The Second Worst Love Story Ever (+18)

14. I Watch All Your Movies

Val came into the set, and all of us greeted her with a big, loud, "happy birthday!". It was the buttcrack of dawn and still, we had managed to get her a cupcake, so we could at least show her how much we loved her, no matter what time in the morning it was.

She hugged each and every one of our coworkers. Lena gave her the big ass cupcake, and Kiara took a picture of her giving it a huge bite.

Ethan lifted her from the floor with a bear hug. "Happy birthday, my sister from another mother."

I waited for my turn, kind of hoping she would forget about me. I know, I was trying to salvage our friendship, but after I realized that my dick had other plans, I had to take measures to keep it from taking over. And that meant touching her as least as I could, so I sneaked out of her way and avoided her for the rest of the day.

But as expected, she didn't forget about me. She came to the dressing room by the end of the working day, as I was getting ready to take off unnoticed.

"Hey... been running away from me on my special day?" she said.

"Happy birthday, skat.'' I did the only thing I could and swiped her off the floor, immediately feeling hot.

I confess even though I was trying to keep physical contact to a minimum, I took a little too long to let her go, but she didn't seem to mind. It was almost as if my body didn't know when we would be doing this again, so it tried to stay in the moment as long as possible. Look at me, I was the epitome of self-control.

I took a deep breath, wishing time would stop, but it didn't. Soon she buried her face in the crook of my neck and planted a long series of kisses on my jaw, her cold lips against my hot skin made me shiver. I awkwardly put her down before she could feel just how happy I was to see her.

"Where's my dirty joke?" she asked.

"Your what?"

"My dirty joke. I can't believe you forgot... Every year since I met you, you're the first to wish me a happy birthday and you always start with a dirty joke."

"Oh... I'm sorry, skat. I guess I owe you one."

"It's the second one you'll owe me."

With everything that had happened between the two of us, this tradition had fallen into oblivion, plus this was the worst time to start making these jokes with her again.

"Forget about dirty jokes. How about I take you out and get you a real birthday present?"

What are you doing, you idiot? What if she says yes?

She eyed me like I was a piece of fresh meat, biting her gorgeous red lip. "I don't know... There's only one thing I want from you, and it's not dinner."

"Shit..."

Hell yeah, I know just the perfect present...

"This is exactly why we can't be around each other by ourselves..." I said.

"Agreed." She stepped back, looking away. "Anyway, since Ethan's gonna be visiting Zoey this week and neither are gonna be here, I thought I'd just make dinner for the rest of us and have a real celebration when they're back."

"Sounds like a solid plan," I said, trying to think of an excuse to bail out.

"So, we're having the, um... thing... tonight."

"Your birthday dinner?"

"Yeah, I know it's short notice, but... you'll be there, right?"

"I can't say no to that. You know I love your food."