"What's funny, Larue?" she quips.

"You, Gidget. You think I don't know who Gidget is? Please." I say it the way she did earlier, with mock exasperation. "I fangirled on Gidget before she was on RetroTube every night."

"You do not watch RetroTube!"

I cross my heart with my fingertips. "I swear, Gidge was my girl back when I was a boy. She's hot."

"It's the pigtails, isn't it?"

"Mmmmm, and she did this thing with her tongue…" Rook covers her mouth with her hand to hide her laugh. God, she's beautiful when she's laughing. "… and her feet. When she talked on her little pink phone her feet had this whole other conversation going on."

"Oh my God, you are a Gidget fan! Who would know that?"

I open my eyes and enjoy her delight. "We have a contract coming up soon. The one you're doing is called TRAGIC, right? We have the STURGIS one and then the GIDGET one. I've been researching that little teen-flake for months now."

"So which one, Sandra Dee or Sally Field?"

"Definitely Sandy but Sally has way more episodes, so…"

"Yeah, I agree. When I was a kid I wanted to be Gidget so bad. Who's got the contract for that job?"

I look at her and it sinks in.

"Let me guess, you can't be both TRAGIC and GIDGET."

"Two totally different worlds, Rook."

She just shrugs and goes back to my hair. "How am I doing so far?"

"Magic, your fingers are magic." I close my eyes and relax again, content with how this afternoon is playing out. She's fun and easy-going. She's not offended when I flirt and she flirts back.

Water rushes down my neck and I jump out of the chair and turn back to look at her. "You got me wet!"

"Sorry, Larue. But I'm just a trainee, you can't expect me to be a professional like you on the first try."

I whip my shirt off and wipe the water off my neck. "Are you done with me?"

"I'm not sure," she replies, tilting her head coyly. "Did I do you right?"

I walk towards her and she holds her hands up and shrinks back into the corner. She's laughing so I know it's all in fun, but the defensive positioning bothers me for some reason. Like she's used to being stalked. Like she's used to guys coming at her with fists.

She starts to shift, uncomfortable with my silence and staring.

"Would you like to come upstairs with me?"

"What's upstairs?" she asks, trying to play innocent.

"My apartment. I could make you lunch." I look at the clock on the wall and it's almost dinner time, then nod towards it. "Or dunch, since it's late now."

"Dunch?"

"Yeah, you know, lunch and dinner. It's like brunch, but it's dunch."

"You cook?"

"No," I laugh. "Not really. But I can buy food and bring it back and put it on a plate and pretend I made you dunch." I walk a few paces towards her and she takes a deep breath but holds her ground. Yes, someone definitely hurt this girl in the past and that makes me angry. She catches my change in mood and I smile to ease her back down. She's perceptive.

"What else would we do?" she asks as I take her hand and pull her out of the corner.

"Watch a movie?" I offer. This piques her interest and she brightens as I bring her towards me and push her wet hair off her shoulders. It leaves drops of water behind on her bare skin.

"Which movie?" she breathes as I pull her into my chest. I can feel her heart hammering against my body and I take her face in my hands.

"Any movie you want. We have a database of pretty much everything." I lean down and caress her lips with mine and then groan when a tiny moan escapes her mouth.

She pulls back, her hand firmly against my chest to keep me at bay. "Why are you kissing me?"

"Because I can't stop myself. And because I'm the only one who knows you, and you're just Rook, the girl who appeared out of nowhere. But tomorrow, you'll be Rook, the face of TRAGIC. And I don't think you're tragic at all, Rook. I think you're Gidget. But what I think doesn't matter, because things will move forward once you sign that contract and we'll just have to wait and see where it all ends up."

"You don't want me to sign the contract?" She scowls at me, like I'm trying to steal her future away or something.

"No, that's not it. I want you to have your chance at that dream you have, but there's a reason this campaign is called TRAGIC and not GIDGET and I'm guessing you already know that, because you look like a smart girl to me. So, just for tonight, I'd like to treat you like Gidget and have you over for dinner and a movie."

She swallows down a sad look and then paints on a smile. "OK, dinner and movie. I'd like that."

I lean down again and brush against her ear with my lips as I whisper, "But no matter what happens—you will never shrink back into a corner from me again. Because I will never hurt you."

She stiffens a little as I hold her close, but I wait for her to relax before I let her go. And then I take her hand and lead her towards the stairs.

Chapter Eighteen - ROOK

Oh shit. I'm not sure what I'm doing here. Ronin is all over the place with me this weekend. Last night he had me standing in front of him naked so he could take a picture and hint that he'll take care of me. He leaves to go take care of someone else apparently, then lets himself back into my apartment and sleeps on my couch. He gives me a boat-load of free designer clothes, tests the waters with some not-so-veiled flirting, and then kisses me and invites me up to his apartment.