Page 43 of The Boss I Can't Stand

He nodded. “Good. I was thinking we should get away this weekend.”

“That sounds nice,” I replied. “We could both use a little break. Just the two of us.” I looked up from my plate to find Finn beaming at me.

“Perfect,” he said. “I’ll get something on the books, darling.”

Ugh, darling. “Okay, sugar puss.”

Finn rolled his eyes at me, and Ro called cut again.

“That’s not your line,” Finn said, taking a sip of his water.

“Well, I thought we talked about this. We agreed that darling was out.”

“Not according to the script,” he said.

“If you get darling, then I get sugar puss. It’s only fair.”

He scoffed. “No script changes are being approved at this point.”

“Well, honey,” I said, gesturing at him with my fork. “Like we’ve saidbefore, marriage is about compromise. I’ve been doing my part, dealing with your neat-freak tendencies.” And that cat.

“I’m not a neat freak,” Finn growled. “You’re just a whirlwind of disaster with questionable taste in food.”

“I amnot!”

“Back to the script, people!” Ro called. “Take it from the top!”

“Enjoying your food?” Finn grumbled at me.

“It’s great,” I said, stuffing a cold piece of French toast in my mouth.

“I was thinking we should get away this weekend.”

“That sounds nice. We could both use a little break. Because I’m fairly sure you must sleep in your suits. Do you even own comfortable clothes?”

“Get back to the script!” Ro called.

“Perfect, I’ll get something on the books,darling.”

“Sounds good, sweetheart,” I said, the words sticking to the roof of my mouth. Finn reached out then and tucked my hair behind my ear. I leaned into the touch, feeling horribly strange.

It was nothing like it had been the other day when the light had fallen on set and he’d tucked my hair back to see my face. In that moment, I’d felt like my heart would beat out of my chest. Now it just felt…Ugh!

“Cut!” Ro said before we went any further. “Great! We’re making real progress. But don’t forget that anyone recording you at the café might overhear the conversation. You need to keep to the script so you don’t out yourselves.”

This was never going to work. The damn script was half the problem. “Can we try one take on our own—with no one else around?” I asked.

Finn’s eyebrow lifted to a point.

“Just so we can get a little more comfortable,” I said. Maybe if we could run through it without eyes on us, I wouldn’t be so nervous.

“Okay,” Finn said. “Let’s act like this is a closed set.”

Ro nodded and ducked out with the camera operator. I’d hoped I’d be able to relax once they were gone, but the moment we were alone—really alone—I seized up. I had no idea how to bridge the gap between what was real and what was fake.

“Are you more comfortable now?” Finn asked.

Hardly. I forced a smile. “The camera and the directions and…It’s all a lot.” I chuckled under my breath. “Clearly, I was never cut out to be an actor.”