To Sutton, this seemed to be the first unimpeachable show of emotion from Reeve. The first unquestionable one. This was the moment when she was sure he wasn’t acting. And because she was sure now, that made her all the more unsure of every moment this past week that had come before.
Suddenly, she had a horrible headache and had to go home.
Chapter Twelve
Women were confusing. Sutton was supposed to be happy. She got the gig she wanted, and they were both open about liking each other, right? Reeve scratched his head as he looked at the letters in front of him on the Scrabble tiles. How the hell was he playing Scrabble? Oh right. Because Sutton had ignored his calls. Because she’d come down with that headache. Because women made no f**king sense. So he’d trucked it over to Jill’s apartment and now it was Sunday afternoon, two days after the most epic sex and most epic night of his life, and he was playing Scrabble with Jill, her roommate Kat and her roommate’s boyfriend, who probably hated him because he’d hit on Kat that one night several weeks ago.
He didn’t even like Scrabble. But Jill said the game would help take her mind off the fact that she was about to sing and act with Patrick Carlson in an audition for a Frederick Stillman musical tomorrow. He understood the crazy kind of nerves and mind games you played with yourself as an actor, so he’d said yes to Scrabble.
“Jihad!” Kat declared as she placed four tiles around an “h.”
“Damn. Your prowess with words makes me hot,” Bryan said and looped his arms around her waist and dived in for a kiss.
Jill looked at Reeve and rolled her eyes. “It’s been like this for the last few days. Ever since they came out of the closet as boyfriend-girlfriend, they make googly eyes and practice PDA like it’s going out of style.”
Bryan pointed a finger at Jill. “Hey. PDA with my woman is never going out of style.”
“Stop it, Bryan,” Kat said but she elbowed him in a way that made it clear she didn’t want him to stop. “And let the record reflect that not only did I score an awesome word, I got a triple letter for J and a double word score so add it up, babies. Add. It. Up. That is 64 points for moi.”
“See? When you find a woman who has brains and beauty, you don’t let her go.”
“Yeah, you learned that lesson, didn’t you?” Kat said to Bryan in a playful, but pointed way.
“Learned it, and will live the good side forever and ever now.”
“God, I think I’m going to gag. I also think I need a coffee. Kat, come with me to the bodega,” Jill said as she stood up.
Kat shrugged. “If you need an escort for coffee, then I insist we go someplace with macchiattos.”
“Works for me. We’ll be back in fifteen. You boys want something?” Jill asked.
“Nah, I’m good,” Bryan said.
“Same here,” Reeve added, and the girls were gone.
There was an awkward moment, and Reeve wasn’t sure if he should apologize for having hit on Kat before or just talk about sports, the natural guy conversational lubricant. “Think the Yankees have a shot next year?”
Bryan nodded. “Hell yeah. The Yankees have a shot every year.”
There was another pause, but Bryan jumped in. “So you and Jill have been buddies for a long time?”
Reeve nodded. “A couple years, but we became tighter when we did Les Mis.”
“She’s cool. Kat thinks the world of her.”
“Yeah, so speaking of Kat, I guess you hate me because I asked her out for a drink once.”
Bryan laughed quickly and shook his head. “No, not at all.”
Reeve held up his hands. “She turned me down, dude. I swear.”
“We are good, Reeve. Trust me, we’re all good on this.” Bryan held out his hand for an official let-the-past-be-the-past shake. “What about Jill though? Are you into her?”
“Funny. Everyone asks me that, but we’re really just friends.”
“Are you…?” Bryan let the question trail off.
“I just told you I hit on your girlfriend and you’re asking if I’m g*y? No!”
Bryan shrugged. “You never know. Whatever works, I say.”
“Besides, there’s someone else. At least I thought there was.”
Bryan nodded. “Ah. The picture becomes clear now. What’s the story?”
Reeve didn’t want to get into the details. He’d already been there with Jill. Besides, it was too complicated and confusing, so he kept it simple as he fiddled with some Scrabble tiles. “She’s hot and cold, and I don’t know why. But I think it’s because she doesn’t know or doesn’t believe that I’m really into her. It’s this weird thing with actors. It’s like, sometimes the people you go out with never really trust you because they always think you’re acting.”
“That kind of sucks,” Bryan said.
“Yeah.”
“But listen, are you into her?”
“Hell yeah.”
“Then you have to let her know.”
“I thought I had.”
“Maybe you thought you had, but if she’s not sure, make it clear,” Bryan said and there was something emphatic in his voice, like he was a preacher speaking from the pulpit. “Trust me on this. I f**ked up with that girl,” he said and pointed in the direction of the door to indicate Kat. “I let her go for a stupid reason. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I was an ass. And I regretted it for five years. I’m even friends with her brother. I knew she’d graduated college and that I should try to reach out to her again, but I didn’t have the guts to ask him how she was doing. It’s like I was paralyzed with stupidity. So I just Googled her now and then. I read about her business. And even if I had asked her brother, I doubt he would have helped because I’d never told him in the first place I was in love with his sister. So at that point, you know what I had to do to get her back?”
“What did you have to do?”
Bryan shook his head and laughed. “I went to NYU and I signed up for this mentorship class. I knew she was at school there, and I figured it was the best chance I had just to spend time with her. To get to know her again. And I got matched with her, and it was a crazy time for my company. We were being sued and my business partner turned out to be insane, but in the end it brought us back together. And I had to lay it out there with her. I had to tell her how I felt. That it was always her. That I’d always loved her. That she was the one for me.”