Falling Into You (18 page)

“
Let’s see
what you got
, movie star.
” I
shove the script into his chest.

He thumbs through t
he pages
, finding a few that are marked
. “I need to read three
..
.” H
e pauses. “No. F
our scenes.”

“Ok. Set the first one up for me.”

“
The first one includes James—that’s me—and his supervisor at the CIA—that’s you.
The
supervisor, Nick
, is pissed because
James has gone against his wishes and has run off to
Europe with Jane. Everyone else in the agency wants to fire him, and James is trying to tell Nick that there’s some shady stuff worth investigating with Jane’s ex. He’s basically trying to bullshit Nick to save his job.”

“Using all of
the famous James Ross charm
, I’m sure.”

He nods.

“Ok. I have to get into character. Nate is a tough guy boss, but he likes James. I think I got it,” I say after a few minutes of looking at the scene.

“His name’s Nick.”

“
Nick.
Right.
”

“Now, who’s forgetting the name of their character?”

I purse my lips together and give him my best angry
face
.
“
Nate. Nick. Tough guy boss to the tough guy CIA agent.
Ok. I’m ready for my close up, Mr.
Demille
.”

I offer the script to him, but he merely shakes his head, so I start with my first line.

“James, have you lost your brain?”
I do my
best to imitate what Nick/Nate would sound like, and
Chris is momentarily distracted by my attempt a
t a low baritone, but he
recover
s
quickly. He
delivers the first mini-monologue without so much as glancing down at the script
. I stare at him in amazement.

“Have you seen this before?”

He seem
s embarrassed, really humiliated, for the first time since I me
t him
.

“I, ummm…”

He’s unable to come up with anything to say, and a
t first, I think it’s because he’s secretly been working on this
script for weeks
and doesn’t want me to know how much he wants
the part. But then I remember the conversation that he had with his agent, and it definitely sounded like this was a new development. It had to be something else.

It hits me in a flash.
“You totally have a photographic memory.”

He’s practically sweating now. “Maybe.”

“What’s maybe about it? That’s the coolest thing ever! If I had one of those, I would introduce myself with,
my
name is
Hallie
and I have a photographic memory.
So there.” I stick my tongue out, and some of
his
uneasiness seems to lift.

“People always act like I’m some kind of freak.”

“We’re all freaks,” I say, cover
ing
my mouth
quickly
.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to call you a freak.
I just, I have this theory that everyone is a secret dork and that we all just need the opportunity to le
t our freak flags fly sometimes. I think it’s really cool. You shouldn’t feel like that’s something you should be embarrassed about, I mean, especially as an actor
…”

I’m babbli
ng and then
he takes my hand again and the little current that runs between us
puts a screeching halt to my words. For a moment, I think he’s going to say something else, but he breaks eye contact by looking away and I’m the one who’s embarrassed now.

“Thanks.”
He clears his throat, and I peer
back down at the script.

“Oh, sorry. Ok. I’m Nate. Nick.”

I go back to reading the lines and whatever was there in t
he moment passes pretty quickly. But w
hen I’m finally able to look up at him, I have to stop talking again.

He’s standing and pacing back and forth on the tiny patch of grass, and it’s exactly the way that I picture the character
.
He
is James Ross is such a way that I don’t even remember the other actor’s name. It’s like he unzipped his own skin and crawled into the character so completely that all trace
s of Chris have
been forgotten.
I’m staring
, mouth agape, as he speaks.

He’s magic.

“What?
Was that the wrong delivery? I can try it another way.”

“No!” I
’m
practically shout
ing
. “It needs to be exactly like that. You are James Ross. It’s yours.”

They’ll take one look at him in the audition and i
f they have any sense at all
,
they will make it so that he
will play this character for the rest of his life.

“Keep going. Read the monologue again.”

I am transfixed. He is in
complete
command of the words that are on the page. He slips again into the character as I stare, unabashed, at the transformation.

“Was that okay?” he asks, stepping adroitly out of James Ross and back into himself. He sounds nervous.

I stand up to look him directly in the
eye
. “You are the most talented
person I’ve ever met.”
He’s
staring
back at me intently and t
he air is heavy with everything else I’ve been fight
ing all day, but I look briefly down at his feet and gather up some more courage
.

The moment passes, and I add an offhand remark. “Just think, in a year or two, I’ll be sitting in the theater and I’ll be able to tell my friends that I once had the honor to play the distinguished Nate opposite the next big thing
.”

But I don’t want to say anything to anyone about it. I want to keep this entire day locked away in a jar so I’ll never forget even one second. I want to remember him as the James Ross standing in the park, although he is so breathtakingly, astoundingly good at this acting thing that I know his face will soon be plastered everywhere. That thought
actually
cheers me slightly. I’ll still be able to look at him, at least, when this is all done.

The darkening sky tells me that
the day will be over in just moments, which makes me want to press the rewind button
.

“Thanks,” he says
, grabbing my hand again.

I look up at the sky, and he follows my gaze.

“Listen, there’s still a lot of work that I need to do here.
Sophia
said that she would be gone until tomorrow, and that I should figure out something fun for us to do tonight. I know it’s not quite a party, but maybe I could come over and we could keep reading lines. Yeah?”

I was sure that the disappearing sunshine meant the end of our day. I figured that
I might see him at one of the other countless parties
Sophia
planned on dragging me to
, but it wouldn’t be anything like this
.
I should really turn him down and tell him thank you for the day. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to keep this up without saying the complete wrong thing
or throwing myself at him like a total lunatic
.

But he’s pleading
with me
. For a fleeting moment,
I
wonder whether
there’s any chance that he felt something for me in all of the times that we touched each other, in all of the
talk about James and Jane
.
I give in.

“
Sophia
’s is fine, I guess. I was planning on being there alone, anyways, and I definitely want to be a part of the making of a movie star,” I say, winking at him and trying to throw aside my most
recent thought
s of grabbing his hair in my hands and kissing him until I forget my own name
.

“I was hoping you would say that.” He pulls out a bottle of wine from the bag he’s carrying. “We can maybe order dinner in? I wouldn’t want to have to tell
Sophia
that I made you do all of my work for me
without at least feeding you
.”

If he brought the wine, it meant that he was planning to keep going into the night.
I manage to gasp out, “Dinner in sounds good.”

I’m a goner. For sure.

Chapter 12

CHRIS

I managed to get as close as humanly possible
in the cab
without
literally
sitting on top of her. She tried to edge away when we got in, but I
blocked
the space on the other side,
and basically pinned her into me.
I can feel the
heat of her skin next to mine. I
t’s driving me crazy
but I only move closer and the only thing that I’m aware of is the
sweet
smell of honey and mint and
the feel of
her skin on mine
.

“Chris? Hello. Chris. Hey…” She’s
tapping my arm and pulling me from the cab
and towards Sophia’s building
.

I
have now totally lost my mind.
“Sorry
.”

“Space cadet.”
She
shakes her head and
pulls out her keys. T
he doorman grins at her
as we walk into the door
.

“Miss
Hallie
!
I hope you had a pleasant day.”

“Charles. How on e
arth did you remember my name? And i
t was an absolutely
fabulous
first New York day.”

He gives me a sidelong look and I stare back. Great, now I’m
jealous
of a seventy-year-old doorman
who
she met yesterday.

“There’s a lot of people coming and going from Mr.
William
’s and Mrs.
Cleo
’s and Miss
Sophia
’s. I been here twelve years and can’t remember more than one or two who had a moment to stop
and introduce themselves
, Miss
Hallie
.
So it’s a pleasure to remember your name.
”

“Well, that’s their loss, then
.
And you better forget the Miss part. I’ll be here for
two
weeks, now
and it will get annoying to have to correct you each time
.”
He reaches to press the elevator button for us, but she holds up a finger and he backs away, smiling.

“
All right
, Miss
Hallie
.”

She winks at him over her shoulder
as we get into the elevator
.
He’s still watching us, giving me a wary eye and then grinning at her. Great. I’m even more jealous
now
.

I
don’t know
how I was able to stop myself from kissing her in the park.

I reached for her a dozen times, fully meaning to run my hands through her masses of hair
to
pull her down beneath me. But
she was
so
cute,
biting her lip unconsciously, a little habit that I noticed the night before and again in the art museum. And then she was so
absorbed in playing the role of Nick, slipping in and out of a deep-throated voice, trying to immerse herself in the character
, that I had pulle
d back and watched her instead.

I had almost given in
to the impulse to pull her into me
when
she said she didn’t believe in
lov
e at first sight
.
If she didn’t believe in that, it was a pretty good sign that she hadn’t felt the same way as I did when we touched.

It was crazy. I had never felt this way about anyone before. Not any of the “slut parade,” as Diana called them, not Sophia. It felt as if we were drawn together for a reason, that I was meant to meet her on the balcony and in the diner and today.

I’ve never really believed in fate, but the two of us feel absolutely, perfectly right. I had to know whether there was a chance that she felt it, too. I knew one
thing—I wasn’t leaving that
apartment without
kissing her
. No matter what she
did
in response (
visions of pepper spray did cross my mind
),
there was no way I could resist it.