Page 47 of The Heartbreakers
Everyone turned to me to see if this was okay. “Deal,” I said, nodding my head like an excited bobblehead.
“I’m going to hold you to that,” JJ said, waving a finger in my face.
I quickly started to pack my equipment before he changed his mind. First, I popped the lens protector in place and then tucked my camera into its bag. Courtney was leaving for the hotel in a few minutes, and I wanted to catch a ride with her.
“Hey, has anyone seen my sunglasses?” I asked, turning around in a slow circle as I scanned the room.
“Right here.” Oliver was sitting on the arm of the couch, my sunglasses clutched in his hand. A half grin tugged on his lips as he watched me.
“Thanks.” When I reached out to take them back, his fingers wrapped around my hand and he pulled me forward, close enough that his knees brushed against my thighs.
“So, you sure you don’t want to join us tonight?” he asked in a whisper. “It will be a blast.” He was still clutching my hand, and the way he ran his thumb over my knuckles made it hard to focus on anything more than the sensation.
I hesitated. It would be fun to go to a party with Oliver. Maybe even more fun than our night in Chicago. But thinking of Chicago and our kiss reminded me of the radio-show interview this afternoon, which reminded me of my decision. I liked Oliver, I really did, but I was skeptical about his feelings. And on top of that, to be good at this job I needed to focus my attention. If I was constantly worrying about Oliver, then he’d only be a distraction. A very hot distraction, but a distraction nonetheless.
“Don’t worry about me,” I said and gently pulled my hand from his. “Go have fun. I promise I’ll come next time, okay?”
His shoulders dropped, but I couldn’t tell if he was actually disappointed because the smile never left his face. “Yeah, okay,” he said.
“Well, I should probably get going.” Oliver nodded and handed back my sunglasses, and then I turned to face the rest of the group. “Have fun tonight, guys.”
“Night, Stella,” Xander said. “See you tomorrow.”
“Dream about me tonight,” JJ said with a wink, and I shot him a dirty look in response.
Alec already had his headphones back in, so I mouthed him a silent thank-you before turning to leave. I could still feel Oliver’s eyes on my back, so I called one final good-bye over my shoulder and hurried out the door. If I looked back at him and he hit me with one of my favorite smiles, I might just change my mind.
• • •
I was almost at the lobby when I heard him shout my name.
“Stella, wait!” Glancing back, I saw Oliver jogging to catch up with me. When he reached me, he pulled his fingers through his brown waves. “Hey,” he said.
“Um, hey.” Had I forgotten something?
“I thought maybe I could walk you out,” he said, smoothing out his shirt as he spoke.
“Oh.” For an instant, a small part of me was hoping he’d chased me out here to try to convince me one more time to go to the party, because he wanted me there. “Yeah, sure. That’d be great.”
We walked in silence, Oliver with his hands shoved in his pockets and me with my fingers clutching the strap of my camera bag.Comeon, Stella, I thought.Thisistheperfectchancetotalktohim.But my stomach was so full of butterflies that I could feel them moving up my throat, making it hard for me to speak.
Oliver beat me to it. “So,” he said, dragging out the word as if he wasn’t sure what he was going to say next. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
There was a sudden rushing feeling inside my chest, but I resisted the urge to look at him. “Yeah, me too,” I said before I could do any second-guessing. It was now or never. If I didn’t put up a wall between the two of us, some kind of line that I knew I couldn’t cross, I wouldn’t be able to resist his charm in the future.
He smiled in a way that was both curious and nervous. “Okay,” he said. “You first.”
Shit. I didn’t know where to start, and I couldn’t think right. It felt like my brain had been sucked out, and I was searching for words that I could no longer remember.Justsaysomething, I shouted at myself.
“Um, well,” I said, my words all tangled up. “It’s about the other night.”
“What about it?”
I tugged on my collar. “You know, when we watched the movie?” I asked. I was trying to make this as un-awkward as possible but was failing miserably. Talking out loud about what had happened was mortifying, and I knew that my face was as bright red as a flashing stoplight.
This made Oliver smirk. “You mean our super-hot make-out session?”
“Yeah, that.” I looked down at my feet. “I, um, had fun and all, but”—I paused, and then the last part came tumbling out—“I don’t think it should happen again.”
