Beside him, Caroline shifted closer, her eyes fixed on his screen. “Wow,” she said quietly. “That looks intense.”
Jacob’s throat refused to work.
She kept watching, her voice hushed but certain. “Your character… You look so different. It’s powerful.” Her fingers brushed his as she tugged the phone closer, tapping the screen to replay the moment.
Their faces filled the screen again, mouths a breath apart, the tension between them heavy enough to crush. Jacob swore he could hear it all over again—the air dragging into his lungs, Liam’s uneven exhale.
Caroline smiled, small and genuine. “The chemistry’s insane. People are going to lose their minds over this.”
He managed a curve of his lips, nothing more. “Yeah. It turned out good.”
She looked at him a moment longer. “You don’t love it?”
He forced another small smile. “Yeah. Sure I do.”
She pressed her lips to his cheek. “You’re amazing in it,” she whispered against his skin. “I mean that. I’m proud of you.”
He nodded and let her settle against his shoulder, while the trailer looped in his mind. His heart raged like a storm against his ribs, every beat too loud. She didn’t know what she was seeing. She didn’t know that the tremble in his jaw hadn’t been acting, that the heat sparking between them had burned through every boundary. She didn’t know that when Liam leaned in, Jacob had nearly given himself over. None of that had made it into the trailer.
He blindly stared at the TV, every muscle locked. Caroline’s head was still on his shoulder, her fingers brushing his arm like nothing had changed. She believed in the safety of their life and that the man beside her was solid ground. That trust cut deeper than any blade, because he no longer deserved it.
He closed his eyes, everything inside him colliding for space. He was going to burn it all to ashes—and the cruelest truth was he no longer knew if he wanted to stop it.
***
Caroline had gone to bed hours ago. Jacob hadn’t followed. He sat barefoot on the back deck, a glass of scotch in one hand, his phone heavy in the other. Above him, the sky stretched endless and dark, the cool night air brushing across his skin as if it alone understood the storm inside.
He should have shut it all down, gone to bed, and faked normal again in the morning. Instead, he unlocked his phone and let the trailer play on repeat, as though repetition might alter what unfolded before him.
He told himself he was just analyzing—the editing, the angles, the music—but it was a lie he barely bothered to believe at this point. What he wanted was to see Liam again. To see the way he had looked at him in that unscripted moment, the one the camera had stolen and preserved with merciless precision.
By the fifth rewatch, he gave up all pretense and opened his social media. The trailer was everywhere, and people were eating it up. There were even posts comparing the trailer to the leaked scene from weeks ago. A GIF looped endlessly on his screen—Liam looking at him like he couldn’t breathe. The sight twisted Jacob’s stomach and left him feeling raw and exposed.
His phone buzzed.
Liam:Guess it’s official. We’re the newest obsession.
Jacob stared at the words. Normally, he would have left them unanswered, but he didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts tonight. Even more than that—hewantedto answer.
Me:Yeah. Guess so.
Liam:That trailer… they didn’t hold back.
Jacob’s fingers hovered before he typed.
Me:Didn’t have to. It was all there.
That was the truth stripped bare, and Liam would know it.
Liam:I didn’t text to make it more complicated. I just didn’t know who else I could talk to about this.
Jacob’s throat went dry. For too long, he just stared at the screen, unsure what to say.
Me:It’d probably be smarter to shut this down, but you can talk to me.
This time the pause stretched long enough that Jacob thought it was done. Then—
Liam:Can I call?
