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He smirked. “Really?”
“Shut up,” I quipped, regular old Olivia again, and he chuckled. He went to make another comment, but I shut him down with, “You done for the night?”
“Just about.”
“Want to hang out with me for an hour?”
“Sure.” He shrugged.
“Cool. Fifteen is empty. Meet me there.”
“You got it,” he said, heading off to finish out whatever it was he had left to do.
I threw the soda nozzle back into the soapy bucket of water and walked through the theater, checking in on each screen before landing on theater fifteen. I sat down in the back row, leaning my head back on the seat and closing my eyes.
“How could you?” the actress on the screen cried. “I trusted you. I trusted you, and now you’ve ruined everything.”
“You don’t understand,” her male counterpart interjected. “It’s not what you think.”
“It doesn’t look that way.”
“What do you want me to say, baby?”
I snorted.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Baby…” he pleaded.
“I said don’t call me that!”
“Wow, a bit dramatic, don’t you think?” Jax said as he slid into the seat next to me. He handed me a box of sour gummies.
“You’re the best.” I pulled them open and dug around for all the greens, handing over the box when a mound of them were sitting in my palm.
He shook his head, pointing at my small mountain of gummies. “I’ll never understand this. If you’re going to have a favorite flavor, why is it going to belime?” he practically spit the word out in disgust, but I saw him biting back a smile.
“Mind your own business. These are my life choices, not yours.”
He laughed. “Speaking of life choices… what’s going on with you and my cousin?”
I scoffed. “Subtle subject change.”
“Had to dive in there somehow,” he offered with a shrug. “So, what’s the scoop?”
“‘The scoop’? There is no scoop.”
“Ah! And she lies again! So I guess Neil’s sudden interest in all things Olivia is a figment of my imagination?”
I turned toward him, obviously eager, but whatever. “What do you mean?” He laughed again, and I bumped him with my shoulder. “What do you mean?” I repeated. If he didn’t spit it out, I was going to punch him.
“I can see the need for physical violence in your eyes right now, and I’m going to need you to simmer down. I’ll explain right now.”
“Please do,” I said sweetly, my sarcasm betraying my impatience. He could probably see it on my face anyway, because apparently, I wasn’t all that good at hiding emotions where Neil was concerned.
He shrugged. “It’s not a big deal, but he’s been asking about you lately.”
Sure.Not a big deal. I could get down with that. I just needed my heart to catch up with that assessment. “Like what?” I asked.