It concerned me a bit that Noah didn’t keep his doors locked. Although maybe he’d specifically left it open just for me.

“Hello?” I called out. For one second I was worried that Noah was in his bedroom and expected me to join him, and I nearly bolted back out the door.

“I’m in the kitchen!” His mouth sounded muffled, like he was eating.

Sure enough, he had another bowl of cereal that he was eating over the sink. He’d apparently just gotten out of the shower again, his hair hanging down in wet strands. I was struck with a desire to push it off his face, but he beat me to it. I sighed. I loved when he did that.

“You just missed me clearing out my fridge. I saw on the news that romaine lettuce was recalled.”

I liked how he seemed calm and mellow. Like this huge thing wasn’t about to happen and we were just hanging out together. “Do you know what doesn’t get recalled?”

“Is it chocolate?” he asked.

“It’s chocolate.”

“Do you want anything?”

“No,” I said. “I’m good.” Not really, but I was trying hard to calm my heart rate down. “I’m not keeping you from some wild Hollywood party, am I?”

“That’s not really my scene,” he said after swallowing down a big gulp. “I like going to the theater, but that’s a little harder to do these days. I spend a lot of my time reading and watching movies. Cheesy as it may sound, it helps me hone my craft. And if there’s one thing I learned in the military, it’s the importance of doing things right.”

Yeah, and he was going to show me the right way to kiss. My knees buckled slightly, and I leaned against the wall for support. “Do you ever watch your own movies?”

“No. You know how when you see a video of yourself or hear a recording of your voice and it just sounds off or wrong? And it makes you cringe, because that’s not how you hear yourself in your own head?”

“Sure.”

“It’s like that for me, but for some reason it bothers me a thousand times worse than it seems to for other people. Plus, I see all my mistakes and all the different choices I should have made for a scene, and it drives me crazy. I basically just run them over and over again in my head. So I’ve learned not to watch my own work.”

I couldn’t help it. My face fell. I had totally wanted to watch the last movie in the Duel of the Fae trilogy with him and demand answers.

“What’s that look for?” he asked.