“Really?” he asked.

I nodded and looked straight ahead again.

A few minutes passed without either of us saying anything.

When I couldn’t focus anymore, my eyes drifted down to his hand, which was resting next to mine in the tiny space between us. He had ridiculously long, slender fingers that looked like they were made for playing the piano; silver rings glimmered on two of them and his nails were painted black, and God, why were even his hands so attractive? I had never found anyone’s hands attractive before.

My mouth went dry when one of them suddenly inched closer, until his pinky finger was brushing against mine in a motion that couldn’t possibly be accidental, lingered for too long to not be deliberate.

This was confirmed when I finally dared to raise my gaze and locked eyes with him. A smile twitched around his lips, entirely too self-conscious for the Jasper Des Lauriers I had seen striding across the stage only an hour earlier. Then again, none of this was what I had expected from him; I hadn’t expected the glasses or Sherlock or the surprise in his voice when he asked Really?

It was the combination of all three that gave me the courage to put my hand on top of his. Jasper’s smile grew and with it the tornado that had been raging inside me since the beginning of rehearsal today, a big confusing whirl that made my hands shake so much I was sure he had to feel it.

Maybe he did and that was the reason he turned his hand over so that our palms were pressed together, fingers interlocking like two pieces of a puzzle that had just been waiting to be assembled, and I was pretty sure that I was a study in scarlet by now, every inch of me burning burning burning. Converting oxygen to carbon dioxide suddenly became an impossible feat. Every atom, every molecule, every cell inside of me was screaming and holy fucking shit, this definitely didn’t feel like nothing, this felt like everything at once. I was being electrocuted and I was going to die on this bloody bed with his checkered sheets under me and Hugh Jackman watching from the wall and Jasper’s hand in mine and ten thousand million volts coursing through my body and—

“Hey, Seth,” Jasper murmured, his voice a low rasp. “Do you—”

There was a knock at the door.

There was a fucking knock at the door.

“Putain,” Jasper said with feeling and scrambled to his feet.

Letting go of his hand felt only a little bit like losing a limb.

The ten thousand million volts all drained out of my body at once and left me with a whole lot of nothingness that made me want to sink onto the mattress in a dramatic heap. Instead, I tucked my fingers into the pockets of my pants and scooted back to my initial seat on the edge of the bed, trying to get my heartbeat under control and keep myself from screaming while he crossed the room.