Page 15 of The Sitcom Star
A strange expression flitted across Adrian’s face, but then his features smoothed out and he smiled again, looking at her like…
Like the way Max looked at Waverly.
No, she must be imagining it.
Though he really was nice to look at, which she’d noticed on Friday night, but it had been dark out, and with that ever-present smile, Adrian seemed more like a daylight-and-sunshine kind of person.Yet even though he often smiled, that didn’t dim its impact, and for some reason, she was more affected by his proximity today.
After they finished eating, Adrian lay back and looked at the sky.Maddie lay as far away from him as possible on the dinosaur picnic blanket—she was perturbed by her reaction to his body—and looked upward.“Do you ever search for shapes in the clouds?”
“That’s too much work,” he joked.
She decided to close her eyes and focus on what she could hear, since she needed to focus onsomething.She couldn’t just let her mind be blank, although itwasa little quieter than usual.
There was a dog barking.Children shrieking as they played in the distance.An air…plane…
When Maddie opened her eyes, there was blue sky above her.Sky, rather than the ceiling of her bedroom.
Right.She was having a picnic with Adrian Ma and she’d fallen asleep.
She sat up.“How long was I out?”
Adrian looked up from his phone.“Just forty-five minutes.”
“Forty-five minutes!That’s a long time for an unscheduled nap.”
“Do you usually schedule your naps?”
“I put them on my to-do list, yeah.”
Maybe that wasn’t something normal people did.But while Adrian did appear amused, he didn’t seem appalled or anything like that.He didn’t think she was a complete weirdo.
“I guess I’m doing a good job at teaching you to relax,” he said.“You were so relaxed you took an unplanned nap.”
Huh.Maybe part of the reason her mind had seemed quiet was…because of him?
“Want to play Frisbee now?”he asked.
“Sure.”She wasn’t saying that just because she’d resolved to go with the flow.Getting off this blanket and moving around did seem like a good idea, even if she hadn’t thrown a Frisbee since elementary school.She vaguely remembered doing ultimate Frisbee in phys ed class in grade eight.
But surely throwing a Frisbee wasn’t too difficult.She’d ridden a bike for the first time in years today, and that had been okay.
Adrian jogged a short distance away from her, Frisbee in hand, and she took a few steps away from the picnic blanket.
“Ready?”he asked.
When she nodded, he threw the Frisbee in her direction, and it sailed up, up… She reached for it, just above her head, and made the catch.
See?This wasn’t going too badly.
Except now it was her turn to throw.She looked at the flying disc in her hand and promptly forgot everything she’d ever known about throwing.
She threw with her right hand, didn’t she?
Okay, that was a good start, but was she supposed to stand with her right foot in front or behind?
Deciding the former was probably correct, she flung the Frisbee as hard as she could in Adrian’s general direction.
At least, that was her intention.
