Chapter 2
Chapter Two
ELODIE
What the hell are you doing here?
I wanted to know but for obvious reasons couldn’t ask—especially not in front of all these people. I had to just plaster a smile on my face, willing my palms to stop sweating as he took the seat next to me, bringing along his usual clean, woodsy aroma that made me want to take a deep inhale.
I…should’ve expected this, honestly.
The Sugar I just needed to check in with my people to see if they knew what was going on.
But, according to my texts between Pierre, my super-connected sister-in-law Logan, and even my aunt Nubia, who was a partial owner of the network, no one knew about Shaw’s sudden presence.
At least, they hadn’t at the time I initially asked.
Nubia had texted back, hitting me with a string of “eyes” emojis after a simple “ Oh shit! ” text. And then there was the latest, asking a question I couldn’t possibly fully answer in such a succinct format.
Auntie Nubs: Are you gonna be okay?
It was…complicated.
“Ellie…”
Shit.
I looked up from my phone to find Shaw standing across the table from me—hands shoved in his pockets, posture relaxed, cool as ever.
“What’s up?” I asked, smiling, putting on my cool-girl front too. There were way too many people around for me to be as awkward as I felt.
“Mind if I sit?”
Yes.
“No, please, go ahead,” I gushed, stowing my phone in my bag. “I could never deny a seat to a friend.”
His eyebrows went up as he accepted the seat—next to me, instead of across. “Are we that ? Friends?”
“Well…I thought so,” I said, trying not to breathe hard enough to smell him. “Am I wrong?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know…I just remember when you used to be excited to let me know you booked a new job. I guess I’m not in the loop anymore.”
“Shaw, last I heard, you were in an undisclosed location filming a superhero movie. Isn’t that what you got all buff for?”
A grin spread over his face, and he put a hand to his shoulder. “You think I look buff?”
“Oh God .” I laughed. “That’s really all you took from what I said?”
“Nah, that part was just hella important,” he chuckled. “But…all seriousness—why don’t you ever hit me up anymore, Ellie?”
“I…think you know why,” I told him, wrinkling my nose. “The same reason you don’t hit me up.”
“It can’t be that.”
“Why not?”
His eyes narrowed as he leaned in a bit over the table. “I don’t hit you up because you asked me not to. But I definitely haven’t made a request like that from you.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, confused.
“I’m talking about that night after the awards, a few months back. You told me not to fucking talk to you . You don’t remember that?”
My eyes went wide, brain racing as I tried to recall that moment.
I definitely remembered that night, when he showed up to the awards with some—gorgeous—bitch on his arm, grinning and cheesing for the cameras like anybody wanted to see that shit.
I mean, sure…everybody else wanted to see it, but I did not.
I wanted her leave-out to revert.
“I…don’t remember saying that to you,” I told him.
I did, however, remember drinking enough that my brother spoke up to me about it, and I cut myself off. Maybe one drink too late. I woke up feeling very death-adjacent in Pierre’s guest room to Logan bringing me pain relievers and water.
I had zero recollection of getting there.
“That was months ago,” I continued. “We’ve definitely talked since then.”
He nodded. “Yes, because you texted me, and I wasn’t about to ignore you. We talked because you initiated it. I was respecting your wishes.”
“Sounds fake.”
“It ain’t fake,” he insisted, shaking his head as he sat back, crossing his arms. “I can’t believe you don’t remember that.”
“Well, it wasn’t a great night.”
“You won an award that night.”
With my ex and his new woman sitting front and center for my acceptance speech.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I wasn’t expecting to.”
“You deserved it.”
“Thank you.”
How is Stella, by the way?
I wanted to ask, bad , but I knew it wasn’t my business—not anymore, at least. I may not remember telling him not to talk to me—I didn’t recall speaking to him at all that night.
I remembered avoiding him, specifically, because I was upset, and I didn’t want him to know.
Didn’t want anybody to know.
“How did you end up on this show?” I asked instead, seeking to satisfy a much safer curiosity. “Charlotte said Daniel had a conflict, but I would’ve thought that meant you ? — ”
“Would go for that role,” Shaw finished for me, nodding. “Alec wants to do something different though. Him and Daniel actually called me directly, and we worked a good solution to offer Charlotte. And here we are.”
“Didn’t you just finish the movie?”
“Yeah,” he admitted. “Supposed to be taking a month off, but…gotta have my boy’s back, you know?”
I nodded. “Of course. Well…I’m glad it worked out. I think the show is gonna be amazing.”
“No doubt.”
There was silence between us for a long moment.
A moment he spent unabashedly staring.
“What?” I asked, once I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Nothing.” He shrugged. “I’m just waiting.”
“For?”
“For you to take it back.”
My eyebrow lifted. “Take what back?”
“What you said about not talking to you.”
“You’re talking to me right now.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, I took a chance that maybe since we were working together it was cool, but…I really didn’t know for sure.”
“Fine, I take it back,” I assured him. “Seriously—we’re friends.”
His eyebrows went up, like that was some kind of revelation.
Which… damn, what did I say to him?
Under the table, he reached for where my hands were clasped in my lap, covering both with his.
“I’m glad to know that,” he said, giving me a quick squeeze before he withdrew his touch.
I didn’t have a chance to respond to that because Alec walked up, chattering about the scene after the lunch break—one between him and Shaw.
A perfect distraction.
I didn’t miss the slight edge of annoyance on Shaw’s face as I excused myself from the conversation—I just ignored it, taking my chance to escape. I headed straight for one of the bathrooms, grateful for the privacy of it being a single-stall style, which meant I didn’t have to worry about my deep, cleansing sigh being overheard.
My attempt at one, at least.
I was so confused.
My relief over the familiarity of working with Shaw was absolutely at war with the emotional toll of being in real proximity to him. Not being in the same space as him for the last year had required intention; being “friends” had demanded a maturity I never knew I possessed.
And based on his reaction, I wasn’t sure it was even that accurate of a title.
We’d gone from strangers, to colleagues, to friends, to…more. When that didn’t work, we’d tried a tentative rollback to friends that…didn’t really work either.
Obviously.
The conflicting feelings made it exponentially more difficult to walk out of that bathroom to get back to the table read than it would’ve been if he weren’t there.
But a little challenge had never scared me off before.
It wouldn’t now, either.
I took a deep breath, held my head high, and made my way back to the table read.
To pretend I wasn’t still in love with the man I’d be spending the next several months pretending to fall in love with.