Sweetheart?

Melted for the second time.

“Now that we’ve established that neither one of us is angry with the other, I wanted to ask you out to dinner,” he said.

“Dinner? Me? Like out, out?”

“Yes. I have something I want to talk to you about and thought maybe we could go out and have a nice dinner together. Better than being cooped up in my house.”

“I don’t think you can ever feel cooped up in your house, Jason. If you do, there is something very wrong with you.” His house was pretty much heaven on this earth, at least for me—especially when he was in it, too.

He was smiling; I could hear it in his words when he spoke. “I’m glad you like my house, Olive. Even though I agree with you, I think for this, I would like to take you out.”

“Should I be scared? Are you going to give me bad news about the movie or something? Because it pretty much sounds like that, and I’m not a big fan of bad surprises.”

“Everything is going great with the movie. The filming starts in a few weeks. You’ll be at the set with me so you can see it for yourself.”

At that, I sat up straighter. “I am? I’ll be on set with you?”

“I thought you’d want to see; was I wrong?”

“No. No. I would love nothing more than to be there. If you can take me with you, I promise I won’t even bother you. Even once would be amazing.”

“We’ll talk about it more tonight at dinner, okay? You’re free?”

“Yes. Yes. Dinner. Tonight?” My schedule was wide open for him. In any case, the only date I had was with my laptop. “Where should I come?”

“I’ll be there around seven o’clock. You think you can be ready?”

I lowered the phone and checked the time. It was almost five o’clock.

“Of course.”

“Great. I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart…

Gah…He was my sweetheart.

“Yeah. See you later.”

Hanging up, I ran to Char’s room.

“He’s going to take me to the set!” I announced as soon as I threw open the door. She was on her phone, texting. “Oh, sorry. You busy?”

“No. No. Come in.” She waved me in and pushed the phone under her pillow. “So you’re going to the set. When?”

I walked in and sat at the edge of her bed. “He said the filming would start in a few weeks. God, it all feels so surreal, Char. I think I’m starting to freak out on the inside. It’s actually real and it’s actually happening.” I was already bouncing on the bed.

She smiled. “It definitely is real.”

“He said he wanted to talk to me about something so he’s taking me to dinner tonight. I should get ready. I have to hop in the shower first.” I rose up, but didn’t move. I wanted to ask for her help, but she’d been acting weird lately. One day cold, one day hot… I didn’t know what to make of it, but thought it was the pressure of the last semester.

“When I get out can you help me pick something to wear? I’ve been staring at my laptop the entire day, I feel like a mess.”

“Of course. You go ahead and get into the shower. I’ll be in your room when you get out.”

“Thank you, Char,” I said and kissed her on the cheek.

She smiled. “You don’t have time to get mushy. Go ahead.”

I skipped all the way to my room.

***

That night when Jason picked me up, I was a big ball of energy. I could’ve used a pep talk from Lucy, but she was studying with other girls from her class, and Char was…well other than being sick, she wasn’t the best person to go to when you needed a pep talk.

When Jason called me to let me know he was just a few minutes away from the apartment, I chose to wait for him outside to avoid Marcus’ intense glares.

His Spyder pulled in, and I practically ran to the passenger side before he could get out.

“Why are you waiting outside? What’s wrong?” he asked as soon as I was inside.

I took a deep breath and his scent hit me. My eyes rolled into the back of my head.

“Huh?” I asked distractedly. “Yeah. Nothing. I didn’t want to make you wait.”

“You look beautiful, Olive,” he said, his eyes moving over me slowly.

Since I had no idea where he was taking me, Char had thought it would be the safest bet to keep it simple with a black dress. I ran my hands over my thighs, smoothing and pulling the dress down a little in the process, which wasn’t all that helpful, so I linked my hands in my lap and let it go. While it felt like it was too short at that moment, I knew it looked good on me when I was standing. I especially liked how it looked from the side; the dress curved around my ass perfectly.

“Where are we going?” I asked after I was buckled in and he pulled away from the curb.

“I thought Soho House would be best for privacy. At least we won’t get photographed.”

“Oh, the private club thingy? You have a membership?”

“Yeah. I’m not a huge fan; I prefer the privacy of my own home, but sometimes I have to meet industry people there for lunch or other business meetings.”

“I understand.” Did that mean we were about to have a business meeting?

The rest of the ride was awkwardly quiet. Apparently neither one of us had anything more to say, which I didn’t think boded well for me.

After he pulled into the garage and completed the check-in, he casually put his hand just above my bum—practically jumpstarting my heart—and guided me to the elevators.

When the silence became too much, I asked, “Is everything all right?” I didn’t mind comfortable silences, but I had a feeling that something else was going on with him. He looked distracted.

He was frowning when he looked down at me. “Yeah. Why?”

I gave him a sad smile. “I don’t know. You aren’t talking. You seem tense and not so happy to be here.”

His eyes softened and he gently tugged at my hair. “It’s not you, little one. Just had a stressful day.”

Nodding, I swallowed and looked away from his warm eyes.

Exiting the elevator at the top floor, we walked up the stairs and through the somewhat crowded bar, and then into the coolest dining area I’d ever seen in my life.

The entire rooftop was filled with lush olive trees and other plants. The lanterns and twinkle lights hanging through the branches lit up the whole space and created the perfect setup for a romantic evening. But, from the look on Jason’s face, I could see that this was far from a romantic evening for him. Trying to ignore the beautiful view of LA, we followed the front desk girl to a table that was mostly out of the sight of the other patrons.

“Jason!” some guy yelled just as we were about to sit down. I couldn’t see the owner of the voice, but Jason waved at someone and sat down across from me.

“One of the producers of my last movie,” he explained with a smile on his face. I smiled back at him.

Without any further conversation, we ordered our drinks and food, and then I simply waited for Jason to spill the beans.

“I thought you would enjoy the atmosphere here,” he said right as a waiter brought our drinks. Jason had downed his whiskey before the poor guy could even place my Lemon Drop in front of me. He ordered a new one for himself and suddenly pushed back his seat and rose up.

“I need to say hi to a few people, I’ll be right back,” he said and walked away from me.

Staring at his back in shock, I reached for my cocktail, took a sip, and then another big one.

The waiter came back with Jason’s second drink, but Jason hadn’t returned yet. I had to force myself to smile when he gave me a snobbish look.

“Awesome,” I muttered, taking out my phone to text Lucy.

Me: I’m sitting on a beautiful rooftop, surrounded by olive trees and twinkle lights—alone.

Lucy: What do you mean alone?

Me: I don’t know what exactly, but something is wrong with Jason. We just sat down, ordered our food and drinks, and he jumped up and left to say hi to a few people.