Take Two (26 page)

He laughed. “You’re welcome.”

His words lingered ac
ross the line for several seconds. Neither of us said anything.

“I’m ass
uming you’re having a slow day
?” I asked.

“Quite the opposite. I just left a script readin
g session with some cast mates
.
I’m on my way to look at some shoes for the wedding.”

Oh yea
h
, YOUR wedding.

“Listen, Matt. This pizza was really nice of you and so was the dinner you made for me yesterday
.
But
at the end of
the day
,
you’re
still
engaged. W
hether that’s real or
fake, I think we should
be associates until your fake relationship is over.”

“What’s your definition of an associate?”

“Someone I talk to ever so often and—”

“How often?”

I paused for a second.
“Maybe three or four times a month?”

“Do associates ever
hang
out or eat dinner together?”

“No. They don’t.
”

He groaned.
“I don’t need any more
associates
,
Melody
.”

“
Casual f
riends then?”

“I thought we were friends. Are you telling me we’re not
friends
anymore?”

“I’m telling you we shouldn’t be
anything
while you’re
with
Selena.”

“What can I do to get you to stop saying that?”

Don’t marry her…

“I don’t know.”

He sighed. “I’ll call you tonight
. What time do you go to sleep
?”

I made sure my cell was completely charged. I paced my bedroom, looking at the clock every five seconds.

Butterflies
were fluttering in my stomach and I couldn’t get my palms to stop sweating. I’d never been so nervous about a phone call in my life, not even when Sean and I began dating.

At exa
ctly nine o’ clock my phone sounded
. I waited a couple seconds before picking it up.

“Hello?”

“Hey Melody
,” his voice was deep and sultry. “
How are you?”

“I’m okay. You?”

“Tired. I’m on my way back home.”

“From Selena’s?”
I slapped my forehead
with
my palm.

He laughed
.
“You’re not the trusting type are you? No, I only see Selena once a week for photo opps.
I was in Philly for a book sign
ing.”

“Oh. Your biography that came out last week?”

“Yeah.
Destined for the Screen.”

“How did you find the time to write a book?”

“I didn’t,” he sighed. “A ghostwriter did most of it. We spoke three hours a week and she crafted my story out of that.”

“
Well
in that case, I don’t feel
so
bad about giving it one and a half stars.”

We both laughed. I snuggled underneath a blanket and listened to him tell me about his day,
about
his life.
Before I knew
it, it was three in the morning
and
I didn’t want to get off the phone. I wanted our conversation to last forever.

“Tell me something,
” he paused. “Was your ex-fiancé the only guy you seriously dated?”

“Pretty much. I met him when I was a freshman in college and the rest is you know…”

“Not even in high school?”

“My parents didn’t allow me to date,” I laughed
at the memory
. “They even made me go to prom alone. What about you?
Is Selena your first serious engagement?
”

“
I’ve never been
seriously
engaged
,
but b
efore Selena
there was my old publicist,
Lisa.”

“What happened?”

“Turns out that whole ‘never mix business with pleasure’ thing is true. If we had an argument she wouldn’t book me for
crucial appearances. So in return,
I wouldn’t show up to some of the th
ings she promised to her client
friends. It was really messy
. I
fire
d
her
and we broke up
.”

“What about Joan? She’s really pretty…”

“She
is
really pretty,” I could sense h
im smiling. “Joan is also completely
professional and not attracted to me at all.”

“How do you know?”

“Whenever I’m drunk
she tells me all the things she hates about me. And she
told me she i
sn
’t attracted to me
.”

I laughed.
“Was there anyone serious before Lisa?”

“Not really, unless you want a detailed list of
models and
groupies.”

“I’m okay,” I rolled my eyes.

“Is red your natural hair color?”

We didn’t get off the phone until five o’ clock. I wasn’t tired though, I was running off adrenaline.

The next few
days a
t work, I cruised through my assigned books and films. I wa
s excited about spending
my
night
s
talking to Matt on the phone.

On Thursday night, we spoke until six o’clock. The only reas
on we stopped was because he needed
to board a plane back to New York and Joan
wanted
to prep him for an interview.

When we
hung up,
I did something I’d never done in my six years of working at
The New York Appeal
:
I called in sick. My adrenaline had run out.

I woke up around noon and
played my voice
mails.

“Melody
,
I’m so sorry to hear that you’re sick,” Mr. Maxwell’s voice was soft. “Let me kn
ow if you need anything. Call
or text me when you get this.”

“Mel! I finally finished my thesis!
” Jenn screamed. “
Me and
my friend
Josh are going out to
the bar tonight
. Five
dollar jumbo
j
ello shots
if you’re interested! I’ll buy you two!”

“Miss Carter, I’ll have the books from your office sent over to you for the weekend. Feel better soon,” Sophie sounded really concerned.

“Hey Melody,” Matt’s voice was a
whisper. “Your assistant said
you were out sick so I’m assuming we’ll need to reschedule our date? Call me back when you can
and I hope you feel better
.”

I remembered
why I never call
ed
in
.
I suck
ed at lying and people worried
too m
uch.

I called Mr. Maxwell back first, telling him that I’d definitely be back to work on Monday. I turned down Jenn and her jumbo-jello shots, but prom
ised I would take her out
to celebrate
next week
. I thanked Sophie for her hard work and let her know
she didn’t
ne
ed
to
send
those books
.

I wasn’
t sure if I wanted to call Matt. H
e
mentioned that he had a
nother
busy day ahead of him
and I didn’t want to interrupt
.

As muc
h fun as I’d had talking to him
the past couple of nights, I wasn’t sur
e if I
wanted him to come over
.

I was scared he was starting to get close
,
and I
w
as
developing feelings for him.

I sent him a text:
“I’m okay. Yeah, I may not be up to a date tonight. Raincheck?”

I grabbed a bag of cheese puffs from the kitchen and slouched on my sofa. It was time to turn my
brain off and watch reality TV.

Matt texted me back two hours later:
“Would you like me to cook you some soup?”

I watched an episode of
Keeping up with the Kardashians
before responding:
“No, I’m okay. Thanks
though :-)”

He immediately texted back:
“What are you doing?”

If I texted
back too soon, he would
think I wasn’t doing anything and then he would probably try to come over. I watched another episode
before texting him again:
“W
atching Kim K.
shop for a dress. You?”

He texted back:
“
S
tanding outside your door.”

Shit!

I ran into the bathroom and pulled out my blow dryer. I
held it over my forehead for
half a minute
. T
hen I held it over my chest. I took out some Vicks Vapor rub and rubbed it under my nose and onto my neck. I pulled my hair into a sloppy bun and splashed hot water into my eyes
.

I threw
on some
silk
pajamas and
fastened my robe. I held the blow dryer on my forehead for another minute and rushed to the door.

“
I said you didn’t have to cook me any soup,” I
glared at him
.

“That’s why I
bought
some instead,” he
shook a
brown paper bag. “What’s wrong with you exactly?”

“Are you a doctor now?”

“I played one once.”

I tried not to laugh
. “I have a fever and um…
it’s kind of hard for me to breathe.”

“So you got sick between six and eight
this
morning?”

“I’ve been feeling kind of bad
for the past few days
.
It just got worse today.”

“What’s the blow dryer for?”

Matt

“Ummm,” sh
e looked around the room. “Um I—
”

I stopped her with a kiss. “You’re a horrible actress. Is that Vicks Vapor rub on your face?”

She turned red and nodded.

I
laughed
.
“You could’ve just told me you didn’t feel
like a date
today.”

“Would you have showed up anyway?”

YES.

“Probably.”

She
shook her head
. “I’
m gonna
put this up and get this stuff off my face. There’s cheese puffs on the couch
in the living room
.
I made them myself.
”

W
hile she made herself “un-sick
,
”
I took out the soup and bread.
Fo
r some reason,
being around her
still made
me
nervous
. I could still feel
the unresolved tension
between us.

“What type of soup is it?” she
actually sat beside me
.

“Chicken noodle
. S
ince you’re not really sick, I
figured we could share
.”

We ate
several spoonfuls
in silence—she was blushing more than usual, and looked as nervous as I was.

“
You’re
early,” she muttered
.
“
I didn’t have
any
time to put myself together
so excuse how I look
.”

“You look beautiful
, Melody.
You always do.
”