The Road Trip

• Eighteen •

As much as I loved Paige, I never wanted something to end so badly in my life.

She'd been hired to shoot a huge ad for a yoga wear company based out of Boston, so I was dancing around on my toes, waiting for my turn, and looking at Luke's balcony every ten seconds, smiling like a lunatic at the hummingbird feeder I could just make out hanging from the slope of the roof over his balcony.

"Reese, you're up!" Paige barked at me in full boss mode.

Apparently, Paige thought I looked smoking hot in leggings, so I could now add 'model' to my resume and deposit a nice check in my bank account. I told Oliver he should worry a little that I was going to steal his girlfriend as he watched from behind Paige's back as she crouched to take more photos.

"Who needs men?" I joked as I changed poses.

"With the way you were looking at Luke, I'd say you need at least one man desperately," Oliver shot back.

Paige checked the screen on her camera. "I hate that you two are talking about this when I have to concentrate and that I missed the whole damn thing," she huffed. "I want my own love speech, Ollie."

Oliver leaned over, ruffled Paige's hair, and whispered in her ear—something probably too dirty for my ears based on the pink dusting Paige's cheeks.

I rolled my eyes. "It wasn't a love speech. It was a like speech. A miss speech."

"Whatever. Tell me the last time you were celibate for three months because you were pining over your frienemy and you couldn't admit it to yourself," Paige said with her eye up to the camera, snapping more photos. "Cut the face, Adler," she added after I twisted my lips up, "...and the finger."

She instructed the lighting guy to adjust whatever contraption he was holding and made me change poses three times. "You're a natural," she said, winking at me before putting her face back behind her camera. "So what are Luke's flaws?"

"He doesn't have any," I smiled over dramatically.

"Bullshit," she called me out. "You can't love someone until you love their flaws."

"Love?! You're getting ahead of yourself. How much longer?" I whined and looked up at Luke's balcony for the millionth time. "I want to snoop."

Of course his apartment would overlook a beautiful park. I wanted to see if it smelled like a pinecone inside. I wanted to see if he preferred a leather couch or a fabric couch. I wanted to see what movies were labeled as 'Watch Again' on his Netflix account. I wanted to know if he had pictures everywhere like a sentimental boy or if he had a girly candle on his coffee table. I wanted to know what books he kept on his bookshelves, what he had in his refrigerator, how he organized his drawers and closets, what color his comforter was.

"I can't believe you're going to ditch us," Paige said with a sly smile.

"Oh, shut up. You were begging me to give you alone time yesterday. Feel free to sleep in my bed. Just wash my sheets after."

"Day one of being a girlfriend. Already sleeping over," she tutted with a sly smile and shook her head.

"I'm not his girlfriend!"

Paige laughed. "It will take a lot more than a love speech from Luke to convince you into that."

I huffed a few expletives under my breath at her while she snapped another two hundred photos.

"Okay, let's do the last wardrobe change. And then I will set you free."

When I came out of the tent in my teal blue athleisure wear, midriff bare, Leslie, the makeup artist, touched up my bronzer and mascara. "Before you leave, I'll touch it up again," she said, winking at me. "And make sure you keep that on."