Lord. Does this guy ever quit with the sweetheart bullshit?
“Pretty good,” I answer but make no move to return the sentiment.
Of course, he doesn’t miss a beat.
“Aren’t you going to ask me how I’m doing?”
“Um…” I tilt my head to the side and search his eyes for a brief moment. “Nope. No, I’m not.”
A soft chuckle leaves his lips. “You know, I get the sense you’re pissed at me, but I can’t quite figure out why…”
Now, it’s my turn to laugh.
He grins. “And now you’re laughing at me.”
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
“Are you laughing with me or at me?”
“Do you want the nice answer or the honest answer?”
His grin grows. “Hit me with the honesty, firecracker.”
“Firecracker?” I narrow my eyes.
“Call it an inside joke.”
“An inside joke?” I scrunch up my nose in confusion. “With…yourself?”
“Yep.”
“I’m starting to wonder if you can actually hear how ridiculous you sound…” I cackle. “Andrew Watson likes playing with himself.”
“Let me guess. This is another thing you have a problem with?” he asks, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Call me crazy, but you having problems with me seems to be a recurrent theme.”
Good God, he has taken me so far down the rabbit hole of ridiculousness, I don’t even know what we were talking about in the first place.
“And where’s your new buddy Johnny?” he asks with a cheeky-as-fuck grin. “I figured the two of you would be getting cozy over some lunch.”
“I could ask you the same thing about your friend Tawny,” I snap back and immediately regret it when his lips curl up in amusement.
I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut around this guy. I need to do everything in my power not to react to whatever bullshit he’s peddling. Because Lord knows that’s what he wants. A reaction.
“Why are you here again?” I ask. “Is it just to annoy me, or is there an actual purpose to this lunch interruption?”
“A little of both, I guess you could say.” He grins and sets a to-go cup from Alfred’s Coffee in front of me. “This is the best coffee LA has to offer.”
“You brought me coffee?”
He nods. “I figured you could use a little coffee to go with your M&M’s.”
I quirk a brow, and he nods toward the bag of half-eaten trail mix by my phone.
“I’ve noticed you’re a fan of trail mix. Well, I should say the M&M’s in trail mix,” he adds. “Truthfully, it goes against the integrity of trail mix, and everyone knows raisins and peanuts are the best part. But to each their own, I guess.”
“So, let me get this straight,” I begin and put both of my elbows on the table. “You came over here to annoy me and school me on the proper way to eat trail mix?”
“And bring you coffee.” He winks. “You can’t forget about that.”
“I brought you one of everything, Birdie,” Samantha says in a rush as she plops two plates full of food onto the table before she drops it onto the floor. “A turkey sandwich, pasta, a baked potato, salad, yogurt—you name it, and it’s here.”
She’s too busy trying not to drop shit that she doesn’t realize Andrew is standing beside the table, watching her with amusement.
“And your coffee!” she exclaims, removing it from the crook of her arm and setting it on the table. It’s then that she notices there are now two cups of coffee sitting in front of me. With her head tilted toward the side, she glances between me and the coffees before she lifts her eyes from the table and finds Mr. Hollywood Heartthrob standing right there.
“Oh, hello,” Samantha says and her eyes go wide for a brief moment, but then she checks her expression and forces a neutral smile to her lips. “I’m Samantha Mallory, Birdie’s assistant.” She sets the rest of her loot on the table—two bottles of water, a Twinkie, and a pack of Oreos—and holds out her hand. “I don’t believe we’ve met before. Are you with the lighting department? I haven’t really had a chance to meet any of those guys yet.”
I bite my lip to fight my laughter. She knows who he is, but goddamn if she isn’t the best assistant in the whole wide world.
“I’m Andrew Watson.” He smirks as he shakes her hand. “Not with the lighting department, but I can vouch that Kenny and the rest of the lighting crew are good people. And I can also tell that you are the perfect assistant for this woman right