Page 30 of Method Acting

“So I have your consent?”

“Yes.”

He grinned and waited.

And waited . . .

“What?”

“Aren’t you gonna ask me?”

“I did. You said yes.”

“Consent is ongoing. Ask me again. In front of Deirdre.”

I sighed. “Do I have your consent to hold your hand? Or to kiss you if there is no other reasonable course of action applicable and under duress we have to kiss?”

Chase laughed. “Such a romantic.”

“Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

Deirdre was looking between us like a tennis match, her smile slow spreading. “Okay, then let’s try it.”

“Kissing now?” Chase asked.

He suddenly didn’t look so confident.

“Yes,” Deirdre replied. “Would acting out a scene help? We can pick a classic scene, any scene you like.”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “It’ll be fine. Won’t it?” He looked at me. “I mean...”

Yep. Confident Chase was gone.

“For god’s sake.” I sighed, walked up to him, slid my hand around the back of his neck, and kissed him.

He froze, in shock for half a second before he caught up and he reciprocated the kiss.

Warm lips, soft mouth. His hair felt good in my hands.

Instinct told me to fist his hair and open his mouth with my own, but that’s not what this was. This was acting, and this was practice for filming, nothing more.

I pulled back, his lips parted, his eyes half-closed.

“Done,” I said. “First one is out of the way.”

Deirdre was staring at us, shocked. “Well, that’s one way to do it, I guess.”

Chase was staring at me, his cheeks pink. “Well, that was...”

“What?” I asked.

“Unexpected.”

I pointed to my lips. “Your turn. Get it over and done with. It’s easier that way.”

Taking the clinical approach was better than the alternative.

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