nothing that really held Lauren’s attention in the midst of her busy schedule.
Nobody had quite the effect on Lauren that Carly did. She had the ability to get under Lauren’s skin in eighteen different ways. Even when she was annoyed with Carly, she was focused on her fully, engaged, and connected to her. It was the most unnerving thing. Yet she was beginning to crave that connection more and more, and that felt…dangerous. They lived very different lives and had very different goals for themselves. Plus, Carly had a million different people in love with her. She could have her pick. There was no way that a woman like Lauren would hold her attention for too terribly long. Not when there were so many other exciting options out there.
Wanna ride to work? Lauren stared down at the text that had just arrived as she prepared her bag for rehearsal. Water, snacks, her rehearsal shoes, and headphones for when she wasn’t needed and wanted to zone out and focus on her trajectory in the show. What she hadn’t prepared for was seeing Carly this early or the way her skin tingled at the thought.
What in the world was she supposed to do now? Giving in to her guilty pleasure, she typed back, If you can be here within ten minutes.
I’m in your driveway with two vanilla lattes. Send me away or get the hell out here so we can drive to work together.
Lauren laughed, still not quite believing Carly’s new commitment to responsibility. She headed down her sidewalk with her bag and slid into Carly’s upscale rental, a red BMW convertible with the top down. The morning sun shone brightly on Carly, making her blond hair pop with color.
“This is a really nice car,” Lauren said, looking around. “The theater actually rented this for you? How is that possible?” While they did their best to accommodate celebrities in residence, the budget only went so far.
Carly handed over a latte. “Let’s just say I upgraded.” She popped her oversized black sunglasses onto her face, then hit the road with the wind in their hair.
“Of course you did.”
“Hey, I can’t have people taking photographs of me in a Buick.”
“The world would end.”
“Or my career would.” Carly glanced over at her. “You look so pretty today. I’ve thought that eight times since you got in the car, but I feel like I should say it.”
“Thank you. You’re okay, too, I guess.”
Carly gasped as she studied the road. “You’re hard to impress. I’ll have to do more with myself in the future.”
“I know. I mean, look at you.” She laughed and shook her head because Carly was beyond beautiful, and the entire world knew it. In fact, today she seemed like a new kind of attractive, the California girl kind. Something about the sun and the open air. The only thing missing was warmth as evidenced by her already frozen ears. Didn’t matter. Lauren got an uptick in energy just being near her.
“Did you sleep well?” Carly asked.
Just the mention had Lauren remembering the desperate state she woke in, and the very detailed dream of Carly doing decadent things to her in the rehearsal hall. “I did okay,” she said conservatively. “Wild dreams.”
“About me?” Carly joked.
Lauren’s mouth went dry. “Oh. Um, rehearsal.”
“Gotcha. One of those dreams where something goes wrong, or you don’t know your lines. The worst. I had them when we first started rehearsal, nearly every night.”
“No, it was…” She didn’t know why she’d even started the sentence, and now she didn’t know how to end it. “Different than that. I love this song.” She tried to move them off the topic by feigning intense interest in the radio. In fact, she turned up the volume and jammed out to it like an idiot.
Carly looked over at her curiously as she applied her turn signal. “Why are you being weird? Are you Mick Jagger all of a sudden? What kind of moves are those?”
“This is how I dance in the car.” Well, hell, she had to commit now. She tossed her arms around, threw them over her head, and pushed her lips out, trying to stay on beat, which, hello, was not easy for her.
“You’ve got duckface down. Wow. That’s impressive. Do it some more. Yes! Just like that, you sexy party animal.” Carly brought the car to a stop at a traffic light and relaxed. She turned to Lauren calmly. “So do you want to talk about this sex dream, or pretend