Page 81 of Chase
Fuck.
I run my hand across my hair, sit up a little straighter, and glance behind me before I tap the button to answer.
“I didn’t even know you could video call on this app,” I tell him.
He gives me a gentle smile and I feel like he’s looking right through me from the screen. He’s in his studio now, standing in front of the pink and orange painting he was making earlier.
“If you accept a DM from someone, yep,” he says. “So what are the bad decisions you’re thinking about?”
“They’re not things I’m going to say out loud.”
“Hey. You know I’d never screw you over,” he says. “I’m trying to build a reputation of my own. I wouldn’t tell your secrets for any reason, to anyone.”
I take deep breath, leaning back. “I’m thinking of doing a nude photoshoot.”
A molten heat rolls through me. I envision all sorts of consequences laid out in front of my eyes already, but I shove that possibility aside.
“Is that right?” he asks.
I lift my eyebrows. “What, you don’t believe me?”
I can see him biting back a smile. “I mean, it would be hot, but?—”
“You don’t think I would do it, do you?”
“Okay, so I know you insta-stalked me all day today, and I’ve been really flattered, I promise,” he says, and I can feel my cheeks heat. “But I did the same to you, so I know you better than you know me, now.”
“You watched videos of me online?”
He nods. “I didn’t do it all year. But today I broke down.”
I cock my head to one side. “Trust me, watching videos doesn’t mean you know me.”
“There are a metric fuckton of interviews of you up on YouTube, though,” Chase says as he starts to pace his studio, propping his phone up on some sort of ledge as he strides around, cleaning up paints and brushes. “I saw the interviews you did when you first got famous, all of the ones where they made you talk aboutYard Line.”
“I did a lot of promo, yes.”
“I also saw the ones you did when you got cast as the lead in this upcoming movie,” he says, glancing at the phone. “I didn’t realize the movie you’re filming here in New York is with Andrew Lim.”
“Yes.”
“Wow,” he says softly. “He’s an incredible director.”
“I got really lucky getting the part.”
“Anyway, you’re afraid to even say ‘fuck’ in the interviews. You’re always in those collared shirts, and you sit with perfect posture, and you’re allaww shuckswhen people say you’re a sex symbol.”
I shift on my chair. “I’m not used to the attention, that’s all.”
“Even after a year?”
“There are some types of attention I’ll never get used to.”
He stares at the screen. “And now you’re telling me you’re going to do a nude shoot?”
“Contemplating it. Never said I was doing it.”
“For someone who’s about to be the lead in a gangster film, you’re fuckin’ adorable, Logan.”
