Just Like the Movies

Chapter Nineteen

"I'll help you inside," Theo said, righting my crutch for me, and then helping me climb to my feet.

I tried not to feel humiliated by my struggle. "I had it handled."

"Did you?"

"No."

A slight upward tilt appeared on the corner of his lips at my honesty and he opened the door fully for me. I went in, and then Theo took my backpack from me as we made our way up to my apartment door together. I dug my keys out of my backpack and turned to him to thank him.

"Tomorrow we'll drop Rowan off and then I'll bring you home if you want to change and then we'll go straight to see Kaila," he said before I could speak. "Then right to the restaurant. I'm going to change after I'm done filming for the day."

"Sounds good."

"Is there anything you don't like to eat?"

I thought about it. "It might be easier to list the things I do like to eat."

A moment of panic seemed to cross his face. "Really?"

I grinned. "But I can find something to eat wherever we go, I'm sure."

"You're really that picky of an eater?"

"I don't really like that phrase," I said, rolling my eyes a little. "Not liking a food has nothing to do with picking. If I could pick whether I liked something or not, I would choose to like it because growing up as a picky eater was not fun. It was either eat something I didn't like, or nothing at all."

Theo lowered my backpack to the ground next to me. "I never really thought into that phrase before."

"I still like a decent amount of food, so I'll be fine," I assured him.

Theo considered this for a moment. "It's an Italian restaurant."

"I'm guessing now's not a good time to tell you I don't like really pasta or cheese?"

"They have other stuff," he told me. "My parents just thought you'd like Italian food. I'm not sure why that was their first thought."

I smiled a little. "Okay, well, let me know the name of the restaurant and I'll look at the menu and decide what I want beforehand and order it excitedly."

"Excitedly?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, to show your parents they chose a good place."

He let out a quiet chuckle. "I think they'd appreciate that."

I nodded, pleased with myself and my plan. "I'm going to my play my part flawlessly, Theo, don't worry. They're going to believe we're in love, trust me. I am a pretty good actress."

"Hmm, is that right?" he responded, folding his arms over his chest. "I vaguely remember you barely being able to handle having my face close to yours while we were setting up shots."

I didn't respond right away, heat seeping into my skin as the memory popped up into my head unbidden. Why had he brought that up? And worse, why had he noticed how flustered I was? I thought he'd been mostly focused on Amerie. And also, why did he have such a teasing tone to his voice? He wasn't... He couldn't be... "It was just hot outside!" I blurted. "I wasn't flustered."

"You seem flustered right now."

"It's hot in here!" I argued, pulling out the collar of my shirt. "Dang, I need to tell the management to turn up the A.C."