Rumor Has It

Part 24

Their film.

He was still stuck on these words.

"He's a good friend by now and he's great to work with." Stefani continued speaking about him a mile a minute and Bradley wondered briefly what she had told Mark about himself. What she possibly said to friends about him and how she described their friendship. If it was as extraordinary as when he had explained it to Todd.

"Do you think he'd really be interested?" He asked.

"Maybe. And musically, he's an absolute genius." She nodded. "You don't get both of that very often."

Impatiently, she took his hand and got up, the costume slipping to the side. "Now come dance, this song is so good and we'll have all the time for serious discussions next week, after they approve."

"Is that a promise or a threat?"

"A promise."

It was a surprise to him that she asked and even more of a surprise that he agreed and followed her. He didn't remember how he missed dancing until his hands wrapped around her waist. The lights reflected off of her eyes as she sang along. Their dance was slower than the music, falling out of sync, but none of them minded.

He watched the way she moved, graceful and lithe, and tried to adjust his own movements and she seemed happy with his attempts at keeping up. When he got too into it, his heart would get too warm in the chest and he'd feel like it might fly out of him at any second.

"You smell like candy." Stefani suddenly mumbled into him, right at that spot in his chest.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No, it's...it fits today." She laughed.

He pulled her closer, resting his chin on her hair. "We got home from trick-or-treating. Put on a Muppets movie after all, built a very unstable pillow fort in the living room, where Lea also passed out halfway into the movie, by the way."

"Sounds adorable."

"It was. And that was when I negotiated with her for all of her Twix bars. Didn't eat all of them."

Her shoulders were trembling and then he felt her shake her head.

"I spent an hour today getting some gum out of Emily's hair after we got home. If she didn't have such a good day otherwise... the kid is still mad at me anyway."

"Did she get her tongue tattoo?"

"Ash found her some. I'm planning on haunting her some other day when I'm not running late to my own party."

A soft chuckle left his mouth when she backed away. She was so adorable when she was trying to look threatening, lips pursed and the small crease between her eyes just visible.

When he first noticed it this time, he had thought nothing of it. Then a man's voice interrupted their dance that had come to a stop without them noticing.

"Hey, I've been looking for you all over."

Christian was expected to be there and that also meant that it was a different version of Stefani present at this party from the one Bradley had been getting to know better.

This version was trying to live up to expectations Bradley didn't know anyone had of her.

"I've been here the whole time." Stefani quietly hissed back at him.

"Didn't see you behind Bradley. Thanks for taking care of her for me." Christian smiled and barely spared him a glance. "It's good to see you."

"Yeah, you too, I..."