Page 88 of Scoring Lessons

“Okay.” She squinted as she studied the screen. “It says we have three seconds after we press start.”

“Three seconds is plenty.”

“For what, exactly?”

I made a show of running my fingers through my hair. “To look charming, obviously.”

She gave me a flat look. I reached over and hit the button.

The countdown appeared on the screen. Three. Two.

“You already look smug,” she said.

“That’s just my face.”

“I know,” she drawled. “That’s what I just said.”

The first flash caught us mid-argument, her mouth open, my eyebrows raised. We both looked at the preview screen and laughed at the same time.

“This is terrible,” she said through a laugh.

The second one was better—I’d pulled a face at the last second, and she’d gone completely straight-faced, which made it even funnier.

She groaned. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

I watched for a second without meaning to. “You look cute. I love your natural frown.”

“I don’t have one.”

“Yes, you do.”

She turned to continue arguing but stopped once she’d realized how close we’d been the whole time—that was the nature of the booth, after all. The countdown started, but even then, we didn’t stop staring at each other. Her eyes dropped to my lips for a moment—a moment so fleeting, I would have missed it if I hadn’t been so acutely aware of her movements.

My gaze dropped to her parted lips, right when the flash went off, but neither of us dared to move. Moving meant bursting this perfect bubble. Moving meant I had to come back to reality—the place where I wasn’t supposed to kiss her. Or want her, for that matter. The place where everything was loud and the uncertainties were too many, too complicated.

The machine hummed quietly, processing. Her breath was steady, but her expression wasn’t reflecting the same; there was some small thing moving through it, like a storm of emotions was brewing behind it all. It was like looking at a mirror, because I was sure my eyes showed her the same. I was having a hard time hiding what I wanted to do.

I could have closed the distance. It would have been easy and the most natural thing in the world. But I hadn’t, even though every cell in my body was screaming at me to do so.

Instead, I tiptoed around what we were comfortable with. What we were here for.

“How did I do today?”

“It was perfect,” she murmured. “Everything we do together is fun, and light, and—” She stopped, trying to gather her thoughts.

“Natural,” I added quietly.

“Yeah,” she replied. “We’re pretty good at this.”

“We’re good at a lot of things.” My voice dropped without me meaning to. “Some we haven’t explored yet.”

The air shifted to something heavy and electrifying.

Her eyes turned heated and knowing. We were both very aware of every item on the list, so there was no need to say it explicitly out loud.

“Here? Really?”

“Maybe not sex,” I murmured, placing my hand on her knee to gauge her reaction. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t make you feel good in other ways.”