Love Scene, Take Two

by Alex Evansley

  “I’m so sorry, you guys,” Emmy jumps straight into apologizing. “I tried so hard to avoid that happening.”

  “Emmy, stop being ridiculous,” Olivia says, removing her sunglasses.

  “Yeah, it’s not like you could have controlled that,” Teddy adds. “I’m pretty curious about how they found out, though.”

  “Apparently some Tumblr post was involved,” Bennett offers, sliding into the seat next to him. She crosses her legs and this time she’s the one to press up against him. Teddy smiles and props his arm up on the seat behind her.

  “Wait, what?” Olivia asks, amused. “How do you know that?”

  “I heard two girls say it before I got in the limo.”

  “That wouldn’t surprise me one bit,” Olivia says, “especially with how much Tumblr loves some Teddy Sharpe.”

  He grimaces. “God, I hate Tumblr.”

  “What, you don’t follow all your fan blogs, Theodore?” Bennett asks.

  Teddy tries not to laugh. “I can barely handle Twitter. I looked at Tumblr once and was traumatized.”

  “There are so many fan fictions that you star in floating around the Internet, Teddy,” Olivia joins in. “I read one the other day—I’ll try to find the link again. It was called, like, ‘HOV Lane’ or something.…”

  “All right, all right,” Teddy interrupts. He shudders. “I’m not even going to start on how creepy it is that you read fan fiction about me, Olivia.”

  “Aw, come on. You should feel honored to be somebody’s muse!” Olivia insists, megawatt smiling. “I read fics about me all the time. It’s entertaining as hell.” She grabs her phone out of her purse. “Here, name any celeb or character and a random fetish and I’ll bet I can find a Teddy Sharpe pairing fic about it with at least fifty thousand reads—”

  “And we’re done with this conversation,” Teddy says, failing to keep a grin off his face when they all start cracking up again.

  The rest of the car ride is passed with Olivia going into elaborate detail about one of her fan blogs she found last year. She even admits to submitting anonymous messages about herself to rile things up. Bennett is laughing so hard by the time they get to the hotel that she’s almost back to normal after the little sensory-overload spell she had earlier. But by the time they’ve crossed through the lobby, the exhaustion from such a long day seems to sink in with everybody.

  “God, I cannot wait to go to bed,” Olivia yawns after punching the elevator’s up button.

  The elevator arrives and Teddy holds the door while the girls step on. He gets on a second later, throwing Bennett a couple of eyebrow wiggles as he moves to stand next to her.

  “Em, do you know what time we need to be on set tomorrow?” Olivia yawns again.

  “The schedule has you and Teddy down for blocking at seven thirty. Filming at eight.” When Olivia groans, Emmy adds, “Yeah, not that this will help, but tomorrow’s got some intense shooting involved.”

  The elevator slows to a stop at the eighth floor and Bennett tries not to pout that for the first time in almost twelve hours, Teddy is going to be more than fifteen feet away from her. (Pathetic.)

  “We’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Emmy calls, stepping off and rounding out of view.

  Bennett follows suit, keeping her eyes down. “Bye, guys.”

  “Bye, Bennett. Today was awesome,” Olivia says.

  “See ya, Caldwell.”

  Just as Bennett turns around to wave, Teddy gives her that look again—except this time it has some implications behind it that leave her a little breathless there in the midst of the closing elevator doors. He knows exactly what he’s doing, too, because he adds a heartbreaking smile at the tail end of it, and Bennett is this close to asking who the hell he thinks he is with that. When the doors finally do shut, she rolls her head back and groans at the ceiling.

  There’s an ear-to-ear grin on Emmy’s face when Bennett looks over.

  “Don’t,” Bennett says, trying to be stern. A gigantic smile breaks out on her own face instead.

  Emmy holds up her hands. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

  “Yeah. Right.”

  “Well, I mean, other than make a comment about how you’re glowing right now.”

  “My entire family showed up to surprise me at my book signing today,” Bennett says defensively. “It has nothing to do with—”

  “I didn’t say it had anything to do with anyone,” Emmy replies.

  Bennett frowns. “I know exactly what you’re saying. And thinking.”

  Emmy shrugs and starts walking away. “Well, at the moment I’m thinking I’m exhausted, so I’m going straight to bed. And also that Teddy is staying on the eleventh floor.”

  She throws Bennett a smirk before setting off down the hallway.

  “Real subtle, Em,” Bennett calls after her, waiting to hear Emmy’s door close. She glances back at the up button on the wall and pretends that the only reason she’s toying with the idea of getting back on the elevator is so she can ask Teddy the real question that’s been on her mind since leaving the restaurant earlier:

  Did he write that thank-you note last summer and hold on to it since then or did he write it when he realized he’d see her parents again?

  “God,” she exhales.

  She presses the up button.

  It occurs to Bennett as she watches the floor numbers tick up from eight to eleven that she has no idea what room he’s in. She has no idea what she’s doing in general, actually.

  The eleventh floor is an exact replica of the eighth floor except for the painting that hangs over a small table outside the elevators. Bennett stops just outside the little room and pulls out her phone. She scrolls through her texts, thumb hovering over the last one she got from Teddy, but the sound of a door opening and closing somewhere down the hall makes her almost jump out of her skin.

  Teddy Sharpe is strolling down the hallway toward her. His hands are in his pockets and he’s staring at the floor as he walks, adding a little shuffle in between every other step like he’s in a hurry but trying not to look conspicuous. Bennett’s so caught off guard by the coincidence she can’t think of anything to say to get him to look up. Instead, she manages to imitate a loud wolf whistle, exactly like the one from the book signing. Teddy’s head whips up.

  “Whoa—hey,” he says through a smile.

  Bennett starts toward him. “What are you doing?”

  “What am I doing? This is my floor, Caldwell. What’re you doing?”

  “Oh, you know…” Bennett trails off. His grin widens when he stops in front of her, throwing her off her game even more. “I came to ask if you’ve had that thank-you note for my parents this entire time, or if you wrote a new one.”

  “I’ve had it the entire time,” he says. No elaboration. No explanation. Just a slightly amused undertone in his voice. “If I recall correctly, I tried to get you to send me your address last summer.”

  “This entire time,” Bennett repeats, just for good measure.

  “Yeah. I was eventually going to give it to you during filming to give to them, but then we found out they were coming to the book signing so I figured I should give it to them in person since it’s so late.”

  Her heart.

  “Well, that was … thoughtful,” is all she can get out. The only perk of staring down at the floor is being able to tell when he steps closer to her.

  “Yeah. So, like, what’re you really doing up here, Caldwell?”

  “I—” She hesitates, trying to come up with another excuse. Whatever. She’s already there. No point in playing hard to get now. “I was trying to decide which door to knock on first.”

  There’s a pause, and then Teddy takes another step into her space. Except this time he reaches out and slips a hand around her lower back.

  “So … you were coming to see me?” he asks, tugging her against him. Bennett’s hands end up on his biceps, and she’s hyperaware of the way his belt buckle is pressing into her stomach.
>
  She scoffs casually, leaning back to get a better look at him (and to give herself time to reel some poise back into her stance). He apparently takes this as her trying to wiggle away, because he sneaks his other hand out of his pocket and gets a possessive grip on the fabric of her dress.

  “You definitely were,” he says.

  Bennett has to redirect her gaze to anywhere but at him. “Yeah, so?” she challenges.

  Teddy raises his eyebrows, looking absolutely delighted. “I would have bet a million dollars that you were going to say ‘Don’t flatter yourself, superstar.’”

  “Figured I’d maxed that one out by now.”

  His grin fades a bit and is replaced with something a little more serious.

  “I was coming to see you, too,” he says.

  “Yeah?”

  He nods, leaning down and bumping their noses together. Bennett sucks in a breath. Today’s been a good day, and she wants nothing more than for Teddy to kiss her right now, but the voice of reason in the back of her head thinks now is a good time to remind her that she still owes Teddy an apology.

  “I’m sorry for what I said in front of Burt,” she breathes, bringing a hand up to the nape of his neck. “I’m not good with handling these things.”

  Teddy chuckles. “Being asked to fake date someone for a PR stunt isn’t exactly a normal circumstance.”

  “Well, it wouldn’t have had to be fake if I wasn’t such an asshole about it,” Bennett says.

  “True,” he teases, smoothing his hand over her hip. He leans in close and adds, “But it also doesn’t have to be fake now, right?”

  Bennett laughs. “We’d probably have to talk logistics first.”

  Teddy considers it. “You too tired to talk now?”

  “Not even close.”

  He pulls away from her instantly, grabbing her hand. “Now it is, then.”

  Teddy starts tugging her back down the hallway toward his room, dropping her hand when they get to his door to fumble with his key card. He accidentally knocks off the Do Not Disturb sign on the door handle and jumps to hang it back on. Bennett tries not to smile at the rosy splotches starting to appear on his cheeks.

  He finally swings open the door and holds it so she can walk in first. Bennett steps into the room, waiting for him to turn on the lights.

  “Did you make your own bed this morning?” Bennett snickers softly.

  The sliver of hallway light cast across the duvet disappears when the door clicks shut.

  “Caldwell,” Teddy murmurs from somewhere behind her in the dark, and Bennett knows exactly what he’s asking.

  She turns around and reaches out until she finds him, hooking her fingers under the hem of his sweater to pull him toward to her.

  And that’s all it really takes before he has her in his arms and pressed back against the bathroom door.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Bennett needs to brush her teeth.

  She needs to brush her teeth and see if Teddy has any contact solution in his bathroom, even though she knows he doesn’t wear them. Her contacts feel like they’re a few blinks away from edging themselves out of her eyes.

  What she needs to do first, however, is figure out how to pry herself out of Teddy’s grasp so she can get up and start getting her life back together. She wiggles a tiny bit, trying not to wake him up in the process. Her heart melts a little as she starts taking inventory.

  The guy is literally everywhere. Again.

  His legs are tangled with Bennett’s. One of his arms is curled around her rib cage. And she isn’t sure how he’s even breathing with his face mashed into the crook of her neck. He’d spent a lot of time there the night before, actually, and Bennett blushes thinking about all the kisses he pressed into the skin underneath her jaw.

  She slowly starts working on the leg situation first; it seems like the most logical. The trickiest part isn’t in the untangling, but in the attempt to shift her right thigh out from underneath his knee. She thinks she’s doing a somewhat decent job until he shifts in his sleep, readjusting the grip he had across her rib cage and ruining all the progress she’d made. She finally gets too impatient to worry about waking him and uses enough force to shift herself out from under him. He stirs as she slides off the side of the bed.

  “Hey,” he mumbles, his voice groggy with sleep. He reaches out toward her and whines, “Come back.”

  “I’m going to brush my teeth,” she whispers, but his hand catches her wrist when she rounds his side of the bed toward the bathroom. She’s more than happy to let him pull her back in with him.

  A second later, he’s pressing kisses underneath her jaw again. Between the warmth of him on top of her and the way his hand is splayed playfully low on her hip, there’s no way she can find the strength to put up a fight.

  “We should just not go in today,” Teddy murmurs into her collarbone, grazing it with his teeth for emphasis.

  Bennett grins and tugs on the hair at the nape of his neck. “You know Burt will show up here and drag us out. And that would be mortifying.”

  “We’ll push the desk in front of the door.”

  “That’s not a good idea.”

  Teddy growls into the hollow of her throat and rocks his hips down into hers. “I don’t recall you saying anything like that last night—”

  “Hey.” Bennett smacks his shoulder.

  “Just saying,” he snickers.

  “Seriously, though. Do you have an extra toothbrush?”

  “Slow down, Caldwell. I don’t know if I’m ready for that step in our relationship yet.”

  “Oh, God.” She shoves him off. “I’m using yours if you don’t.”

  Bennett finally manages to get out of bed, even with Teddy making it as difficult as possible. She took one of his T-shirts hostage last night and self-consciously pulls it down once she’s on her feet. She pads toward the bathroom and accidentally steps on something cold along the way. Is it more impressive or embarrassing that it turns out to be her phone? She has no idea how it got there. She carries it into the bathroom with her, shuts the door, and turns on the lights.

  Temporarily blinded, Bennett staggers around with her eyes squeezed shut as she tries to locate the bathroom counter. She finds his toiletry bag under the sink after she gets her vision back and rummages through it until she finds a toothbrush and toothpaste. No contact solution, unfortunately.

  Bennett startles when she pops back up and catches her reflection in the mirror. She can’t even look at the goofy-ass grin on her face, and she’s probably going to be blushing for the next nine years.

  As she’s brushing her teeth, she picks up her phone again. The first thing she notices when her screen lights up is that she has a solid 3 percent of battery left. The second thing she notices is the time: 6:07 am. Then she sees the two text messages from Emmy, sent twenty-one minutes ago.

  Bennett frowns.

  Eight hours?

  Against her better judgment, she pulls up the Twitter app on her phone and taps the notifications icon, taking a moment to scroll through the first few.…

  Bennett stops brushing her teeth.

  OMG MY FAVORITE AUTHOR MIGHT BE

  DATING MY FAVORITE ACTOR IM D Y I N G

  SEND HELP #MBCALDWELL

  #TEDDYSHARPE @TeddySharpe97

  @mbcaldwellbooks

  You guys. #Shardwell IS REAL.…

  #ICANTHANDLETHIS

  .@MBCALDWELLBOOKS WHO WROTE

  PARACHUTES IS OUT TO DINNER WITH

  @TEDDYSHARPE97 RIGHT NOW WHO’S

  PLAYING JACK ALSDSKD WHAT IS LIFE

  Teddy & Bennett 4EVER <333 #CUTIES

  #PARACHUTES #BAES

  #MBCALDWELLBOOKS #SHARDWELL

  @mbcaldwellbooks @TeddySharpe97

  GUYS THIS IS THE GREATEST SHIP SINCE

  EVER @mbcaldwellbooks @TeddySharpe97

  #SHARDWELL #SHARDWELLFOREVER

  PEOPLE I SAW THEM TOGETHER AT HER

  SIGNING TODAY AND IT WAS MA
GIC

  #SHARDWELL IS REAL

  @mbcaldwellbooks @TeddySharpe97

  “What the—” Bennett breathes, one particular hashtag catching her eye. She searches #Shardwell. (Seriously? That’s still the best they can come up with?) That’s when the more vicious tweets start flooding in.

  At least we know now that unless ur tiny &

  pretty & can help his career,

  @TeddySharpe97 wont date u # #Shardwell

  #FandomWank

  Who the hell is this #shardwell chick like why is

  she even relevant enough for @TeddySharpe97

  to date I don’t understand

  .@TeddySharpe97 doesn’t waste time at all.

  @mbcaldwellbooks is pretty & whatever but

  come on, you had @lovecbordeaux

  #downgrade #shardwell

  @TeddySharpe97 rebounding from

  @lovecbordeaux with @mbcaldwellbooks wtf

  is this the apocalypse #downgrade

  Everyone needs to calm down with all this

  hate on Teddy and who he’s dating. Let him

  live his own life!!! #shardwell #shordeaux

  #CheddyForever #TeamCheddy

  #TeamShordeaux #JustSayin

  #ShardwellisNotAGoodShipNameAnyways

  #Shardwell

  Chelsea Bordeaux >>>>>>>> Bennett

  Caldwell. Not even a competition.

  #shardwell #shordeaux

  y’all acting like this #shardwell thing is the end

  of the world pls u know it’s not gonna last he’ll

  find some1 better

  r u fuckin kidding me #shardwell is the

  dumbest thing twitter has ever come

  up w/ #killmenow

  .@mbcaldwellbooks and @TeddySharpe97

  together is a joke. Wtf who would believe he

  would date her? #shardwell

  #stoptryingtomakeshardwellhappen

  Bennett’s screen goes black before she can search anymore. She curses under her breath.

  “Bennett?” Teddy peeks into the bathroom, squinting at her. She recoils away so he can’t see her face.

  “Be out in a sec,” she says.