Page 18 of Sebastian

“You’re moving,” Rhys jumps in.

“No, I—”

“You won the lottery.” Rhys again.

“No, not that—”

“You met Ryan Murphy at a party and he’s going to make you a star.”

“Rhys!”

“Sorry, sorry! I wanted to see if I could guess.” He shrugs.

“Can you just tell us already?” Noel perches his sunglasses on top of his head and plants both elbows on the table to cradle his face in his hands. He looks a little green around the edges.

“What happened to you?” I reach over to pull one of his hands away. “Are you hungover?”

“No. Maybe. Yes. I had a long night.”

“Doing what?” I ask and Noel tugs his wrist out of my grasp.

“Were you out partying?” Rhys asks.

Noel waves his hands in front of his face like we’re flies that he can swat away. “No—it’s not important. Didn’t you have something you wanted to share with the class?” He shoots a glare in my direction, but he looks so miserable, I actually feel sorry for him.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine. Nothing that some coffee won’t cure. Your thing. Go. Talk.”

“Okay.” I lean forward and gesture for them all to gather in close. Hayden and Rhys shift to the front of their chairs. Noel slumps down in his. “Remember when I told you about Christian? Er… Chris Preacher?”

“The old guy?” Rhys clarifies.

“The guy from Mars Fitness,” Hayden says.

“What about him?” Noel deadpans like trying to add any inflection to his voice is completely beyond him this morning.

“I had dinner with him!” I squeal, I can’t help it. I’m still pinching myself over that.

“You did?” Rhys’s eyes are as wide as saucers. “And? How was it?”

I sigh. “It was amazing.” It was more than amazing. Even if we never end up working together, I’ll always treasure that one date we had together. I mean, not that it was a date, but come on, it was kinda like a date, right?

“Wait. Backtrack. How did you end up at dinner with what’s-his-name?” Noel’s sitting up a bit straighter now too.

“Chris Preacher,” I correct him even though I know he knows what Christian’s name is. “I asked him if he wanted to have dinner. He said yes. So we went and had dinner.”

“Just like that? You just walked up and asked him?” Hayden asks, incredulous.

“Well, sort of.” I explain the whole bumping into him incident, and the way he took my arms to steady me, and how we ended up staring into each other’s eyes.

“Aw, that’s like, a real-life meet cute.” Rhys has hearts in his eyes and, you know what, I do too.

“What’s a meet cute?” Noel asks, brows furrowed in skepticism.

“You know,” Rhys says. “In romcoms, where the two characters have some sort of accident that’s kind of awkward, and kind of adorable, and it’s love at first sight?”

Noel stares at Rhys like he’s speaking a foreign language.

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