Character Art and Excerpt

Art by the incredible LunaGlezArt

The temperature was as cold as ever, the air just as perfumed by the cinnamon sugar from the churro truck. “Would you like a churro before you go?” he asked her politely.

“Sure. They smell so good.” In fact, she was beginning to regret saying no to dinner. The smells were making her stomach grumble loudly.

“I absolutely insist,” he said when Megan went to pay. He handed her a paper cone of churros. “I do not know if you know this,” he added, picking up a napkin, “but I get paid for what I do.”

“I know you do,” she said, blushing despite the cool air. “But I do, too.” She wasn’t going to tell him that she was probably worth more than him, no matter his recent success.

“That is true.” He seemed to consider the concept. “Can I buy you a churro because it would make me happy to buy you a churro?”

“That’s not fair,” she said. She couldn’t wait any longer to pull out the delicious pastry and take a bite. “Ohmigod.”

Alessandro was grinning at her.

“Don’t look so pleased,” she said with her mouth full.

“What?” He cupped a hand behind his ear. “I couldn’t hear you.”

“Don’t look so—mmm. Never mind.” She took another bite. The cinnamon sugar warmed her from the inside out. “I officially allow you to buy me churros whenever I come here.”

“That sounds as though you will be back.”

“Of course I’ll be back. I told the others I’d be back.”

“But you are very polite.”

“I meant it.” Then his words distracted her from licking the sugar off her thumb. “Hold up. What do you mean by that?”

“I have always noticed this about you. You work to make everyone have a better day. You choose your words carefully. You smile at everyone, but sometimes I think…”

She stared at him. Those silver-gray eyes wouldn’t let her go.

“I wonder,” he said, “what you would say if someone asked you to do something you didn’t want to do. I wonder if all this making others happy is tiring for you.”

“I—” The emotions bubbled up so fast, she didn’t know which one to throw at him first. Megan didn’t get to put herself first. She’d chosen this. Infuriated with Cat and Kane’s fights? Smile and make a joke. Frustrated with Kane’s restrictions on what she could do at work? Smile and tell him she was happy with the work she had. Move away from a department whose projects made her heart sing? Nod and smile and make sure the coffee machine was running.

And this man, who hadn’t seen her in five years, had seen enough—remembered enough—to see what she’d hidden: that her ease around people always came with a cost.

“H—How do you know that?” No one was supposed to know that. Even her family didn’t know this. If people knew that she had to work to make them happy, that it wasn’t, in fact, something she did easily? No. Megan couldn’t countenance it. They would be disappointed. She would let them down. She would fail.

“I saw it whenever you came into the coffee shop,” he said. “I saw it behind your eyes. It is what actors do when they are preparing for a scene.”

“Oh.” Shit. That was why he’d been looking at her so hard. “You remember all that back then?”

“Yes. I remembered you.”

His voice had changed. It was now like warm syrup in the cool night.

There was nothing for her to stagger against, but she wasn’t sure if her beautiful kitten heel boots were going to hold her up. “Oh,” she said in a very small voice.

“Megan,” he said, drawing her away from the light of the churro truck. His hand was light on her arm, but she would have gone wherever he directed her. She couldn’t misread the intensity in his eyes this time. Nor the meaning of him remembering her from all those years ago.

“Hey!” A cacophony of voices broke into the spell he was drawing around her.

“Merda,” he mumbled. Megan breathed in, almost gasping, as the cold air rushed back between them. “Excuse me,” he said and left her all but hyperventilating as he joined the students, who had all left the building at once.

“Hi!” they said, now obviously his best friends. “Buy us a churro?”

“Of course,” he said, nodding to the man in the truck. “Whatever they want.”

One girl sidestepped the others and joined Megan in the half shadows. “Are you an actress, too?” she asked boldly.

“Oh, no!” Megan laughed at the possibility. “No, I’m just a regular Jane.”

“So why were you in the Studio?”

“I’m helping with the fundraiser. I’m Megan.”

“Rochelle.”

“Nice to meet you. Do you want to be an actor, too?”

“I already am an actor.” Rochelle put her hands on her hips.

“Right.” Megan nodded. “Alessandro thinks so, too.”

Rochelle’s whole body seemed to swell with pride. “One thing they always tell us at the Studio: we’ve gotta have faith in ourselves.”

“That’s right. Well, I have faith in you, too, if that’s any help. I hope I see you again soon.”

“You’re coming back? Then you’ll see me. We’re here pretty much every afternoon after school if we don’t have to work.”

“Ready?” Alessandro said. A car had pulled up. Rochelle moved away to place her order, and Megan and Alessandro were alone again.

The smell of cinnamon and sugar and Alessandro made her dizzy.

“Thank you for a really fun evening,” she said. Why did he seem taller now?

“Thank you for meeting with me. For all your help.”

“Um.” Her hand went to the tips of her hair. Be brave warred with don’t cause any trouble.

“Guarda,” he said and touched her fingers before they reached her hair. “Your fingers are sticky.”

“Oh.”

Alessandro was only touching her fingers with his, but the sparks from it reached all the way up her arm. After a second, he lifted his hand, but she didn’t pull away. Couldn’t pull away. Didn’t want to pull away.

He put his hand back. His fingers crooked over hers, trapping her in the slightest, most delicious cage.

She glanced at him again. His mouth was slightly open, his eyes darker than ever.

“Megan,” he said.

“Mm-hmm.” Her throat was thick with anticipation.

“Will you let me know how your work goes tonight?”

“Oh.” Not what she’d thought he was going to ask her. But what could she expect? He’d only stopped her from getting sugar in her hair. She was reading signs that were not there. “Oh, sure, yeah. ’Course.”

“Okay. Thank you again.”

The car was spewing exhaust all around them, but Megan couldn’t smell it as long as he stood in front of her. Only when he opened the car door and used his hand on her arm to get her inside could she breathe again. He closed the door. Megan gave her address to the cabbie and looked out the window at Alessandro.

He licked his fingers. He licked the churro sugar from her fingers off of his.

Megan’s heart did another lap around the block before joining her back in the cab.