Page 34 of Heart to Heart
“I figured the show’s producers wouldn’t want me to be anywhere near you in heels again. Not to mention, my feet also don’t want me anywhere near heels for as long as I live, for that matter.” I chuckled, which seemed to relax her a bit as she continued, “If I’m being honest, I just wanted to make sure I got the chance to apologize to you for, like, the two-hundredth time today.”
“More like two-hundred-seventy-fourth,” I mused.
“Okay, well, I didn’t know you were keeping such meticulous accounting.” She smiled, suppressing a laugh as she tried to look serious. Jesus, her smile was beautiful, striking enough to make my heart skip a beat and my brain briefly forget why we were even sitting here. “But really, Tristan, I just wanted you to know that, although I have been known to fall over my own two feet occasionally, I’m not a flaming disaster. Not a total one, anyway.”
“That’s not true,” I replied, noticing her smile falter with worry. “We’re all dumpster fires in our own way.”
She nodded, worry receding. “Even though I know I don’t need any help when it comes to making a fool of myself, I suspect my disaster may have been manufactured.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, stunned by what I thought she was implying.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, but I’m not the only one who had an issue tonight, and it seems like someone may have tampered with my heel.”
“Tampered? You mean like someone purposefully…”
“Cut it so it would break.”
All I could do was stare at her incredulously, wondering who could have done such a thing and whether it was one of the women I’d met tonight. Avery could have been hurt had the heel snapped while she was walking up the steps. Hell, it could have been a lot more serious than a ruined cake. If I found out it was someone here, they wouldn’t be here for much longer.
“It’s not a big deal, honestly,” Avery stammered to fill in the silence. “I’m not one hundred percent certain it even happened here…”
“But if it did, I’m going to find out who did it. You have my word.”
Her eyes widened as though no one had ever made her a promise like that before, making me wonder how her exes must have treated her. Except I had no business wondering that, especially when I knew she would have to be sent home before she got too far into the show.
“It’s a pity your mom’s cake had to go to waste,” I added to change the tone of the conversation. “That was hands-down one of the best ones I’ve ever had.”
Her eyes widened again as the realization of what I was telling her dawned on her. “Wait, you tried it? The cake. The same cake that was embedded into your pants.” She instinctivelylooked down, eyes trained where the cake had been, her cheeks flushing.
“The very one. It smelled too good not to try it, so I did.” I shrugged my shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal to eat food from the crotch of one’s pants. “The pants are a step up from the floor. Though, if I’m being honest, I probably would have eaten it from there, too. I’d love to try an intact cake sometime.”
That cake is going to have a loogie in it if you send her home.
She studied me curiously, nodding. “I think that can be arranged. You know, my mom…”
“I’m so sorry to interrupt,” a familiar voice spoke from behind me. Avery’s expression hardened as her eyes traveled from mine to the source of the woman’s voice. I turned to see Bianca standing a couple feet away, having snuck up on us without making a sound. An impressive feat, considering the shoes she was wearing. “But can I steal him away for a minute?”
I glanced at Avery apologetically, turning to nod at Bianca. When I spun back to face Avery, I couldn’t help but notice the fire in her eyes. They burned so intently that it took me aback a bit. This wasn’t the Avery from the video I’d watched, or even the Avery I’d just been talking to for the last few minutes. There was a fight in this Avery, a determination. And I’d be lying if I said it didn’t do something to me that I would be filing away in my mental filing cabinet for use later.
“We’ll continue this conversation another time?” I asked her, watching as the flame went out. Her expression softened again when she focused back on me.
“I’d like that.” She smiled meekly. We stood up together and I draped my arms around her in a hug. With a final smile, she pulled away, and I watched her slink past Bianca, never breaking her confident stride.
“So,” Bianca’s voice broke the spell Avery’s swinging hips had on me, “something has really been nagging on me.”
“Oh?” I asked, shifting to face Bianca who had moved in closer to me. So close that we were practically nose-to-nose when I turned around. I moved to take a step back but was stopped by her hand gripping my shirt. She tugged the fabric, bringing me even closer, until her lips hovered so near to my own that they brushed mine when she spoke.
“I was always taught to go for what I want, and what I really want is to kiss you right now.” Stunned, my mind went completely blank. It had to have been Bianca’s intention to render me so mentally incapacitated that all I could do was nod my agreement when she whispered, “May I kiss you, Tristan?”
Without waiting for me to change my mind, her lips crashed into mine, her hands snaking their way around my body, her fingers finding their way through my hair. I’ve made out with quite a few women throughout the course of my career, but those moments were scripted, all well-planned and choreographed with an intimacy coordinator. This was uncharted territory for me. It wasn’t scripted, though it didn’t feel quite real. This kiss was disarming. And I had one of two choices: I could end it now, or I could treat it like I did any other kiss on any other set. With Wanda’s voice in my head urging me forward, I chose the latter.
I wound my arms around Bianca’s waist, drawing her into me as her lips parted and her tongue caressed mine. Bianca was the type of woman who commanded attention. Men would stop the world from turning without hesitation if she asked them to. And I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t enjoying myself, that there wasn’t a visceral part of me that wasn’t losing itself completely in this moment, and just how much Bianca reminded me of Jessica.
Jessica.
She was just like Jessica. That fact was all it took for me to break the kiss and return to my senses again, like removingmyself from her orbit had been all that was needed to clear my head.
Also, just like Jessica.
