what I can’t stop thinking about, the part that has stuck with me the most?”
Lauren set Rocky on the floor and watched as he darted back to the living room for more sun spot snoozing. “Tell me.” She braced herself for Carly’s disappointment, knowing she’d feel it as strongly as she would her own.
“What they said about you. I’m trying to be angry and feel sorry for myself, but all I can seem to do instead is smile about all the wonderful things they’ve said about you, because they’re all true. And then I have to look in the mirror, because who am I? I’m supposed to be self-involved and throw a Hollywood tantrum, but I feel more like a woman who can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Carly.” Lauren played those words back. They’d reached inside her chest and took hold. She hadn’t expected them but now felt their warmth from the tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes and back again. She smiled, stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around Carly’s neck. “Do you mean that? Of course you mean it, but do you?” That wreck of a sentence mirrored her scattered emotions.
Carly nodded and placed a kiss on the underside of Lauren’s jaw. “I’m trying my hardest to be selfish, but I think you broke me. I’m Team Lauren now. Do we have T-shirts?”
“We definitely do not. Team Lauren is quiet and unassuming and tries not to steal attention from the real stars.”
“I’m revamping Team Lauren,” Carly said with a laugh. “It’s okay to celebrate your reviews, you know. You’ve earned every compliment.”
Lauren’s heart and soul clenched, relaxed, and soared. “Thank you for saying that. I’ve never had a professional review before. This is new territory, so I’m not sure how to behave. I’m excited, though.”
“And I’m excited for you.” Carly lips brushed Lauren’s. “I think we need to celebrate properly.”
“And how would we do that?” Lauren asked.
“How about I take you to brunch and then bring you home and have my way with a celebrated actress? And I mean thoroughly have my way.”
Lauren’s entire body reacted in great favor of that statement. Today was turning around nicely, and she had Carly to thank. “I can get behind this idea.”
She and Carly finished getting ready, sharing the space and touching each other here and there as they passed. When Carly returned to the living room shortly after Lauren, she was wearing a sky-blue hoodie on top of a white tank top with the word Lauren scrawled across the front in what looked to be a permanent marker.
“Did you steal that shirt from my closet?” Lauren asked, laughing.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Carly said and slid her purse onto her shoulder. “But it’s mine now. Shall we?”
“You’re wearing that to brunch? Nooo.”
Carly turned to face her in proud challenge. “Try and take it off me.”
Lauren blinked, and her stomach fluttered. She had a vision of doing just that. “Incredibly temping, given what I know is underneath.”
Carly gasped and turned on her heel, as if hyperbolically shocked. “If you’re going to objectify me all through brunch, then we’re going to have a hell of a great afternoon.”
Lauren laughed and watched Carly make her exit, hips swaying, blond hair flowing, sass on display. Just the way Lauren liked her.
Chapter Twelve
Carly had been off her game. The performance she was capable of delivering had slipped through her fingers earlier that night, and she hated herself for it. As she lay in bed at her theater-supplied apartment, sleep mocked her. Instead, her brain took over, reliving each and every moment of her second live performance in gory and embarrassing detail. She’d flubbed lines, bumped into furniture, and was late for an exit because, like tonight, she couldn’t stop thinking. She knew exactly what had gone wrong. The reviews had gotten into her head. She heard the word serviceable before each and every scene, and then, because she was truly masochistic, began to insert words of her own. Hack. Fraud. Nothing but a pretty face. All of them believable. None of them helpful.
“Coming over?” Lauren had asked after the show. She rested her cheek against the frame of the door. Her eyes were bright. Too bright for the end of a long day, but that was Lauren, always put together, and ready to take on the world. She envied her.
“I think I’m going to take a rain check and get some of that sleep we so desperately have been