As Carly reset herself for another run of the scene, she stole a glance at Lauren Prescott, who sat at the table next to Ethan, complete with her clipboard and series of file folders, all neatly laid out. She was studiously scribbling something in her production book. From the moment they’d first met, she’d noticed Lauren. She came with a quality that was hard to look away from. She carried herself with confidence, and while she seemed friendly, there was also a removed quality that drove Carly nuts. She’d tried several times to break through that shell, to only fleeting success.

“Lauren?” she’d asked on their last break of the day, because she was apparently five years old and simply couldn’t seem to leave it alone.

“Yep. What can I do for you?”

She rested her chin in her hand, hoping Lauren would make eye contact. “How many tickles do you think it takes to make an octopus laugh? I’m just curious. I’ve been dying to figure it out. Up all night. It’s a problem.” She flashed what she hoped was a killer smile.

Lauren looked up from her laptop with confusion in her green eyes that quickly dissolved into what could best be described as slight amusement. Not a full-on smile, no, but the start of one. “I don’t know, Carly. Why don’t you tell me how many? I have a feeling you know.”

“Ten, Lauren. Ten tickles to make an octopus laugh. Can you imagine?”

Lauren shook her head and laughed silently, returning to the solace of her production book. “I can’t believe you just said that,” she murmured. Her dark hair, when Carly studied its length, fell just above her breasts, not that she knew much about them. The clothes Lauren wore to work, while professional enough, didn’t offer too many glimpses of the body beneath, which she had a feeling was being undersold.

“Oh, but I did. I did say it. And there’s more where that came from. I’ll hit you up tomorrow.”

“If you’re on time, I’ll consider it,” Lauren said casually, this time not glancing up from her work.

“Now you’re just tempting me.”

“I’m entirely fine with that.”

Carly noticed that Lauren didn’t socialize with the cast much during their downtime. She maintained a professional distance, which made sense given how she was not only the person who kept them moving forward but, in a way, the disciplinarian as well. Kind of like their very put together camp counselor.

Carly stole another glance. The really, really hot kind you made out with before summer ended.

Chapter Three