t mind helping me. I’d love to.”
His grin was wide and covered half of his face. “Great. I’ll text you later tonight.”
“Okay, but how do you… is this your way of asking for my number?”
“I don’t know.” Ben crossed his arms and leaned toward me again. My heartbeat immediately went into hyperdrive the closer he got. “Depends if you think I’m being smooth or lame.”
Why was it so hard to breathe? “Smooth. Definitely smooth.”
His lips twitched into another smile. “Then I was definitely asking for your number.”
After I punched my number into his phone, Ben picked up the rest of the scripts I had left and stapled them with such efficiency and ease that I almost swooned. I’m pretty sure I would have swooned no matter what he did. He just made everything look socool. After he was done, he stacked them together and handed the stapler back to me with a wink as he got up. “It’s a date, then.”
“Date,” I repeated again like the village idiot. Gah. My cheeks hurt from smiling so hard.
It took a minute or two, but the worddatesuddenly sank into my muddled brain and snapped me out of my stupor. Uh, date? Damn it. What was I thinking? I couldn’t go on a date. Especially when I was supposed to be dating Jake. Mom would freak out.
Althoughtechnicallyit wasn’t a date date. We would be rehearsing. Over coffee. Or something.
My hand smacked my forehead. Over and over again. Thank God Ben was already gone.
Maybe I should cancel. I didn’t want to. God, I didn’t want to. It wasn’t every day that the guy of your dreams asked you out on a date. Even though it wasn’treallya date.
My forehead hit the surface of the table with a loud thud.
Still this may be the only chance I ever got to go on a date with someone like Ben so I’d be an idiot to throw it away.
I glanced down at the stapler in my hand and sank back into my chair with a sigh. My hands grasped the stapler to my chest like it was a bouquet of roses.
A goofy grin crossed my face. Lyndon came in and gave me a funny look, but I didn’t blame her. I knew I looked crazy, but I didn’t mind one bit.
Because at least I wasn’t an idiot.
JAKE
EVEN THOUGH I HADtexted Mia ahead of time to let her know that I was coming over, she still looked surprised when I showed up at her front door. It was only six o’clock, but she was already in her pajamas—a stretchy white tank and baggy striped purple pants that were way too long for her. They covered her feet, and I could barely see her toes peeping out. Her hair was tied up on the top of her head like a messy hat.
She braced both hands on either side of the doorway like she was a guard blocking it. “What are you doing here?”
