Page 81 of Method Acting

I took my seat in class and ignored it all.

“Doesn’t it annoy you?” Mason asked me. I was two minutes into my shift at the Bean Necessities. I liked Mason. I’d worked with him a bit over the last two years, and maybe I’d even go so far as to call him a friend. “You don’t seem the type to like the attention.”

I smiled because yeah, he knew me that well at least. “Yep. Not a fan.”

“Yet you’re an actor,” he said. “How are ya gonna handle making it to the big-time fame of Hollywood?”

“I’ll be the recluse kind of actor.”

“The kind that look homeless when they buy coffee in LA?”

“Yep. That’s the plan.”

He laughed. Then when the door opened and customers walked in, he sighed. “Well, don’t look now but your fellow cast and crew are here.”

I looked up, and sure enough, Max and Holly came in, their camera duo with them.

“I’ll take their table,” I said. Then I gestured toward them. “Unless you want to be on camera for your fifteen minutes of fame.”

He made a face. “No thanks. All yours.”

I grabbed the notepad and went over to Max and Holly’s table, and honestly, if they were going for an awkward first date, they were nailing it.

“Hey guys, what brings you in?” I asked.

They both lit up when they saw me, like I was their lifeline. “Oh hey, Elijah,” Max said. “Just grabbing coffee.”

“Great place to do that,” I said, trying to save the scene.

“Where’s Dominic?” Holly asked.

“He was gonna hit the gym and pool after class,” I said. I didn’t really have a clue but that sounded like a safe assumption.

“Explains where he gets his physique from,” Holly said.

And I was hit with flashes of his naked torso above me, every muscle taut as he fucked my hand. The way he moaned, and his face when he came...

So then of course I blushed. “Ah, yeah. Something like that.”

They both laughed.

I cleared my throat. “What can I get for you?”

I took their order and went back to the counter, distracting myself with work and keeping myself busy.

He was really beginning to mess with my head. He—Chase, Dominic. Both of them.

Mostly Chase.

I kept picturing him, seeing his stupidly handsome face in my mind, thinking about what we’d done. Trying to tell myself to regret it but not quite being able to...

“Your boyfriend’s here,” Mason murmured beside me. It was almost closing time, and I’d been so distracted...

I looked up, and sure enough, there was Chase, walking through the door with that smile that I hated.

Hate that you don’t hate it . . .

And Daniel was right behind him.

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