Shaking my head, I stand up from the bench. “What could I be overthinking about? Winning the game and having Vinny pay for all my mocktails? Possibly.”
She playfully rolls her eyes. “Wow, I can’t even fight back because you’re right.”
We’re at the last two frames, and so far, Ali’s sitting at third because Vinny is that bad at bowling. This last portion of the game can’t save him, even if he were to get a strike.
I lift my chin in victory. “Now, let me get that last strike so Crew doesn’t take my title as the bowling queen.”
And that we can skip to the end of the night, is what I’m thinking but I don’t say out loud.
5
Don't Be Suspicious
Crew
When I find Vinny at the local coffee shop, working his midday shift, the first thing I do is ask him about Carly.
“Why do you want to know?” Vinny asks, eyeing me suspiciously as he wipes a table next to me. “You got a thing for her?”
“No.”If only he knew.“I just need to ask her something.”
He’s the only person who truly knows why I stopped acting. People think it’s just because I want to earn a degree and focus on education, but even when I walk that stage and shake the dean’s hand, there’s no way in hell I’ll return to that part of Hollywood.
“Crew, is there something you’re not telling me?” Vinny’s voice grows with concern, and the last thing I want to do is worry him. “And does it have anything to do with that dumb cap?”
“Nothing major,” I lie. “I just want to ask her more about this thing we talked about at Bowl Star. Just want to follow up. And the cap’s not dumb.”
Vinny would call my bluff at this point, but he shrugs instead. “Sure, it’s not. Anyway, Carly’s probably on campus right now. Why don’t you just ask her yourself?”
“What if she’s in class right now?” I respond, hoping it will suffice. “I don’t know her schedule.”
“There’s this hip thing people participate in:texting.” Vinny’s blatant sarcasm peeks through his voice. “You know what? I’m sending you her number.”
Vinny pulls out his phone from his pocket and starts typing. Within the next second, I check my phone to find Carly’s contact in my messages. I frown. “Why do you have her number?”
“Ali gave it to me while you were gone.” My confusion leads to Vinny explaining, “I needed help with a flat tire.”
“You got a flat tire?” This instills a hint of panic in me because Vinny was driving my car while I was in Australia, fulfilling my field quarter requirements.
I was gone for three months.
“That’s not important right now.” He waves it off. “Just text her about that thing you need to talk to her about. Then she’ll see it after whatever she’s doing and respond. Problem solved.” He goes back to wiping the surrounding tables but stops for a second. “Though if you’re going to ask her out on a date, it is better to do it in person than through a text.”
That’ll be the fucking day. No, if I tell Vinny the real reason why I need to speak to his girlfriend’s best friend, he’d pound my head on the tables so hard that I’d earn a major concussion.
And if that got on the tabloids, I wouldn’t hear the end of it from my mother’s phone calls that I willneveranswer.
I tilt my cap lower. “What makes you think I’m going to ask her out?”
“Because you seemed to hit it off with Carly,” he casually explains. “I like her, but Ali is very cautious about the men herbest friend dates. Something about ‘not being able to measure up to her potential’ or something like that.”
“And you don’t think I could?”
“Iknow,” he corrects. “That you don’t want to. You’ve avoided anyone involved with the film industry for as long as I’ve known you. I don’t know the extent of what your mother did, but—”
“Vinny, I’m over it,” I assure him, to which he frowns.
“Are you, though?”
