Page 11 of A Little Bit Extra

I expected it would take me a while to locate her, but I find her grabbing a blueberry muffin from the snack table. The infamous muffins, a famous pastry for all actors and staff here at the studio. Something about the blueberry to crumble ratio. It’s so good.

I walk up next to her to grab one. A breath escapes from her as I lean across her, lightly brushing her chest with my arm.

“Excuse me,” I say, slanting my head to look at her reaction.

She’s glaring at me. I’m off to a good start.

I clear my throat and bite my lip. Why am I nervous? Get it together.

She gives me a small smile and moves away.

“Wait,” I say to her back.

She turns around. Bringing the muffin to her mouth, she looks me in the eye as she takes a bite. Damn, those lips.

“Are you going to just stare at me?” she asks. She places her right hand on her hip, shifting her weight to that side.

I’m still looking at her lips. I trail my eyes up her face until I meet her gaze.

“Come over to my apartment tonight.” I say it remarkably fast.

“Why—” She starts to speak, but I interrupt her.

“My friends, Max, Tyler, and Lane will be over. Um, we can eat pizza.” The words spill out.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” I want to make sure I heard her right.

She nods. “Okay.”

Huh. I don’t know why I thought she was going to say no.

“Okay.” She laughs because at this point I’m just repeating her. I run my right hand through my hair and look at the floor. This is embarrassing.

I peer up to find her looking at me, biting her lip. Again, those damn lips. What I would do to feel my lips against hers.

Shit. I’m staring again.

“Um, I’ll text you my address,” I blurt.

Her brows draw together and her head tilts to the side. Right, she hasn’t explicitly given me her number yet.

“Your number was kind of included in the memo for this week.”

She grimaces and raises and lowers her head in an exaggerated nod.

“Alright, Hotshot. I’ll wait for your text, then,” she says with a wink. A fucking wink. I'm struggling to find the right words. It's as if they've disappeared into thin air. She smiles at me one last time before turning around and walking back to Marcy and Ed, her hips swaying from one side to the other. I can’t take my eyes off of her.

Someone clears their throat behind me.

I whip around to find Max getting a muffin.

“Whatcha’ doing?” He takes a bite, savoring the flavors, and lets out a contented moan. He takes another bite, shoving half of the muffin in his mouth.

“Me?” I point to my chest and look around to see if anyone else is standing by us. Nope, of course not. He just caught me staring at Cassie.

He nods.