“God, you’re hot when you’re angry,” he murmurs as he lays soft kisses along my neck. “Remind me to piss you off more often.”
A few minutes later, Mary and Anthony call everyone into the conference room. The meeting begins with Mary giving an update on how everything’s tracking with the Angeliam “crisis.” As she predicted, presales for the show have gone through the roof thanks to the massive amount of publicity.
“With numbers like these,” she says with a smile, “we could extend the run by weeks. Even months. Imagine, we might run so long, we could hold the wedding on the stage. How beautiful would that be?”
Liam’s face darkens. “No.”
Mary frowns. “I beg your pardon?”
I shoot Liam a look, and he drops his scowl to give Mary a dazzling smile. “Sorry, Mary. That was rude. I meant ‘Fuck no.’ Thank you.”
Angel puts her hand over Liam’s. “What my beloved is trying to say is that we already know what we’d like to happen over the next few months, Mary, and getting married in a theater isn’t really part of the plan.”
“Of course,” Mary says, chastised. “I understand. I’m sure you have it all worked out.”
Liam glances at me. “Not quite. But we’re very close to getting exactly what we want.”
When we get into the rehearsal room, I do my best to not look at Liam. Since our reconciliation, this is how I have to play it. I’m not an actor, so I don’t know how to stop every emotion he brings out in me from showing on my face. Thank God I have Josh on my side. Whenever he finds me staring for an obvious amount of time, he gives me a gentle nudge. Hopefully the rest of the cast can’t tell how often I end up in fantasy land.
At the end of rehearsal, Angel comes over to the production desk as Josh and I are packing up.
“Hey,” she says quietly. “I have an idea. If you want to spend time with Liam without ending up in a suitcase, follow my lead.”
“What?”
She looks around before saying in a loud voice, “Hey, Josh and Elissa. I can’t believe you guys finally gave in and started dating. That’s awesome! Why don’t you come over to our place tonight and party with me and Liam? We’ve always wanted another couple to double-date with.”
Liam looks at us in shock for a few seconds before catching Angel’s drift. “Oh . . . uh, yeah. Come over. Both of you. We’d love to . . . hang out. With both of you.”
Josh is more than happy to play along. He puts his arm around me. “Aw, thanks, guys. That’d be great. Since Elissa gave in to her overwhelming attraction to me, she’s been very demanding. Sexually. It’ll be nice to leave the bedroom for once.”
The rest of the cast seems perplexed. Marco couldn’t look more confused if he tried. “I have no idea why you’re all acting like you’re in a Victorian melodrama, but please stop. It’s off-putting and wrong.”
Wrong or not, Angel has just given me and Josh a perfect excuse to be seen entering and leaving their apartment building whenever we like. No suitcase or paparazzi chase required.
Thank God.
“See you in a couple of hours,” Josh says as he and Angel exit the elevator at her floor.
“Have fun!” I say, hoping against hope that tonight is the night Josh mans up and kisses Angel for the first time. Thanks to Angel’s smoke screen, we’ve spent the last few nights coming here after rehearsals. It’s clear Angel and Josh have the hots for each other, and yet they both seem incapable of making the first move. They’ve been dancing awkwardly around each other like freshman at a prom, and the sexual tension has reached such epic levels, I don’t know how they stand it. Probably the same way Liam and I coped with being in close proximity before we started seeing each other naked. Which is to say, not at all.
I look over at Liam. He’s staring at the floor with a deep frown on his face.
I put my hand on his arm as the elevator moves again.
For the past few days, our nightly routine has been blissful. Liam’s assistant is still in England caring for his sick dad, so I help Liam with his e-mails and correspondence, in addition to running lines when necessary. I also help him with orgasms. Many, many orgasms in lots of different positions.
Most nights, after we get our filthy lust out of the way, we order in food and eat it naked. We watch movies, or talk, or I read to him. It’s the best time of my life. I never realized I could be so happy. I’m so crazy in love with this man, it makes me giddy.
But tonight is different. Because of the punishing schedule of the upcoming tech week, this is the last time we’ll see each other for six days, and the thought of going back to not seeing him every day makes me want to punch things.
“It’s only a week,” I say, trying to convince myself as much as him.