“Thank you so much for getting the food; you’re a lifesav—” She stopped, inhaling the scents filling the room. “Is that Chinese food?” Her eyes widened with excitement.
“Yep.” I dropped the bags on the counter and started unpacking the containers.
“My mum would quite literally shit herself if she saw I was eating this the night before the show.” Her eyes flickered over the food, a line deepening across her forehead.
“Do you want to get something else?” I asked.
“Oh my god, definitely not,” she answered, stealing a prawn cracker from the white plastic bag. Her eyes rolled back, and she moaned. I swallowed, my gaze lingering on the column of her throat. “So, what did you get? This all looks incredible.”
“I got a bit of everything. Help yourself to whatever you want.”
She squealed, “Are those Singapore noodles?” She leaned over the counter, pulling the container toward her and inhaling. “Can I have some?”
“You don’t need to ask; take whatever you want, Matilda.”
She clapped and divedin.
“Please sit, and I’ll grab us a drink.” She motioned toward the living area. “Do you want a glass of wine? I’ve got half a bottle of white left, so we could have a glass? Or something else?”
“Wine is great, thank you.”
She followed me to the sofa, where I’d placed our plates on the coffee table. She passed me a glass and held hers up. I raised an eyebrow.
A light blush coated her cheeks, and her smile deepened, revealing a small dimple. I rolled my eyes and gave in, holding my glass to hers with a gentle ding. We both took a slow sip but maintained eye contact, neither of us wanting to break the spell first.
I was just grateful her eyes were now soft and relaxed, replacing the vacant, dull ones from earlier.
Matilda was first to look away, placing her glass back on the table and collecting her plate alongside the TV remote.
We both took a few mouthfuls of our food in comfortable silence. Well, I was comfortably silent. Matilda moaned with every mouthful, as if she were partaking in an orgy.
“OK, I saw this beach advertised the other day and thought you’d love it,” she interrupted the quiet. I raised my eyebrows, not surprised by her random subject choice. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, loaded the video, and turned the screen to faceme.
“Apparently, it’s amazing for surfing, so I thought it would be right up your alley.” She smiled eagerly.
“How’d you know I like surfing?”
“Because I stalked your social media, obviously.” An embarrassed laugh burst out of her. “And you said you liked to go to the beach in L.A., and doesn’t that go hand in hand with surfing?”
I wasn’t active on social media. I found the whole thing tedious and unnecessary. But Jack posted the odd photo for me, just to give the press some controlled collateral to gossip about.
“It looks nice, right?”
I passed her phone back to her, and she placed it on the coffee table. It did look beautiful, a wide sandy beach and big waves.
“It does. Is it far?”
“A couple of hours.”
“Shall we go?”Why am I asking her that?
“Really?” Her voice was hopeful. “I try to drag Lily out as much as I can, but she’s so busy with work that when we have the day together, we do something locally.”
“It would be a good opportunity to get photos for socials,” I added hastily.
That’s better. I invited her to increase our chances of winning the show.
The tension eased in my stomach.
