Page 29 of Take 2
He reaches up and rakes his hand through it until he reaches my hand, and his fingers weave between mine. I go rigid, but then he squeezes lightly and pulls my hand to his chest. Somehow, this feels more dangerous than taking his pants off. Being attracted to him, I can blame on him. I mean, really, his physique is just rude. I’m only human. This feeling nice is inexcusable, though. If James thought the dressed-up, award-show version of him distracted from our (okay, my) vendetta, he’d never believe how disarming, sleepy, sick Preston is.
Two acclaimed screenwriters sit together in Monaco for a film shoot, but I’m thinking about college kids in Wisconsin thinking they knew which dreams they could achieve.
Chapter Twelve
Nine Years Ago
SethMacFarlaneandtheGay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles perform a song that points out which actresses’ boobs have been shown in what movies. It plays in surround sound from both TVs on the first floor of my parents’ house, which is equal parts hilarious and embarrassing.
It feels like only my parents’ house rather than mine, too, since I spend most nights at Ryan’s apartment. Soon, I’ll be moving out officially.
“Bella,”—Ryan slides his arm around my waist—“you haven’t made me watch all the movies he’s singing about. Why hasn’t my movie education included all the movies with boobs?”
I shake my head. “Can we not talk about boobs around so many people?”
The eighty-fifth Academy Awards is doubling as a birthday party for me, eventhough that’s still a week and a half away. This one is a real party, though still not what Ryan would have thought of as a party when we first met. It’s still silly for us all to dress up like this just to hang out at my parents’ house, but there are enough people to constitute the title. Both sets of our parents are here, lots of friends, even Ryan’s sister, Anna.
“Fine.” He kisses the top of my head. “As long as later—”
“I know the rules!” I pop up onto my toes to give him a light kiss. “First champagne and Oscars.”
“No betting.”
“Then you get under this.” I shake the ruffly green skirt of this year’s pick. Morgan and Cece shopped with me for it again, though there is no longer any need to try to snag a guy. It was one of the many ways a lot of extra trouble went into the party this year. We also had our hair and make-up done professionally, which means I get to have gorgeous hairoff my neckfor once.
Anna snags my attention when Ryan steps away. “I’ve missed you!” She wraps me in a tight hug for at least the tenth time today.
“We’ve mentioned this,” I say with a laugh. “How much have you had to drink?”
“Not enough, Bella. Not ever enough.”
“Still loving New York?”
“Yes! It’s a dream.” Her smile is dazzling. “I’ve never been so grateful my stupid brother got a football scholarship so there would be enough money for me to go away. Andyousaved him from losing that scholarship, so I basically owe you my entire life.”
His family gives me more credit than I deserve. The area I really helped with was in professor selection. When we met, he claimed the professor had a vendetta against him, but her teaching style was just harsh. Helping him through the rest of that class was the equivalent of buddy reading and book club discussions. I guess I helped him focus for the rest of college by providing motivation, but his familydoes notwant to know about the reward-based study system.
As it turns out,Hot Football Player Ryanis quite smart and successful at anything he cares about. I might be jealous, but since loving me is firmly on his list of things he cares about, I don’t mind him being an overachiever. Not like he can help it—overachieving runs in his family.
“Wave to me when I see you on stage,” I say, “and we’ll call it even.” This girl is definitely going to be famous.
“You first. I will cry if you don’t mention me in your speech at the Oscars.”
“How could I forget you? You’ll be sitting right there as my plus one!”
She laughs and flips her hair over her shoulder. She’s such a stunner. “I know you’re full of shit, but I love you for it. I’m way down the list of who would get to go with you, but if you burn through Ryan, your parents, Morgan, Cece, and Stephen, and none of them can go, I’m totally there!”
“Do I have to ask your mom before you?”
“Fuck no.”
Karen’s radar hearing catches her. “Young lady!” Two years after we watched the Oscars at Karen and Rob’s on our “first anniversary,” I still cringe thinking she had to have heard us having sex.
I pay less attention to the awards than I used to, enjoying the company. Part of me feels like this is also a going away party, and I don’t want to miss out. Ryan grumbles whenThe Avengersdoesn’t win visual effects, insisting that a boat in the middle of the ocean had nothing on the alien battle in New York, which initiates a rant from Morgan about the differences from the book version ofLife of Pi.The fifty years of Bond stuff is fabulous, and possibly the only part of this that Ryan’s dad cares about. I pay enough attention to the show to roll my eyes when Tarantino wins original screenplay.
“She’s not a Tarantino fan,” Ryan explains.
Anna scrunches her nose. “I didn’t like that movie.”
