Theo does a double take, then starts to grin. “Gonna need the rest of this story.”
“Can’t.”
“What, you have an NDA?”
“Nope. Forgot about it until just now, and I haven’t told Sabrina the story yet. She gets it first.”
“I won’t tell her if you tell us first.”
“Yes, you will.”
Theo grins again—definitely agreeing with that sentiment—and looks at me. “What about you? You ever get kicked out of theater camp?”
I shake my head.
Sweat is beading at my forehead thick enough to drip into my eyebrows.
“Okay there?” Grey asks me.
“Not eading undil you sweadin.” Is that a line I said once in a script for a movie where a very similar situation played out?Not eating until you’re sweating.
It’s familiar.
Yes. Yes, I think it is a line I’ve said in a script.
And Grey pauses and stares at me like he knows it.
Theo notices Grey staring, but if he’s aware of why, he doesn’t let on.
Instead, he nods to me. “You sure you usually sweat that much when you’re eating?”
“Aww da tye,” I lie.
They share a look and a smile.
Uh-oh. “Ith thish when we thtart the inquithition?”
Both of them grin wickedly, this time at me.
Thought so.
“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Theo asks me.
Grey chokes on his drink and comes up laughing.
Theo shoots him ashut the fuck uplook. “Laney’s rubbed off on me. I think about the future now. Rutherford. Talk. Where are you in five years?”
Not dying from my tongue swelling up over making a very poor decision that I wouldn’t be doubling down on under any other circumstances.
I gulp more kombucha and make myself concentrate on enunciating clearly. “No idea.”
Both men cross their arms over their chests.
More kombucha.
More kombucha is the answer.
It still does nothing to tame the lava sitting under my tongue, but I have too much at stake to keep slurring my words for not being able to feel my mouth. “Athk me that a month ago, and I’d thay traveling the world looking for bigger and bigger thtories to tell.”Shit. Shit shit shit.“Today?” More kombucha. Crap. Can’s empty. But I make myself speak clearly anyway. “Different priorities.”
