His words almost stop my breath, despite the weirdness of this situation he’s facilitated and the way we’re having two totally different conversations. I shake my head and squeeze my eyes shut, but they pop back open when I feel something brush past my hair. Benny stares at me intently, and I register that he’s put one palm flat against the door beside my head.
He leans in closer, and I try my damnedest not to notice all the muscles in that arm flexing so close to me, but holy biceps, Batman, and oh my, how much closer can he get before he—
“Reese,” he breathes, and I feel the word brush against my lips even though they still haven’t made contact with his. I don’t think I’m breathing at all. “We should talk about this competition thing.”
At that, I let my breath out in a rush, sliding down the door and ducking out from under his arm. I walk as far away from him as I can, which isn’t far because, well, pantry.
“What? We don’t—it’s not—no. We don’t need to talk about anything. Give me back my sweater,” I say as firmly as I can, hoping it hides the fact that I definitely thought he was going to kiss me for a minute there, and I definitely wasn’t about tostop him. Which was foolish, obviously, so thank goodness he snapped me out of it.
Benny turns around with a smug, annoyingly perfect grin on his face. “All right. Would you rather talk about why you’ve been avoiding me since Saturday?”
“No!” I snap, then wonder whether it sounds like I’m admitting guilt. “I haven’t been avoiding you. Are you even hearing me? Are you hearingyourself? We’re here for one reason. I want my sweater back and you’re going to give it.”
“I would if I’d taken it,” he answers, then starts sauntering toward me, folding his arms across his broad chest, which I need to stop noticing, gosh dang it. “I believe that was the work of the Dress Code Justice Fairy. With good reason, though, right? It’s a stupid rule anyway.”
He takes another step closer before I put up a hand to stop him. Then he plants his feet in a confident stance and keeps running that stupid, handsome mouth. “Your shoulders aren’t distracting me from my work, Reese’s Cup. But the fact that we’ve just been thrown this curveball where I have to compete for a job on camera in front of millions of people against a girl I’m starting to like a whole lot? That’s been distracting me. And that the girl in question hasn’t seemed to want anything to do with me ever since we had our first conversation about something real, and now I can’t stop thinking about her, and her smile, and the sound of her voice—all of that is pretty distracting.”
“Oh,” is what slips out of my own mouth, ever so eloquently.He can’t? It is? I—what am I doing, for the love of— “Benny, first things first. You took my sweater and you’ve trapped me in a closet to force me to talk to you and that’s all kind of manipulative, don’t you think?”
Benny seems to consider this, his brow furrowing. “Technically, you trapped me in here.” I’m about to protest, but he continues. “But I see your point. You can have the sweater regardless, and walk away right now if you want to, and I’ll never let the fairy kidnap anything of yours again. But are you sure you don’t want to talk about the showdown stuff ? I’m not trying to pressure you, but personally, I…I’m kind of freaking out.”
He reaches up to rub the back of his neck, face downcast as he takes a few steps in a tiny circle. He looks endearingly vulnerable, and I feel myself softening against my better judgment.
“It freaks me out too,” I admit, not sure if I’m referring to the job so much as the fact that he just straight-up saidhe likes me,but I am choosing to only outwardly engage with the former. “I just don’t see what we can do about it at this point.”
“We can still turn them down if we want to. I mean, if both of us say we’d rather not do this one-on-one competition thing and just keep filming the kinds of videos we already are, they probably wouldn’t turn us down, right?”
I raise an eyebrow. “Uh, I don’t think we have that kind of leverage yet. It’s what the suits want, so I think it’s pretty much a done deal.”
Benny nods, but he’s eyeing me thoughtfully and pulling on his bottom lip with his teeth. “It’s just—well, you always talkabout not feeling too comfortable making things without a recipe. So maybe if there’s anything I can do to, uh, well, help out, without making it obvious that I’m helping out, I totally w—”
My jaw drops at the patronizing turn this conversation has taken. “Beneventi, I know you arenotoffering to go easy on me or, worse,letme win these showdowns.”
Benny starts shaking his head rapidly, but his denial is belied by his reddening cheeks. “No, that’s not what I mean. I just—”
“Good.And don’t even think about trying it. I’ll know. I don’t need your help to succeed, okay? Not today, and not at any point for the rest of this summer, no matter what else happens.”
“Got it,” he says with a gulp, eyes crossing as he stares at the finger I have in his face.
“Good. When I beat you, I want to know it was fair and square.”
I let my hand fall and his face relaxes into a small grin as he leans into me. “ ‘When’ you beat me, huh?”
I nod, feeling more motivated to go through with the new format than I’ve been since Aiden and Margie introduced it. “You heard me.”
His grin grows, his eyes warming as they roam my face. I suppress a shiver, trying hard to stay defiant and ragey despite the fact that he is distinctly neither.
“So what about the other thing?” he asks, head cocked.
I try to step back, forgetting that I’m unable to go far. “What other thing?”
“The thing where I like you.”
I suck in a sharp breath. So much for not having to acknowledge that part.
“You don’t even know me,” I shoot back.
Benny shrugs. “Not a whole lot, no. But I’m starting to, little by little, and I like what I do know. Why don’t we go out sometime, and we can get to know each other better?”
