‘Utterly terrible, Miss Green!’ he cried, spinning her faster. ‘Tomorrow’s headline will be “West End Star Thinks Herself Too Important To Remember The Names Of Those Kind Enough To Give Her Freebies”!’ He spun her again faster still.
‘How catchy!’ she squealed as she held on for dear life.
‘And now you’re having a go at my journalism! How DARE you!’ Oscar whipped the platform with a mighty force and Olive lost her grip. Her clammy hands slipped on the handles and she was sent flying into Oscar. They both landed next to each other with a thud onto the grass. Olive laughed until Oscar groaned.
‘Are you all right?’She rolled onto her knees and he groaned again. He was clutching his arm and panic suddenly kicked in for Olive. ‘Oh God! Oh, no, no no! The producers will absolutelykillme if I’ve injured their big star!’
Oscar’s eyes, which had just been scrunched in agony, quickly snapped open. ‘That’s really the first thing you think of?’ he laughed.
‘You GIT!’ She hit him. ‘Of course that’sthe first thing I think of when it’s in the contracts webothsigned that we wouldn’t do extreme sports!’
Oscar sat up on his elbows and looked over at the kids’ playground where the platform was still gently turning.
‘I know that’s not exactly an extreme sport,’ she said, hitting him again, ‘but wehavesigned our lives away and part of that is making sure we don’t break any ofour limbs. If you’d got hurt I could have easily been sacked!’ She batted him again, but a little softer this time.
‘They’re not going to sack you on account of me, Olive.’ He sighed. ‘If they lose you, they lose the show! You’re what holds the whole piece together!’ He sat up, brushing grass off his T-shirt.
‘Hardly!’ she scoffed. ‘You could put my understudy on and it’d make verylittle difference.’
Oscar scoffed back. ‘Do you really not realise just how good you are in this show? Screw that, inanyshow you’ve ever been in?’
Olive fiddled with some grass and shrugged. ‘Oh, you’ve not seen some of the disasters I’ve been part of.’ She winced, thinking back to when she played the role of a zombie who’d fallen in love with a ghost in a play that attempted toride on the back of the success ofTwilight.
‘Sure, some of the shows you’ve been in may have died on their arse but that doesn’t mean to say you weren’t brilliant in them, eh?’
‘Sure, sure,’ she laughed.
‘You’re not taking me seriously, are you?’ He sighed.
‘No, I am! I am!’ she lied.
‘Am I being stupid?’ Oscar pouted, ducking to catch her gaze as she continuedto rip out clumps of grass from the ground.
‘Only a little.’ She smiled. ‘But in a sweet way.’
‘In a sexy way?’ His pout turned sultry with the simple raise of an eyebrow.
‘In asweetway.’ She threw her handful of grass in his face, but as she did he caught her wrist in the air. A few blades of grass had caught on the stubble above his top lip and momentarily she forgot herself.Forgot the nervousness that came with being desperately attracted to someone new, or her worries of being seen as just another girl throwing herself in the path of a celebrity in order to gain a little bit of fame. And she would probably have forgotten her own name had she allowed herself to be taken in by his blue eyes any more than she already had been.
She stretched out her fingers andgently brushed the grass from his lips, lingering only a little longer than she needed. Just before she pulled away, Oscar turned his head and kissed her fingertips softly. Her first instinct was to withdraw again, to forget the giddiness she felt rising in her and the potentially all-consuming feelings this may lead to.How exhausting this could be, she thought.
And then Oscar moved herhand to his cheek, still kissing her fingers, her thumb, her palm over and over, his eyes closed and his face calm. He slid his warm hand up her outstretched arm to her shoulder and paused there a moment before caressing her cheek, a few blonde strands of her hair caught between his palm and her face. Gently, he pulled her in towards him. She had to lean awkwardly on her knees to reach him, butit was worth it to hear him whisper, ‘How exciting this could be…’ before he hungrily planted his mouth on hers. Their lips fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, and Olive gently bit his bottom lip as his tongue found hers, and there they stayed and explored until the morning light started to seep into the sky.
