“Thanks for this,” she said. “Did I already say that?”
“You did, yeah.” Shane popped the last bit of donut in his mouth. “I don’t know. I figured you probably wouldn’t be doing much celebrating, stuck up here working. And I wasn’t sure if anyone else knew.”
It was like he was trying to answer the question still hovering in the air: why he’d gotten them at all. It was the kind of gesture she knew he’d make for anyone. But her heart squeezed when she remembered the last time he’d shown up with them, what that meant.
It was something more than an early birthday present: it was a peace offering.
“I guess not. I’m not sure if I’d be doing much even if I was home, though. Other than changing my birth date on Wikipedia. Thirty-two feels kind of whatever, as far as birthdays go.”
Shane cracked a smile. “Right. Sure.” He brushed the crumbs off his hands. “Are you going home for Thanksgiving?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t really make sense. You?”
He shook his head, too.
“Should we do something?” He looked so startled that she hurriedly added, “All of us, I mean. And fuck Thanksgiving, obviously. But we have the long weekend, and I’m sure we’re not the only ones sticking around.”
“What would we do? Get takeout, eat it in one of our rooms? That sounds crowded.”
“Yeah, and depressing.” She took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. “Maybe we should rent an Airbnb or something. We could all cook.”
He cocked his eyebrow. “You cook?”
“Don’t sound so shocked.”
“I just…I’ve never seen it.”
She wanted to protest, but it was true. She’d never so much as toasted a bagel in his presence. In fact, she could probably count on two hands the number of times she’d cooked herself a real meal over the past nine years.
They lapsed into silence again, their strained small-talk quota apparently maxed out. Lilah finished her donut, too, marveling at the fact that the two of them still had the capacity to be this weird around each other after all this time. But then, every new wrinkle their relationship took on managed to surprise her, in its own way.
She was forced to accept that what they were to each other defied categorization: more than co-workers, no longer enemies, but not exactly friends, either. Even a few weeks ago, they would’ve filled the space by fighting; now, a different kind of tension flickered between them, more complex and unsettling than mutual animosity.
Maybe he was also painfully aware they were alone in a hotel room—their first time alone together since the stairwell. She cast her gaze down to the hideous carpet and swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, the last crumbs of the donut sticking uncomfortably. She crouched down and pulled a bottle of water out of the minibar.
Shane shifted his weight. “So, have you heard anything about this Jonah guy?”
“Honestly?” she said, straightening up and unscrewing the cap. “Nothing good. I mean, he gets results, which is probably why he still gets hired, but I heard he can be kind of an asshole. And he’s not afraid to do a million and one takes if he’s not happy.”
Shane’s forehead creased.
“What? Am I a terrible person for listening to gossip and judging him before meeting him?” she asked, rolling her eyes.
He shook his head. “No. Just…hopefully he’s happy with the kiss within the first hundred thousand.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a sardonic half smile.
Lilah’s stomach plummeted. She’d known she’d have to kiss him over and over in front of the whole crew, but it hadn’t occurred to her that she might have to do it dozens, maybe hundreds of times, at the whim of a hostile director.
She raised her eyebrows, refusing to show how much it rattled her. “Are you worried you’ve forgotten how?”
“I haven’t had any recent complaints.”
He met her eyes, and the temperature in the room spiked ten degrees.
She didn’t want to think about any of it. The last time she’d kissed him. Who he may or may not have kissed since then. Whether anyone had ever kissed her better.
He looked like he was about to say something else, butinstead he stood and stretched, brushing nonexistent crumbs off his shirt. Against her will, she felt her eyes grow saucer-wide as he approached her—then bypassed her completely, stopping in front of the box of donuts. He paused and glanced up at her, as if to ask permission, then did a double take.
“Are you wearing makeup?”
