Page 19 of A Little Bit Extra

I groan, which causes her to laugh. Our emotions feed one another.

“See you at work, Emmett.” She smiles and exits my apartment, glancing back at me one last time before shutting the door.

That girl.

I slump back on the couch and take a few minutes before I have to get ready to leave for the studio. I already know Cassie is going to be a distraction for me today, but I don’t mind. In fact, I welcome it. After we spent all night talking, I’m excited for the day to go by quickly so I can be with her again tonight.

Talking to her was easy. I wanted to tell her things, to open up about my life. I even told her I wrote stories, but I haven’t told her I would love to chase that dream and pursue it full time.

The timing was never right. When I was younger, my dad found a script I wrote and yelled at me to explain myself. He called me childish to think I could do anything without his backing and said he wouldn’t support me doing anything other than acting. To him, the Davis name would disappear if I didn’t follow in his shadow.

I tell myself that one day I can do something for myself. I’m content for now. In fact, I should feel pride in the work that I’ve done as an actor after hearing that Cassie has been trying to land something ever since she moved here.

I only glimpsed her past and know she's had bad luck with men in this industry. She even made me pinky swear (yes, clasp our pinkies together and all) that I would not bring this up to anyone and would not use my position as an already successful actor to help her.

Normally, it would have thrilled me to have someone open their heart up and not expect anything in return. With Cassie, I would have called any contact I had and gotten her auditions the next day. Even though I won’t do that, I did secretly cross my fingers behind my back in case I decide to break that promise at a later date for a good reason. I can't promise something to her if there's a possibility I won't have the chance to keep it.

For now, though, I let her have the satisfaction of knowing I won’t do anything to help her succeed. She’s prideful and wants to achieve something herself. It’s hot. She’s full of ambition, and I thank the world for throwing her in my path.

I get to the studio just before 10 a.m. and find Marcy leaning against the railing of the stairs that lead up to the door of my trailer sandwiching her clipboard under one arm. She’s busy staring at her phone.

“Hey Marce,” I say as I walk over to her.

She looks up from her phone to meet my gaze but doesn’t smile.

“What?” I say.

She shakes her head and sighs. I move past her on the stairs, opening the door and walking into my trailer. She follows me and shuts the door behind us.

“Don’t what me. You know what,” she retorts.

I do. She’s talking about Cassie and the fact that she came over yesterday. She doesn’t know she stayed over by accident. No one knows that. Well, besides Lucy, but she’s an exception.

I walk into the kitchen and lean into the fridge to grab a glass bottle of cold brew.

“I’m sorry we didn’t invite you, but you could have come over, anyway,” I say as I twist the lid off the bottle and take a sip, not breaking eye contact.

Marcy is like a little sister to me. For that reason, she’s a little blunt and a pain in my ass.

“Emmett, you know that’s not what I mean.”

I nod. “What do you want me to say?”

I walk past her and sit on the couch. I still have a few minutes until I have to be on set, but I like to get here early to rehearse lines and make sure I’m prepared for my scenes.

She sighs heavily and moves to sit on the arm of the couch.

“I don’t need you to say anything, Emmett, just be careful. You know you’re not allowed to see anyone that works here. It’s a conflict of interest.”

“I’m not seeing her Marce, it was a friendly hang out. Didn’t the guys tell you that?” I fire back. I’m seeing her, but not how Marcy is insinuating. We are two people enjoying each other’s company.

“Mhm.” She drops her head and shakes it back and forth a few times. “You couldn’t just leave her alone, huh? I knew after I saw she was the girl from the diner that this was going to be trouble.”

She stands up and moves to the trailer door. She rests her hand on the handle, turning back around to face me. “You know I love you and I’m just looking out for you, right?”

“Love you too, Marce. I got it handled, don’t worry.” I give her a fake smile.

With that, she dips her head and leaves the trailer. My phone buzzes on the counter a few minutes later. I reach over to grab it, thinking it’s just one of the guys texting me to warn me about Marcy bombarding me or something about last night.

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