Page 54 of Catch Me
“That would be me,” Antoine Bennett calls out as he returns from the bathroom.
Antoine is a British-Nigerian model-turned-actor. We met a few years ago when doing a brand commercial shoot together. Turns out he also loves reading, so he eventually became part of our bookclub.
While there are more members of the club, we four tend to be the ones who show up without fail each month. Even when one of us is away filming or working, we Zoom in.
“You couldn’t have added something with some fiber?” I gripe.
“No, Mr. HealthNut,” Antoine quips. “After the carrot and celery sticks you showed up with last month, I decided to bring actual snacks everybody would enjoy.”
I glare at him. “I also brought sweets.”
“He’s right,” Crystal chimes in. “Those strawberries were delicious, too. I go to the farmers’ market to get them once a week now.”
“You have your personal assistant go, you mean,” Scott corrects.
Crystal pops him on the shoulder.
“Now back to Andreas’ mystery woman,” Crystal teases.
“We’re not talking about her,” I say sternly. I want to keep Ivy to myself for now. Something about her makes me feel greedy and possessive enough that I don’t want to share her with my friends. Not yet. That’ll come eventually because I know she’s destined to become a bigger part in my life.
“Whoa, testy already, are we?” Antoine teases in his London accent.
“You know when he gets like that, he’s like a steel trap.” Crystal shakes her head. “He’s not going to open up until he’s good and ready.”
Damn straight. These are some of my closest friends in this industry, but even they don’t know everything about me. I keep a lot of my life private.
“Besides,” I offer, “I knew you all would somehow bitch about me caring about your health and well-being, so I had my assistant order pizza. It’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
They actually cheer.
“Is it from Johnny’s?” Antoine asks.
I nod, confirming that I ordered from one of the best pizzerias around. All four of us live, at least part-time, in this building, due to its private professional security staff.
Truthfully, I live here because the building is owned by my family’s real estate company, making me partial owner.
“Cool. Now let’s get into this month’s book. I’ve been dying to talk about it.” Scott pulls out a paperback copy ofYellowfaceby RF Kuang.
“Man, the audiobook of this was great. From the beginning I could hear the jealousy in the narrator’s voice,” Crystal adds, nodding. She often prefers to listen to the audiobook version of the books we choose.
We fall into a lively conversation about the book, not stopping until about thirty minutes later when I get an alert fromthe front desk that the pizza has arrived. Antoine offers to go down to retrieve it.
While I’m in the kitchen, plating the slices of pizza, Scott comes up to me. He positions his body so that his back is against the counter while he focuses on the entryway.
I watch him out of the corner of my eyes with a raised eyebrow.
“Didn’t want to say anything in there since you want to keep what’s going on between you and Ivy under wraps for now.”
A muscle in my jaw ticks at the sound of her name coming from his mouth. Irrational jealousy flashes through me. I do my best to tamp it down to hear what he has to say.
“I thought she looked familiar,” he tells me. “I couldn’t place her face, but knew I’d seen it before.”
“Where?” My voice comes out darker than intended.
Scott notices as well, his eyes bulging.
“Just look.”
