Page 23 of Can't Take My Eyes Off You

‘Another of your fans,’ Berkley says, with a roll of her eyes. She hates the fan thing. I can’t say I blame her. If random men were swarming our table for a moment with her, I’m sure I’d be jealous as hell.

‘A part of the gig I can’t control,’ I say.

She’s looking over her menu at me, her eyes lingering as she studies me. ‘It’s that pretty face of yours,’ she says with a coy smile. ‘By the way, I still like the glasses more than the contacts. I almost forgot how super-hot Clark Kent they make you.’

I reach across the table to touch her hand. ‘I love that you think I’m super-hot ’cause I think you’re super-duper-hot.’ Now that she’s given me a window of opportunity, am I going to flirt like a kid in love? Abso-fucking-lutely.

She grins.

I do usually wear contacts. When I don’t, I have nerdy black-framed glasses she helped me pick out years ago. If I’m going out and don’t really want people recognizing me, which has only become a problem recently, these glasses, baseball caps and my favorite hoodies help me hide. And the occasional fake ’stache. I gotta make my girl smile.

‘Flush my contacts more often, and the glasses will magically appear,’ I say. Lucky for me, I keep a backup pair in my Jeep.

She grimaces. ‘I can’t believe I did that. I’ll buy you more.’

‘No, you won’t. I have plenty at my apartment.’

For a second we sit silently, looking around the diner, waiting on our coffee to wake us up completely.

‘Do you think we’ll be like this forever?’ she asks, suddenly changing the subject.

‘Describethis?’ I say, sitting back when the waitress brings a pot of coffee and two cups to our table.

The front door of the diner dings open, interrupting our conversation and earning a groan from each of us at the sight of the newcomers. Mike, Felicity and Finn walk in. This is a regular haunt because the diner is open twenty-four-seven, but I didn’t think they’d show up this early on New Year’s Day.

‘Well, throw some toes in the air. Spanky and the rest of the fuckwit gang is here,’ Berkley says under her breath, making herself busy pouring us each a cup of coffee.

I laugh to myself, but keep my co-stars in my sights. Felicity’s gaze is on Berkley. She walks across the room like she’s walking a runway, wearing the same dress she was last night, so I bet they haven’t even been home yet. Her heels tap on the floor as she struts our way.

‘I swear that woman exists just to be my nemesis. Why’s she hate me so much?’ Berkley whispers.

‘Because you own my heart and she wants it.’

‘The balls on that girl. She’s got some big ones, I’ll give her that.’

The two women’s faces drop when their eyes meet. Yep, they are not and will never be friends. That’s what this looks says, clear as day. Comparing them would be like comparing cucumbers and oranges. There are no similarities. Berkley is prettier by a mile, she makes me laugh, she has a soul and I’d rather be sitting next to her than Felicity any day.

Mike and I acknowledge one another’s presence silently as he leads the double Fs through the place like he owns it to a booth at the back. Behind us, thankfully. Jonah, our lead camera guy, follows them. He gives me a nod, panning the camera to Berkley and me as he walks past. Heads of other customers turn, glancing between the five of us, attempting to figure out why the camera is even here.

Felicity stops at our booth, her eyes on Berkley. ‘Well, if it isn’t my least favorite person in the world, buzzkill Berkley,’ she says, her tone less than thrilled. ‘I thought you’d finally jumped off a cliff.’

‘And I wish you’d swim into a boat motor,’ Berx says with a smile. ‘Farcical Felicity.’

I can’t help but chuckle. I’m one thousand percent certain Felicity doesn’t even know the word ‘farcical’.

‘You’re a waste of mine and Will’s time. You should really think about that cliff thing.’

‘I’ll rent you a boat.’ Berkley doesn’t back down and finally Felicity wanders off, towards the table Mike and Finn are at.

‘Ugh. I hate her, Will. I feel like there’s about to be a gang shooting,’ Berkley whispers to me. ‘I should probably just go,’ she says, attempting to scoot out of our booth, but I’m bigger than her and sitting right next to her, blocking her in. If I wasn’t, she’d be out the front door already.

‘Stay,’ I tell her, sliding my hand down her thigh. ‘With you is where I want to be and I don’t care who on the planet knows it.’

She rolls her eyes. ‘As sweet as that is, do you have any idea how much hate mail I’m going to get when this airs? Two of my photos have gone out into the world connected to you and fans didn’t hesitate to let me know they hate me. I had to lock down all my social media accounts recently.’

We, er,I, in particular, make the tabloids pretty regularly, so I get why she’s nervous. Berkley’s only made a couple accidental appearances on season one. Brief – mostly because the first time she showed up while filming, Cole (one of our producers) rushed her through an appearance agreement without explanation. She meant to cancel it, but figured her identity is now out there as someone in my life, and you can’t really take that back. Felicity also hasn’t exactly made it a secret that they both pine for the same guy. I can’t believe people are harassing her.

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

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