“Why don’t you have a blog?”
I wrinkled my nose at Morris in disgust. “Too much work. If you want to be taken seriously as a blogger, you’ve got to be really professional and write serious, in-depth pieces. It’s too much like writing for a magazine or newspaper. I much prefer posting pithy one-offs from my phone in the middle of lecture halls whenever I get an idea.”
“You? Texting in the middle of class?” Kell shook his head in mock disappointment. “What a bad girl. And here I thought you would be a diligent college student.”
“Hey, at least I pretend to pay attention. I hate those kids who have their headphones over their ears with their heads buried in their laptops. It’s like, why are you even here? Just stay home.”
“When you’re done with us, you should ask your friend about doing a blog post on your internship.”
I looked at Kell in surprise. “You think Deena would be okay with that?”
“Sure. It’d be great publicity.”
“I guess it would be fun to talk about my experience following you guys around,” I mused. Jayce gave me an almost panicked look. “Of course I’d make sure to keep a lot of stuff private, too,” I said, wanting to reassure him without giving too much away to the guys. “I don’t want to do some kind of tabloid exposé or anything. I’d probably talk more about the internship and the work part of it. Less about you guys.”
“No, man, if you’re going to blog about us, you should talk about everything! Including how awesome I am.”
“I’ll be sure to give everyone a rundown on every one of your awe-inspiring moments, Kell.”
He lifted his chin up in a smug grin while the others just shook their heads.
After several more rounds of beers, the guys got deep into conversation about the proposed set list for the next few days, so I ventured down to the dance floor to get myself another drink. I waited for the bartender to notice me, but kept on getting pushed out of the way by bigger and taller people. I was starting to get miffed when someone sidled up next to me and called the bartender over.
“Beer for me and a whiskey sour for the lady.”
Surprised, I looked up to find Neil at my side. He was as gorgeous as ever with those piercing, light blue eyes. He had done something with his hair to tame it, put in some kind of gel. I didn’t like it. It made him look different, not himself. I much preferred his messy hair, like he’d just fallen out of bed.
“Whiskey sour is okay, right?”
Neil sounded almost nervous.
“Yeah, it’s perfect.” The bartender brought the drinks over and I took a sip. “Thanks.”
Neil held his beer in his hand but didn’t drink.
“I’m surprised to see you here,” I said.
“The film crew has been working hard. I decided we needed a break. How have you been?”
“We see each other every day, Neil.”
“Yeah, but—” He cut himself off, then seemed to switch gears. “We haven’t really worked together since…” he trailed off.
It was true. We had seen each other in passing, but that was it. Every so often I would feel eyes on me and I would turn to find Neil staring. He always turned away as soon as I caught him. I couldn’t help but think he looked almost heartbroken.
“I hope things haven’t been too awkward,” he continued.
“We’re all professionals here.” That sentence had become a staple in my vocabulary.
He nodded and took a sip of his beer, looking up at the second-floor balcony.
“You here with Jayce?”
Did he know we were together? The two of us didn’t want to broadcast our relationship to the world, but maybe Neil had found out somehow.
“I’m here with all the guys.”
We were both silent for a moment before he spoke up.
