Page 8 of Love: Take Two

"Speak of the devil," Rory says with a wave of her hand. "Noah, this is Awa Faye, Tabitha's attorney. She's been on set since yesterday."

After the briefest of pauses, he turns to face me, and my breath hitches.

God damn him for still being as handsome as ever. He's grown his hair out since I last saw him, and the styled curls fall gracefully across his eyebrows. He's filled out a bit since I knew him too, with strong, broad shoulders that strain the fabric of what looks to be a thousand-dollar suit.

And his mouth?Oh, mon Dieu,do I remember how I used to fantasize about it! How the pillow softness of it shocked me when we finally kissed. How talented it was when we did more.

I clear my throat and reach out my hand to shake his.

"Hello, Mr. Park. It's a pleasure to see you again."

Rory's eyes widen in surprise.

"You two already know each other?" she asks, looking back and forth between us. Noah still hasn't offered his hand.

I nod.

"We had a few classes together in college."

A few is an understatement. Afterthat night—the one I tried in vain to wipe from my memory—it was almost impossible to avoid him. If he wasn't being annoyingly smart and engaged in my classes, he was wowing every agent at the numerous industry networking events. Even with three years of Columbia Law School ahead of me, graduation was a relief.

He takes my hand just as I'm about to lower it.

"Yes," he says gruffly. "We were classmates at USC. Our paths crossed several times."

I pull my hand from Noah's too-tight hold, and that seems to shake him from whatever was swirling behind those stormy eyes. He drops his hand to his side and turns a dazzling smile to Rory.

"So, Rory," he says, picking up the conversation as if I'd never arrived, "you were just telling me what's been happening on set?"

"Yeah, uh…" She glances warily between us again before continuing. "Well…Yong-rae seems to be having a hard time. He's struggling with blocking, and this morning, it took over twenty takes to finish a scene because he couldn't nail his lines. Is everything OK? The rest of the cast and crew are concerned."

I roll my eyes.

"Rory's being exceptionally gracious," I scoff. "What she means to say is that your client is wasting everyone's time. This movie has Oscar potential, and right now, your client is putting that in jeopardy by showing up unprepared and ill-equipped to do the job."

Noah's face is all business when he says,

"Ms. Faye, we can do without your editorializing." His voice is cold steel. "I'm sure Rory said exactly what she meant."

I tamp down on a smug grin when Rory avoids his gaze. Noah frowns in response.

"I see. Let me have a talk with Yong-rae. I'm sure this is all just a misunderstanding."

"You do that," I sneer sweetly as he walks away.

Once he's out of earshot, Rory pulls me aside.

"What the fuck was that?" she hisses. "I thought lawyers were supposed to be diplomatic. You had your claws out, girl!"

I sniff, feigning ignorance.

"I'm just making sure everything's out in the open. He needs to understand what's at stake here."

"That may be," she hedges, "but let's not make production any more contentious than it already is, please."

I make a noncommittal noise, and she curses.

"Great. Now I have to worry about whatever's going on between you and Noah, too?"