“It sounds like you’re directing porn,” I say through my teeth.
“Quit breaking the fourth wall.”
“The huh?”
“That’s when you address the audience,” Gisele explains. “Unless it’s done really well, it pulls the audience out of the story.”
“Aren’t you breaking the fourth wall?” I ask Ryan.
“I’m the director. I can break the wall all I want.”
“He’s right,” Gisele says. “He can.”
“Well, now you’re breaking it too,” I tease, earning the first genuine laugh from her.
Which makes me pause, wondering, is she into me? Or is this part of the act?
“You have a cute sense of humor,” she says. “You should domore of that too. That’s hot.”
Now she’s calling me hot? What is happening?
“Now,” Ryan says, “you’re gonna say, ‘your eyes aren’t the only thing I noticed’ and then look at her lips.”
“What?”
“Just do it.”
“Your eyes aren’t the only thing I noticed,” I repeat, checking out her lips.
“Oh yeah?” Gisele asks. “What else were you noticing?”
“Tell her, ‘You know what I’m talking about.’”
“I know what you’re talking about.”
“No,” Ryan says. “That doesn’t make any sense. Quote me exactly.”
“Oh…youknow what I’m talking about.”
“Now do the lean-in, and you’re gonna whisper if you can kiss her, in, like, a really sexy way.”
A jolt of panic surges through me. “Wait, what? How far are we going with this?”
“You’re gonna kiss her, of course.” He says that like it’s plain as day.
I turn to Gisele, hoping she’ll be appalled at the idea.
“I’m fine with it,” she assures me. “Ryan already mentioned we’d be doing this.”
“He sure as hell didn’t mention it to me,” I snap.
My face is so hot, now for a very different reason than when we started. My gut is knotted up. I need to get away, but I take a measured breath. “You know what, Gisele, I appreciate your taking time out of your night to help me out, but I can’t—”
I hurry away, and I hear Ryan tell her, “Give me a minute.”
He catches up with me, and there’s that hand on my back again. “Don’t touch me,” I insist, jerking away from him.
He raises his hands, wide-eyed. “Okay, dude. What’s the issue?Before I brought her in, I showed her your pics and she thought you were cute, which is why I recruited her to help.”
