Page 29 of Take the Lead
Natasha shot her a look. “Are you ready to sleep?”
“I guess not.” Gina was amped from dancing and buzzed from those fucking tequila shots.
“The real question is why am I mad at you.”
Gina sighed. “Fine. Why are you mad at me?”
Natasha stuck the masher in the lump of avocado and turned around with her hands on her hips. “Coño, you didn’t tell me he looked likethat.”
“Oh my god.” Gina pulled out a chair from the kitchen counter and perched on it. “I told you he was hot right after I met him.”
“Nuh-uh, girl.” Tash wagged a finger at Gina before turning back to her snack-making. “Oye, get the cilantro and stuff from the fridge.”
Grumbling, Gina pulled out the necessary ingredients and started chopping.
“That man is more than hot,” Natasha said, adding diced tomatoes to the bowl when Gina passed them over. “I think we can safely say he’s super caliente. Like, for real.”
“That’s why you’re mad at me? Because I didn’t make a bigger deal of how hot he is?”
“No. Yes. That’s part of it.”
“Okay, what’s the other part?” Gina dumped in a handful of cilantro and took a deep breath. The smell reminded her of her mother’s kitchen.
“You said he’s on a TV show?”
“Yeah. It’s calledLiving Wild.”
Tash let out of a frustrated sigh. “Have you evenwatchedit?”
“No.” Gina pursed her lips as she smashed a clove of garlic with the side of her knife. “I’ve been too busy teaching him to dance.”
“Coño.” Natasha shook her head. “I can’t believe you. This has to be fixed immediately.”
“It’s one in the morning!”
“No me importa. We’re watching that shownow.And then I won’t be mad at you anymore.”
When the guac was ready, they bypassed the counter and bar stools and sat on the sofa with a bowl of tortilla chips between them. A few seasons ofLiving Wildwere available, so they picked an episode from the middle of season two, settling in to watch.
There was something voyeuristic about watching Stone on TV, almost like she was spying on him, but Gina couldn’t turn away. Contrived as it must be, the drama and setbacks drew her in. During that one episode, Stone hauled lumber with his brothers—to disastrous results—built a greenhouse with his sisters, and patched up his dog’s injured foot. Around him, the rest of the Nielson family attended to other tasks that were deemed necessary to “living wild.” Over it all hung the constant threat of oncoming winter.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise that Stone was the “hot one” of the brothers—probably why he’d been picked forThe Dance Offover Reed, Wolf, and Winter. They were all good-looking guys, tall and strapping from manual labor, but Stone stood out from the pack. He was also the quiet one, the serious one—as they called him. The look of intense concentration he wore while making the greenhouse was one she’d seen a few times when they rehearsed.
In spite of herself, Gina was impressed. Stone had skills,realskills that meant the difference between life and death in the Alaskan wilderness—the “bush,” they called it.
She and Natasha had grown up in the same neighborhood in the Bronx, and moved to LA together as soon as they could. They giggled and goggled through the episode, amazed at what it took to live like the Nielsons.
At the end of the episode, Natasha hit “play” on the next one.
“How many are we going to watch?” Gina asked, polishing off the last of the guac.
“I want to see if they manage to build that treehouse or not.”
“Spoiler alert: they do. I’ve seen it.”
“Pendeja. I’m watching anyway. The description says they do something with a boat.”
Halfway through the next episode, Tash was swooning over Stone’s younger brother Wolf.
