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Alessandro looked at the clock. Three hours before he could even think of calling Megan. Thank God he’d gotten her number yesterday or he’d have had to go through the switchboard at work, and she didn’t know his code name, so he’d have had to use his real one.
He wasn’t going to sleep now, thinking about what he’d say to her, so he changed into workout gear, then grabbed his keycard and his phone, which had started lighting up with notifications as soon as Yasmin hung up. He headed to the basement gym. At this time of night, he’d be alone, and he needed to keep up his training anyway before rehearsals for the next movie started in March.
From the gym, he used the pool, and by six thirty a.m., his muscles shaking from effort, he was back in his room and back on his phone.
♦
Chapter 6
Megan worked on a dummy website for the Studio until well past midnight before staggering to bed in her sweats. She also updated their Facebook page to show the correct information, created a couple of flyers and Instagram posts—Alessandro and Jaelyn’s faces most definitely front and center—and made a list of sites they could use to advertise the fundraiser in a hurry. She hoped she could talk to Etta and Susie at some point today to get their approval for the changes. Then she could start hitting everyone in sight and getting those tickets sold.
She bought two tickets herself, of course. She could drag Kane along. He’d bring a few of his business friends. The ticketing process could use some streamlining, too, but she’d deal with that later. Apart from the churros, she’d eaten only a bowl of ramen and five chocolate chip cookies that had gone stale after her trip, and she was exhausted.
So when her phone rang at six thirty the next morning, she moaned loudly enough to ring off the plate glass windows in her bedroom. If this was Cat, she was going to kill her.
When she saw it was “A,” however, she sat straight up in bed and began smoothing her hair off her face. As if she would put anyone on video at this time in the morning.
“Hello?”
“Megan,” Alessandro said. “Am I calling too early?”
“N-no.”Yes, you Italian loony.“I had to get up soon anyway.”
“Ach, I am too early. I am sorry, but I had to apologize as soon as I could.”
Megan was already twirling the tips of her hair, since being alone meant she didn’t have to pretend she was in control to anyone else. At his words, she stopped, then smoothed down the ends.
That moment last night! He’d touched her hand. That was all. And been kind enough to think of the sugar on her fingers. In one way, she supposed he should apologize, as he’d gotten into her space. Then again, she’d been pretty far into his space, too, and God knew she hadn’t thought about getting out of it.
“It’s not a big deal,” she said. “You were right; my fingers were sticky all the way home.”
“No, not that.” She heard him give a low laugh. “I would not—anyway. You have not seen the photographs?”
“The ones you took with the kids? How did they come out?” And why should he have to apologize for them? Was she in the background? She’d told him she was camera-shy, but she wasn’t going to blame him for a couple of angles with her twenty feet away.
“There are other pictures,” he said. “Of us outside. Here.” He gave her an Instagram account. Rather than take the phone away from her ear, she went over to her laptop and pulled up the site.
In beautiful chiaroscuro lighting, she and Alessandro stood a foot apart. Alessandro’s hand was holding hers—she could feel the warmth of him even now—and they were looking so hard into each other’s eyes, even the camera could pick up on the charge between them. “Oh,” Megan said, and her fingertips tingled.
“I did not know they were taking it,” he said. “I would never let someone take a photo of you if I knew. Especially after you told me—”
“It’s okay,” she said automatically. She looked at the views. One point two million views. Five hundred thousand reposts. “Is this anywhere else?”
She heard him sigh. “It is everywhere else.”
“Oop.”
“I am sorry, Megan.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine, honestly, for—” She couldn’t end that sentence in a way that would stop her face from glowing hot.
She looked at the picture again. Her green coat was lit by the churro truck, and her hair spilled down its collar and her back in what she had to admit was a very satisfactory way. “They got my good side, at least,” she joked weakly.
“You only have good sides,” he said.
“You’re very kind.” She googled his name and came up with a string of sites with the photo and others like it, along with the shots of the students, Alessandro, and Jaelyn. Unfortunately, his open smiles with the kids only highlighted the intensity of the moment she and Alessandro had shared.
“They don’t know who I am,” she commented. “That’s something.”
