Page 30 of Act Like You Don't Care
Miles shot me a look of inquiry.
I shrugged. “You want people to know we’re out together, right?”
He nipped the hat neatly out of my grip and put it back on my head. “I imagine they’ll figure it out. We want it to look natural.”
Heat rushed into my cheeks and I stared silently at the door while, inside, I raged at my uselessness. I couldn’t even get a disguise right. Some actor I was.
“But it’s a good idea,” Miles said a few moments later, his tone thoughtful. “Any way we can leak that we’re going to be at the restaurant?” He cast me a sidelong glance, full of mischief. “Bonus points if people are rude and interrupt us. You can have a fit in the restaurant and throw things at them.”
“Haha. We don’t know each other well enough for those jokes,” I said sourly. A shiver ran up my spine. He really had researched me. What else had he found out?
“Sorry,” he said in a more subdued voice. “I won’t bring it up again.”
Why did I suddenly feel like such a jerk? “Don’t worry. My choices, I have to live with the consequences.” Chase one guy out of a restaurant throwing dishes at him like an old harridan and the world never forgets. My lips twitched. “Itwaskind of fun. Think you can arrange that?” I smiled a little and nudged his shoulder. Just two friends going out for a meal and yanking each others’ chains, right?
He tilted his head a little to the side and pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I don’t know if I have the right contacts in this neck of the woods. What’s Will up to tonight?”
I started to laugh just as the elevator doors slid open, all heads in the lobby turning our way. “I suspect he’s not going to be relaxing in his hotel room,” I said and pulled my phone out.Can you leak our restaurant to the press later on?I sent to Will.Miles wants to make sure everyone knows we’re here together.
Sure thing, Will texted back a moment later.
I put the phone away and reached for Miles’s hand. “Let’s go eat,” I said as I wound my fingers through his. “I hope you like fusion.”
He shrugged and his fingers tightened on mine. “I’m always up for an adventure.”
Tam
The restaurant was broken up into groups of five or six tables, each group partially hidden from the others by tall potted plants and abstract room dividers. We were shown to a small table in the corner, handed our menus, then left in peace to figure out what we wanted.
Miles examined the room, looking very much like a tourist. I doubted that was all it was, though. He was casing the joint, or whatever security guys called it. No matter—I left him to it and examined the menu.
It was full of weird stuff that I couldn’t imagine would taste good, but when I looked around, the place was pretty full. The chef likely knew what he was doing.
I was sitting with my back to the room, my hat shoved into the pocket of my jacket because no one else in the place was wearing a ball cap and it would make me stand out like a sore thumb if I left mine on. Besides, I was supposed to be visible, right?
“What are you having?” Miles asked, taking a sip of his water. His eyes rested on me for a moment, then flicked right and left over my shoulders before coming back to meet mine.
“I think the chicken and pomegranate and quinoa,” I said. “I have to get up early, don’t want to eat something heavy.”
He nodded and opened his menu. I sipped at my own water and took the chance to really look at him, this man who was going to be such a huge part of my life for the next however many days. Weeks. Please, God, not months. As kind as he seemed, I’d some thinking about it on the flight here and, realistically, there was no future for us even if something romantic did grow out of this. Alphas were alphas. It never went well, because no matter how much an alpha believed he didn’t need to try to micromanage my life, they couldn’t seem to help themselves. I didn’t need that, thank you. I was quite capable of managing my own life.
At least, as long as there weren’t any crazy people sending me dead pigs and death threats.
Though Miles didn’t seem pushy that way. But was it real or just his business persona?
And did it matter anyway, given the situation?
A drink would be nice, but we were starting at the crack of dawn tomorrow and I’d been partying it up pretty hard the last few days. If I didn’t want to look like crap on film, I needed to give my system a bit of a break. “What are you going to have?”
He glanced over the pages once more before closing the menu and setting it aside. “I think I’ll have the ravioli, if I can trade one for a bite of your chicken.”
“Sure.” Was that him getting into character or a real request? It felt like something a boyfriend would say, but he didn’t say it like he was pretending to be someone else. It just sounded like Miles.
I closed my menu and laid it on top of Miles’s. “Tell me about your name.”
Miles laughed and looked down, but I noticed that same scanning motion of his eyes when he raised them again.
The server came back at that moment and we placed our orders. Miles got himself a cola, but I stuck to my water with its little slice of lemon.
