I peered over at him, glistening with droplets of water as he stared at his phone and used his thumbs to type on the screen. He was so good looking, it was annoying.
My phone vibrated with a text message.
Colin: Don’t look at me like that.
A smile quirked on his lips, but I lifted a disapproving eyebrow and typed out my response.
Madison: I’ll look at you however I want.
He snickered.
Colin: What are you thinking about?
Madison: Our scene tomorrow.
I debated saying anything else and decided to pull the trigger.
Madison: I’m looking forward to performing with you again.
I was curious if it’d cause a reaction in him when he read it, and he didn’t disappoint. He lifted his head to look directly at me, and although his eyes were hidden behind his sunglasses, I felt his intense gaze.
He trapped me with it for a long moment, before returning his attention to his phone.
Colin: Same.
The next morning, Colin was the first to show up at my bedroom door, ready to help me with setup. Once again, we were using my room for a scene, but there was a lot more to do to transform the space this time.
We were swapping out my headboard and moving furniture around, so the bed was the main focus of the room.
I helped him move my dresser into the closet, which was so big and cumbersome, we were too busy struggling with it to notice the corner had snagged on the plastic bag covering my formal dress. It wasn’t until we heard plastic tearing that we both froze.
“What was that?” Colin asked, setting the dresser down.
I hurried to the white bag that hung from the rack and was stretched awkwardly across the corner of the dresser, grabbing the hanger to pull it down. I peeled up the plastic, revealing the dress so I could examine it for damage.
The golden sequins twinkled at me as the fabric moved. Thankfully, everything looked okay.
“Fancy,” he said, eyeing the dress and the tag still attached. “What’s it for?”
“Nothing now. I bought it a while ago for the Lambda Theta Chi formal.” I tugged the plastic back in place. “But obviously, I didn’t get to wear it.”
I hung the dress back up lovingly, and it didn’t go unnoticed by him.
“Do you miss it?” His voice was quiet. “Being a Lambda?”
I considered my answer. “Sometimes. I let it take over my life, and it got to the point where it was part of my identity, you know? So, it was hard when that was suddenly gone.”
He nodded like he understood and that maybe it had been the same for him. He’d been a frat boy, and it seemed like he’d completely embraced that identity.
“How about you?” I asked. “Do you miss it?”
“Parts of it, yeah.” He extended his arm across his chest and grabbed his bicep with his other hand, stretching out a tight muscle from all the heavy lifting. “But other parts, not at all.” He let go, his arms dropped to his sides, and he moved, closing the distance between us until his shadow fell on me. “Plus, it’s pretty great here.”
There was hardly any space between us to breathe, and the gravity in his eyes sucked me in. It hinted that I was a big reason why he liked being at the house so much. My heart fell out of rhythm and then resumed faster. God, it was amazing how he could make such an impact on me with a single look.
I opened my mouth to declare I wanted to kiss him, but footsteps approached.
“Madison?” Abbie asked.
“In here.”
She rounded the corner and stepped into view, pulling up short when she discovered I wasn’t alone. Her curious gaze noted how close Colin and I were, and she must have sensed the tension between the two of us. She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe, wearing a knowing smile.
“What’s going on in here?” she teased.
“Nothing.” Colin’s tone was flat, perhaps overcompensating, as he shuffled away from me. “Just moving furniture.”
He’d made an effort to sound disinterested, but it was wasted. The glimmer of awareness in her eyes said she didn’t believe a word of it.
I didn’t get a chance to talk about kissing with Colin after that. Scott showed up soon after Abbie did, and then we were busy placing lights, cameras, and sound equipment.
Once Jaquan and Nina arrived, we moved on to the choreography, finding the best way to make transitions happen fast while still feeling natural. With four people, there were a lot of moving parts, so we had to practice and figure out our marks to make sure we were framed right.
And when all that was done, we moved downstairs to the living room that Nina and Jaquan had set up for filming—and repeated the whole process. At least it went faster down here. The story didn’t plan on us spending much time on the couch before moving the scene upstairs.