She blinked at me as she shifted on her feet. “Can you still roofie me, though?”
Shane groaned. “Jesus, are you up there, or what? Fucking take me already!”
I chuckled and shook my head at Zaira. “Nope. I know you can do this sober.”
“But what if I can’t?” She ran her fingers over the lapels of my blazer. “God, just look at you; you’re fucking gorgeous and Adonis-looking. I don’t even com–”
“Shh.” I ran a knuckle over her flushed cheek. “I can’t kiss you right now because of your damn lipstick, but if I could, then I’d show you just how fucking stunning I think you look.” I leaned in further. “Wasn’t myhogindication enough?”
She glanced at me for a second or three, and then burst into an elegant laughter. “Stop it.” She playfully slapped my jaw. “Baboon. I just said that because I’m a chubby bundle of nerves right now.”
A couple knocks sounded on the door, right before Randall waltzed into the green room with a camera-worthy smile on his face. He looked polished and sophisticated in his usual three-piece, with his grey hair combed back to showcase his facial features. I had to admit, though, that for a guy his age, he looked pretty damn charismatic and upbeat.
“Is everything alright here?” he asked. “Some of the crew said they heard a lot of yelling, so I thought I’d just check in on you guys myself.”
“The screaming was all Shane,” Zaira stated, just as I said, “That would be my manager, Shane.”
The manager under accusation shot daggers at us from where he was standing next to the mirror.
Zaira pressed her lips together to hide her smile, whereas I wiped a hand over my mouth to do the same.
Randall chuckled as he looked at Shane. “It’s understandable. I called you guys in last-minute, so you mustn’t have had enough time to prepare yourselves. My apologies.” He then turned to Zaira. “How are we feeling about our first television appearance?”
She rocked on her feet and looked up at him. “Like I’m about to jump off a cliff and fall face-first into a bunch of very pointy boulders.”
I sighed, Shane shook his head, whereas Randall simply chuckled again. “Nervousness is one of the feelings that shows us that we’re truly alive, Zaira,” he said. “It’s a feeling that may not be a pleasant one, but it sure as hell is a lively one.” He brought his right hand before him and jerked his head at it. “See this?” he asked Zaira. “Happens to me before every show. It makes me feel alive, even though I don’t necessarily enjoy its presence.”
I looked at his hand, and found that it was trembling. Confused – because I’d never seen him anxious even once during my encounters with him – I looked at his face again, and the subtle wink he gave me told me enough. He wasn’t exactly nervous; he was just pretending to be so, so that he could put Zaira at ease and show her that she wasn’t alone in feeling what she was.
And, his idea worked like a charm, because I watched as she relaxed her shoulders after looking at Randall’s hand.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Didn’t know someone as confident as you felt this way.”
Randall smiled. “I’m only human, aren’t I?”
She grinned up at him. “Yeah, you are.”
He nodded. “You’ve got this, Zaira. Just try to relax, be honest but smartly vague, and remember to always keep a smile on your face.” He gently squeezed one of her shoulders. “And leave the rest of it up to me. I promise you that we’ll have a blast.”
“You’re right.” She sighed. “Okay, I can do this.” She swallowed. “I got this.”
I grinned, and Randall did the same. He then walked over to Shane and patted his arm. “Come with me, will you? I think you are in dire need of a napkin change, because the one you’re currently trying to work with is awfully done for, my friend, and the last thing we need is a pool of your sweat drowning us all. There are better ways to go, after all.”
Zaira and I laughed at that.
Shane grumbled something I couldn’t understand, and then said, “Yes, that would be great, thank you. I am very much in need of a new one.”
Randall stepped outside the green room. “I’ll have someone come get you two in a few minutes,” he called out to Zaira and I, and then headed towards his personal green room with Shane by his side.
Once alone, I ran my fingers over the long frills of Zaira’s dress before stepping closer to her. “Will I sound crazy if I say that I wanna quite literally rip your dress to shreds and fuck you against the wall until the both of us can’t stay standing anymore?”
She turned and looked up at me. “I would say that your wish makes you come across as deranged, yes,” she said matter-of-factly, which made me grin.
“And what if I said that I wanted to lift your dress up and taste you until you were falling apart on my lips?”
Her eyes darkened; her mouth parted as she sucked in a breath. Her cheeks flushed; her chest rose and fell rapidly.
“Speechless?” I asked.
