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I sighed. “I wanted to meet her in town, but with Martin ad-libbing the entire fucking movie, who knows when we’ll get out of here?”
Maddox rested a hand on my shoulder. Sparks flew between us, and I bit my lip. His face was open and sincere. “You’ll get it. You’re great at this.”
My cheeks heated at the compliment. “I’m surprised that you’re even working on this movie. Isn’t it beneath you?”
It was a joke, but it came out with more venom than I’d intended. Why had I even said that? It went back to the core of our argument all those years ago. Why was it okay for him to work on this film, but it had been a problem for me in college when I got the audition?
Maddox dropped his hand and sighed. “You know I don’t believe that anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” I said automatically. “I shouldn’t have said that. You already told me why you’re doing it. We’ve all had a rough two years.”
“I shouldn’t have said it was beneath you the first time. The years have proven how wrong I was,” he said with a sad twist to his lips. Then, he nodded his head at me and left.
I wanted to follow after him. He’d said hurtful things to me back when I first got the audition. We’d broken up over it. But of course, it hadn’t been about the show at all. I followed along with whatever was the path of least resistance, and he forged his own path through the bushes. We’d both ended up right here, but we couldn’t have gotten there from more different paths.
“Okay, Josie,” Jimmy said, returning to my chair with a conciliatory look on his face. “Can we do it one more time?”
“One more time,” I agreed.
It was an hour later when we were finally done, and I could pull my best friend in for a hug.
“You’re here!”
Marley hugged me back just as tight. “I missed you.”
“Missed you too.”
Marley had stood by as I finished up my final lines. Her eyes had been wide with excitement. She was the least excitable person I knew, and even she could be mesmerized by a movie set.
“So, what’s the plan?”
Marley was our planner. I knew that though this weekend appeared spontaneous, she would have the entire thing mapped out for us. Which worked fine for me, who was a go with the flow sort of person. I just wanted to have as much fun during the holiday weekend as possible and not worry about a thing.
“Well, Derek is at his parents’. He and Amelia and his parents are eating at the Pink House.”
“And you aren’t? It’s the best place in town.”
“Eh, I’m letting them have family time. I thought we could chill tonight.”
“I’m down. What do you have in mind?”
I was drunk.
That was what she’d had in mind.
I’d followed Marley to Gran’s house, where she had promptly raided Maddox’s wet bar. Marley only knew how to properly make one drink. So, we’d been drinking Gran’s sidecars into the evening until I was giddy and laughing at every single thing she said. We’d video-chatted Lila, who was on her way to Lake Lanier for summer camp for the Falcons. She’d rolled her eyes at us and said she wished that she could be there.
And now, I was slouched on the couch with my feet propped on the coffee table, Walt curled into my side, as if I lived here. Maddox hadn’t come home with us. He’d claimed he had hours of edits to do before he could leave, but I thought it was an excuse. I was glad that Marley hadn’t said anything about it.
We were halfway into the latest season of Euphoria when the door finally cracked open. Of course, there were full-frontal dicks on the television when it happened.
Maddox blinked. “What the fuck are y’all watching?”
Marley burst into laughter and paused the show. Somehow managing to stop it on McSteamy’s huge cock.
“Oh my God!” Marley said, pressing play again.
The next time she stopped it was when he was fucking some girl.
“Fuck!” she said and shut the entire TV off.
I burst into laughter, rolling on the floor as tears streamed down my cheeks. Walt jumped from the couch and ran for Maddox, who just shook his head.
“Why are you watching porn on my TV?”
“It wasn’t porn,” Marley said through her own laughter.
“It was Euphoria,” I said.
“Ah,” he said, closing the door behind him and picking up his dog. “I’ve heard that’s good.”
“It is good,” I said. “You wouldn’t like it though.”
He shrugged. “Probably not. How drunk are you? Is there any alcohol left in my house?”
“I can make you a drink,” I offered.
He looked down at me, lying on the floor of his house. I’d changed out of my Cassie Herrington getup into short lounge shorts and a tank top. I didn’t have to dress up for Mars, but I looked very dressed down for Maddox.
