Page 3 of Baby Love

“We’ll give you a ride home,” Kiet offers.

Daw frowns. “His place is past yours. Bass, you take him.”

“I can get a Motosai,” I say.

“We’re taking you home, and that’s final,” Kiet takes out his wallet.

Daw presses her lips together and stands stiffly, watching us all hug goodbye.

Outside, I follow Kiet and Daw down the street to where he parked his car. I can tell Daw’s pissed by the way she’s walking so briskly, which must be difficult in the three-inch heels she’s wearing. I briefly entertain a mean fantasy of her twisting her ankle but quickly realize if that happened, she’d make Kiet her slave and we’d never see him.

The car ride is a quiet one with Daw pouting about driving a couple of miles out of their way to take me home and Kiet concentrating on the heavy Bangkok traffic. I’m not about to try to make conversation since I prefer a silent Daw to a bitching one. When we pull up to the building where I share an apartment with my younger sister, Nok, I thank Kiet and get out of the car. No time for a hug through the window since someone’s already honking at him to move along, so I wave and turn toward my building.

Our small apartment is on the third floor. When we moved in years ago, I gave Nok the only bedroom and took the couch as my bed. It isn’t much, but we have a tiny balcony that Nok keeps full of flowering plants, and she sometimes paints out there. I’m so proud of her—this year she was accepted into an exclusive school for the arts—but the school is pricey, and I’m a little worried about meeting the tuition. Now that I’ve got a starring role, I can breathe a sigh of relief, as I’ll be able to cover her first semester’s tuition, if not more.

Nok’s asleep when I let myself into the apartment. Once showered and in my pajamas, I slip under the blue throw on the couch and pick up the book that my new series, Heartbeat, is based on.

I fall asleep before I get two pages read.

Chapter Two: Park

Entering the studio of SPPT Productions, I note that many of the cast members are already present, most of them chatting while standing around the long table laid out with breakfast food.

“Park!” Someone calls my name and I turn around to see a slim girl with stylishly curled long, dark hair whom I have worked with before. Beside her is my ex-girlfriend. Pear’s grandmother is my neighbor, so I can hardly avoid her, but I didn’t expect to see her here. Pear has worked as a makeup artist at Rainbow TV for the past couple of years.

“Hi, Cream. Hi, Pear. Pear, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“I heard there was an opening and snapped it up. So many of my friends work at SPPT,” Pear says, smiling and stepping closer to me while placing her hand on my arm. “Looks like you’re doing well. You’re a lead, I heard.”

I nod, a little uncomfortable. She took it pretty hard when I broke up with her last year. I don’t know how I feel about seeing her all the time at work.

“I’m playing your ex-girlfriend in this series,” Cream tells me. “Everyone’s talking about you and Spin. He’s so cute.”

Glancing around, I spot Spin Jetatikarn talking to Daeng, another SPPT actor I’ve worked with before. I’m not surprised to see Spin, since I read with him at the audition and learned he got the part of Boom shortly after.

“Oh, he’s talking to Daeng,” Cream says. “Maybe we should save him.”

“What’s wrong with Daeng?” Pear asks, looking over her shoulder at the two actors, her hand still on my arm.

“He sleeps with everyone,” Cream says, lowering her voice.

“Has he slept with you?” Pear asks.

“No! Of course not.” Cream looks affronted.

Pear’s expression is innocent, but I’m pretty sure she meant the question as a slight to Cream. This type of game is just one of the things about her that I found unappealing by the end of our relationship.

“I’ll see you guys later,” I say, gently tugging out of Pear’s grip. As I walk toward him, Spin looks up, a smile blooming on his face when he sees me. My heart does a weird little flip in my chest. We’d gotten kind of close when we did the play together at university when he was a freshman and I was a junior, but my life changed completely not long after that, and we lost touch. I forgot how cute he is. As well as affectionate, I think when he wraps his arms around my waist and hugs me.

“Hi, P’Park,” he says.

“Hi, Spin.” I hug him in return. His hair smells really good. Like apples and citrus.

Daeng smiles. “Hi, Park. I heard you were playing Khao.” His gaze returns to Spin. “I just met your new partner. Looks like you two already know each other?”

“P’Daeng’s playing the secondary lead, Champ,” Spin tells me. “And Aod is playing Champ’s love interest, Bear,” he adds as a slender boy around Spin’s age walks up and hands Spin a bubble tea.

In the series, Champ is Khao’s best friend, which means Daeng and I will have a lot of scenes together. Fuck. And poor Aod, new to the bl industry, if I remember correctly, and partnered with Daeng.

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