Page 49 of Between the Lines

Quiet conversation between us.

Was this all he meant when he said he wanted to talk?

Somehow, that made me even more nervous.

He wasn’t playing about taking the long way, but he did eventually get me safely into the gate of my new apartment complex. I couldn’t hop out fast enough when he pulled into a visitor spot, but that should’ve been my clue that he planned to walk me up.

Which, you guessed it.

More nerves.

“Damn, I must be boring the shit outta you,” he drawled from behind me, on the way down my hall.

“What makes you say that?” I asked, turning to face him at my door.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “You were hella quiet all the way here, and now you just seem…I don’t know. What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

“That feels like a lie, Ellie,” he said, pushing hands into his pockets.

Shit.

Eventhatwas obscenely attractive.

“I just…I don’t want to say the wrong thing,” I said.

“What kinda thing could that even be?”

Immediately, my face grew hot with possibilities, but the one I landed on made me take a step away from him, pressing my back to the door. “I don’t know…but…we definitely should call it a night.”

He poked his lip out a little, nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“We’re still cool though?”

His eyebrow lifted. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Just…making sure.”

Chapter Twelve

ELODIE

Guesswhat I got my hands on?

That was how I opened the conversation—the invitation—to everyone I asked to come over to my apartment and break the rules with me.

Well,breaking the ruleswasn’t exactly correct, since my source was directly connected to the highest executive level at WAWG studios—my aunt Nubia. Nepotism, favoritism, whatever you wanted to call it—inthiscase, I was all too willing to take advantage of it.

It was no secret to anyone that my nerves surrounding the upcoming premiere were shot, so it didn’t take much for them to agree to come over to watch an official unofficial copy of the first episode ofKinfolkwith me.

It did, however, take a lot for me to not watch it in advance, alone, clutching a bottle of wine. Honestly, I wasdyingto see it.

Even though I’d been over this multiple times with anybody I could get to listen, the noise on social media and everywhere else was indeed getting to me. As confident as I was in my talent, I waslessconfident in my certainty that it would translate on screen.

And one particular post about me beingthe weakest member of a talent-stacked casthad me feeling extra antsy— probably why Nubia had slipped me the attachment in my email in the first place.

So, of course, I asked friends from the show to watch it with me. Not my other friends, who if nothing else I can have a good kiki session with, or my brother who had the professional knowledge and experience to potentially give me tips or feedback.

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