Chapter 32 Cynthie
“Listen,” I say as I watch Patrick Swayze on the screen, “I could write a thesis on this scene. I could have a PhD in Dirty Dancing .”
“Swayze is on fire in this movie,” Patty puts in, taking a swig from her bottle of beer.
“No arguments here,” Arjun agrees, his arm around her.
“ So hot,” Hannah adds emphatically.
“Is there more pizza?” Liam emerges from under a pile of blankets.
“Only the vegan one,” Hannah says, checking the boxes that sit on the coffee table.
“Oh.” Liam sighs. “Nah.”
“I knew this would happen,” Hannah scolds. “We ordered the vegan one for you because you said you watched that documentary and you were never touching another animal product again. You said you were vegan now; you gave us all quite a lengthy sermon on the subject.”
Liam blinks. “I am vegan…” he says.
“Tell that to my double pepperoni pizza,” Patty snorts.
“… most of the time,” Liam finishes. “It’s just the pizza smelled so good…” He drops his head. “I fell at the first hurdle, didn’t I? I’m the worst vegan in the world.”
“I don’t think you can really call yourself any kind of vegan if you eat cheese and meat,” Hannah points out.
“But I always use almond milk,” Liam says earnestly.
“I heard almond milk is terrible for the environment,” Arjun puts in, and Patty jabs him in the stomach, while Liam looks crestfallen.
We’re all sitting in my hotel suite, snuggled in front of the big television after a long day of filming.
In the last thirteen years, Alveston Hall has become a private residence, so we couldn’t stay there again.
I don’t suppose Gayle would have let them put me in my snug little attic room where I shared a bathroom with Hannah anyway, but I still feel a bit sad about it.
On the other hand, it would probably only have further complicated matters with Jack. Imagine trying to make myself a cup of tea in the kitchen where we once had sex on the floor. My head goes a bit light at the memory—a memory I’ve been replaying more and more lately if I’m honest.
The first week of filming has gone well enough.
My anxiety comes and goes, but for the most part I’ve managed to keep it together…
even if some of the work feels like it’s been done on autopilot, which I hate.
I imagine Shawn’s voice in my head chastising me about it, telling me that I’m phoning it in, that I’m losing the audience.
Somehow Jack always seems to know, and he’ll appear like my personal emotional support film star, handsome and kind, and just quietly, stubbornly there .
We’ve spent the week pretending to be a couple whenever Brooke is around, which is—and I cannot stress this enough— all the time .
We have to keep touching each other and looking at each other and holding hands, and it is fucking with my head in a big way, because I know what acting feels like, and that’s not what this is.
It’s not real, but it’s not exactly pretend either.
As if I have summoned him, there’s a knock on the door and he comes in, looking tired and rumpled.
“Jack!” Liam greets him.
“Shhhhhh!” Patty hisses, her eyes sliding to the door to the adjoining room where Priya is safely tucked in bed, and we all freeze.
If she hears Jack’s name, she’ll be straight in here.
“Uncle Jack” earned her immediate, undying devotion the very first time they met when he produced a Barbie Dreamhouse, seemingly out of thin air.
By helping her set it all up and then playing Barbies with her for an hour while totally committing to doing all the different voices, Jack Turner-Jones claimed another heart, and Priya has been hopelessly obsessed with him ever since.
She’s not the only one. That particular scene did something unforgivable to my body’s biological clock. My ovaries have yet to recover.
“How did it go?” I ask him now. He was filming much later than the rest of us, so it’s been an incredibly long day for him.
He collapses on the sofa beside me. “Good, I think. Hattie was unbelievable, had half the crew in tears.”
“I hid some pepperoni pizza for you,” I say, producing a box from under the sofa.
“Betrayed!” Liam howls, chewing on his vegan pizza crust. “Although actually,” he adds thoughtfully, “this is pretty good. Really, Jack, you should think about going vegan.”
Jack doesn’t answer, already tucking into the pizza, as if he’s suddenly realized he’s famished. It can hit you like that after a long day’s shoot. Unthinkingly, I reach up and gently push his hair back from his face, my fingers rubbing over his scalp. He leans into my hand and sighs.
Then we both freeze, realizing at the same time that Brooke isn’t here, that we don’t have to pretend right now.
Fortunately, my friends are distracted, busy bickering over pizza once more, and I pull my hand away, neither of us acknowledging that anything happened. The story of our lives right now.
“So,” Jack says, leaning back after demolishing another slice of pizza, “what have you guys been up to?”
“Epic dance party with Priya,” Arjun says, handing Jack a beer.
“Sorry I missed that,” Jack smirks. “As I recall your moves were always… enthusiastic.”
“Let’s just say I haven’t lost my touch.” Arjun buffs his fingernails on his T-shirt.
“Then we watched Dirty Dancing .” Hannah gestures to the screen.
“And now we’re on our third re-watch of the last scene,” Patty says.
“A classic,” Jack agrees, swigging his beer. He looks happy and relaxed, slipping so easily into the group.
“I was just saying that I have a lot of thoughts about this scene,” I say. “I know it’s a dance scene but the acting is perfect. So many little touches.”
“Oh, yeah.” Jack nods.
I hit play, and Patrick Swayze stands at the side of the stage, taking off his leather jacket. “Crooking the finger at her?” I say.
“The way she smiles when he dips her,” Jack gestures at the screen with his bottle.
“The nose kiss!” Liam and Patty squeal at the same time.
On screen, Swayze and Jennifer Grey continue to dance. So young and in love.
“When she laughs,” Jack says softly, his eyes on the screen. “Such a great laugh.”
“When he kisses her hand.” Hannah sighs, sinking back against the nest of cushions she and Priya built on the floor.
“The lift,” Liam says reverently, and then we all sigh.
“I can do that, you know?” Jack says, offhand, and five pairs of eyes instantly lock on him.
“What… What do you mean?” Hannah asks, and it’s unlike her to sound so breathless.
Jack looks a bit startled by our intensity.
“Just that I used to do a lot of dance classes and I learned this one. I haven’t done it since I was about nineteen, but yeah…
” He trails off and actually looks slightly embarrassed, but that might be because we’re all staring at him with wide, unblinking owl-eyes.
“You can do the lift?” Patty’s voice is unsteady. She gestures at the screen. “This lift?”
He looks over to me, but I’m no help. I still haven’t recovered from the tap-dancing; but this new piece of information is a whole other level. “I mean, I’d guess so,” Jack says with a shrug. “I don’t see why not. I’m actually a fair bit stronger than I was then.”
“Yeah, you are,” I murmur, and I sound so thirsty it’s a joke.
Jack’s gaze snags on mine, and whatever he sees there has his eyes widening. He reaches out and his fingers toy with the end of my ponytail. “What do you think, Taylor? You want to try?”
My lips part, but I don’t say anything, which doesn’t really matter, because my friends are losing their shit, clambering to their feet and pushing furniture aside already.
“Shhhh, shhhhh!” Patty cautions, suddenly remembering Priya. After that, they continue to squeal at a lower pitch.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask.
“Don’t worry.” Jack stands up and holds out his hand. “I won’t drop you, I promise.”
I let him pull me to my feet, and the others have formed a sort of narrow runway. Patty and Arjun stand on one side, Liam and Hannah on the other.
“What do I do?” I ask, suddenly nervous.
“Just run at me and jump into my arms as high as you can,” Jack says. “You need to brace your core. Sometimes it helps if you hold your breath. I’ll do the rest.”
“Um, okay.” I send silent thanks to Petra for the fact I can at least locate my core these days.
Liam has rewound the film so that the scene plays out on the TV behind Jack. The music starts, and when Baby begins to run, so do I. I don’t know what I’m doing, but when I reach Jack, I basically throw myself at him. His hands are around my waist, and he lifts me up a little and puts me back down.
“Okay, you jumped a bit too early that time,” he says, patiently. “You have to wait a second longer. You need to trust me. I’ll catch you.”
“Right,” I say, going back to the start. Liam puts the film back again, and I roll my neck in a few circles, windmill my arms by my side, taking a deep breath like an Olympian limbering up for the big event.
“We’ve got this,” Jack says, and I nod.
Then he crooks his finger.
Fuck me.
On this go, I time it right and leap into his arms, feeling him grip my hips hard through the fabric of my jeans, his fingers biting into my flesh with a delicious pressure.
I fly up and up, and the world tips and I squeak and brace myself, wobbling for a split second, but Jack’s arms lock underneath me, and then it’s just…
happening. He’s holding me over his head like it’s no big deal and I stretch my arms out and laugh like a maniac.
He holds me like that for a long moment while the others whoop and cheer, Priya and her light sleeping forgotten in our fever pitch of excitement, and then— slowly —he pulls his arms down, reeling me in, his hands slipping down, cupping the tops of my thighs.
My arms wrap around his neck and he slides me down the rest of his body, until my feet touch the floor.
I look up at him, and it feels like part of me is still flying. My heart beats hard and fast at our bodies being pressed so tightly together, and the way he looks at me… it’s as if there’s nothing pretend about what’s between us at all.
“My turn, my turn!” Liam sings, and Jack lets out a startled huff of laughter.
I step back, out of the circle of his arms.
“Why not?” Jack asks, and Arjun punches the air.
“And then me, Uncle Jack!” Priya stands in the doorway, rumpled and adorable in her pajamas, her entire being lit with excitement.
Jack crouches down, opens his arms to her. “Then you, little P,” he promises as she hurls her small body into his.
Hannah appears beside me. “Oh, shit, Cyn,” she whispers, resigned.
“I know,” I say, because I do, I know what she sees, what she probably saw before I even saw it myself.
I’m totally falling for my fake boyfriend.
And the last time we did this, everything ended in disaster.