Page 35 of The Sitcom Star
She swallowed the lump in her throat.Her success withChu’s Restauranthad given her all sorts of big feelings, but nothing quite like how it felt when Adrian Ma winked at her.
A little overwhelmed, she said, “I should go.I have…stuff to do.”
“Let me know when you get home, okay?”he said.
He didn’t kiss her, just gave her a smile.Ryder said goodbye while adjusting Gigi’s third bandage—the giraffe had sustained two other boo-boos, though what had caused them was unclear to Maddie.
She headed down the stairs, a little dazed, yet she didn’t feel like going straight home.
There was nothing else on her list for today, but there was something she’d put on a list before that she still hadn’t gotten around to doing.
Now seemed as good a time as any.
The little shop was surprisingly clean and organized.Maddie wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but this wasn’t it.There was no merchandise on the shelves; instead, there were small signs on each shelf, indicating the options, and you had to ask the clerk to get things from the back.
“What are you looking for?”he asked.
Thank God he hadn’t recognized her.
“Um.Edibles, I think.”Though there were so many different products.Beverages, extracts… “I’ve never done it before.I mean, I did once.I had some sketchy cupcakes that were very, very strong and it wasn’t a great experience.”She’d never had any interest in smoking something, but that probably would have been better than those cupcakes.The experience had freaked the crap out of her.
The cupcakes hadn’t come with amounts of THC and CBD on the label, unlike all the options on this shelf.Nor had they come with nutritional information—again, unlike these packages.There was something weird about seeing nutritional information on drugs.It was extremely civilized.
“Wait, are you Maddie Ng?”he asked.
Oh, God.It wasn’t like she was doing anything illegal, but visions of this information traveling across town and her parents calling her five minutes later (and yelling, of course) danced in her head.
“Uh, yeah,” she said.“That’s me.”
“I like the show.I’m just starting the second season.”
He returned to giving her recommendations on what she should get, and she left the shop a few minutes later with some fairly lowly-dose strawberry gummies.She considered popping one in her mouth now, since it could take a little while to kick in, but then she recalled the cupcake experience—she couldn’t risk being in public for this.
When she got home, she ate a gummy and had a shower.An hour later, she still didn’t feel anything, but maybe she’d have to wait a little longer.She wouldn’ttake a second one.
Hmm.What should she do now?
She’d missed out on the Wordle craze at the beginning of the year because she’d been too busy, even for something that apparently only took a couple of minutes.She tried that now, along with Quordle, Octordle, and Sedecordle for good measure—she’d always been an overachiever.
She still didn’t feel much from the gummy.This was strangely anticlimactic.
In fact, being with Adrian did more for her relaxation than the gummy had…and she was sure that would be true even if she doubled the dose.
But as she thought back to their day together, she began feeling slightly panicked.
Could she fit in his life, once her weeks of taking it easy were behind her?How would she manage, when her schedule was so packed that she didn’t even have time for Wordle?And would he understand?
Chapter 10
@martyxmcflyer: Look who I saw at the bus stop!!#chuties
@eleanoraomg: OMG!So jealous.
@martyxmcflyer: I don’t think I embarrassed myself?I hope?She was so nice.
ThefirsttimeAdrianhad watched this scene, he’d been happy.Happy that Waverly had finally figured out that Max was the right guy for her.
And now, he felt the same way.Onscreen, Maddie was Waverly; he could separate the characters from the real people.He wasn’t jealous.
