AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My hands clench. He’s not being disrespectful or gross. Mina is fucking hot and Dex has hearts in his eyes.
Same, kid.
Danny runs me through the scene, but I can hear Dex still talking about his date, asking where he should take her like a goddamn puppy and I know he’s going to ask me because she’s my best friend. I’m going to have to give him an honest answer because I don’t want him taking her somewhere she’ll hate.
Not that I want her to have a great time with him.
Except I do, I want her to be happy.
Jackie Chan smacks the back of my head.
“Got it?” Danny asks, oblivious to my inattention.
“I can do this in my sleep,” I say, climbing onto the rig. There’s a complicated series of brief interactions with six other stunt guys as I move through the bus, but I’ve been doing this for fifteen years. I’ve trained for the sequence but haven’t done it in the rig yet, since Nic planned to do it, but that doesn’t matter. Muscle memory and instinct will fill in the gaps.
I run through it by myself a few times, the whole rig moving, tossing me about as I swing from handrails and smash into the walls. Easy.
When Danny’s happy, the other guys clamber on. We’ll do a few more run-throughs because this is a little tricky with tight quarters and a moving set. I’m confident we could film now, but Danny’s the boss.
I wait for everyone to take their positions, my thoughts drifting to Mina. I don’t like how we left things the other night.
Danny’s voice cuts through the noise and immediately I step up to Curtis. We exchange a few blows, never touching, before the bus lurches, throwing us into the wall.
I haven’t called her yet. Or messaged her. I’ve wanted to, but I don’t know what to say.
Curtis falls, defeated, and Luis promptly runs me up a wall so I can flip over his head then feign bashing him into that same wall.
Sam is next. I dodge a punch from them.
Saturday night was the closest Mina and I have come to fighting. Maybe I should give her some space.
Sam goes down and I swing from a handrail, “knocking” another guy out of the fight.
I should give her at least a week. I don’t want to know how her date goes. Probably I’ll find out at work. Shit.
I fake taking a punch from Andrew while the bus lifts, slamming hard enough to rattle my teeth.
If the date goes well…
I barely dodge the next punch from Andrew, and the bus tilts.
Mina doesn’t date. I’ve never seen her with someone else. I’ll have to.
Finishing Andrew off, I spin, catching myself as the rig tosses me into a seat. Then I’m up and moving and—
Dex is in my face.
There’s nothing in his expression beyond the job, but even that irritates me.
The punch I throw should pass by his face a couple of inches. I graze him instead.
Surprise crosses his face, but we’re professionals. We keep going.
Mina hasn’t dated anyone the entire time I’ve known her, so for her to say yes to Dex…she must have connected with him.
I let my next punch tap him because seriously, fuck this kid. What does he have that I don’t? The bus tilts and for a split second, my mind blanks. I dodge Dex’s punch by instinct alone, but his kick connects with my stomach, throwing me back as the bus swerves.
There’s a loud crack as I smack into a pole, lightning exploding in my head.
