Page 17 of The Flight Risk

It’s the part where Jenna and Matty are doing the Thriller dance at the company party. I sigh out of pure happiness.

“Are you okay?” Oakley asks.

“More than okay. Why?”

“You have the goofiest look on your face.” He throws a scrap of crust on his paper plate. “I’ve never seen you smile like that. It’s nice.”

I sheepishly smile and I know my cheeks are pink. “I love this scene. I love their friendship and how Jenna is so willing to be herself without wondering if people will judge her. Adulthood ruins that reckless abandon.”

“Sometimes people put their guard up so they can’t get hurt even more than they already have been.”

I swallow hard. It’s like he has read every piece of my soul and we barely know each other. No time like the present to change that. I toss my half-eaten third slice of pizza back in the open box on the coffee table and tuck my feet under myself.

“I’m taking a page out of the Jenna Rink book.”

“Okay…” Oakley tentatively responds as he chews.

“Who is your actress crush?”

His eyebrows cinch together. He swallows, sips some water and shakes his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think I have one.”

My jaw drops. “Oh come on! You are telling me that even as a teenager, you didn’t have a crush on some insanely gorgeous actress or supermodel or anything?”

“I was too focused on hockey and building Legos to notice. And the only movies I was really into were the Star Wars movies.”

I extend my arm out in full force toward him and he jolts back into the couch. “Leia! What about Princess Leia! Carrie Fisher! She was a badass.”

“Yeah, I can’t argue with you there. She was a badass. Sure. Let’s go with that.”

Ugh, he is like a brick wall. “That’s all you are going to give me? A lazy and unenthusiastic ‘sure’? There’s seriously no one who really gets your heart beating any time you see them? Not even, I don’t know, Kim Kardashian or Margot Robbie?”

He winces and shakes his head. “Sure, there is someone. They just aren’t on the screen.”

I adjust in my seat and gulp my wine, avoiding delving deeper into that subject. I don’t want to talk about who he has eyes for. I don’t think my ego could take it.

Thankfully, Oakley speaks before I have a chance to spiral. “So, who is your actor crush?”

I stare at the screen again in utter delight. “Mark Ruffalo.”

Oakley snorts. “Mark Ruffalo? Why?”

I gasp. “Don’t you dare mock my choice. This movie was a major sexual awakening for me. I knew I would want a man like Matty. No other actor could pull off that part with such sincerity. I fell hard. I swear he gets hotter with each passing year. That silver fox look is working for him. And his activism.” I fan myself and wait for a snarky remark from across the couch.

“I’m not mocking you at all. He seems like a great guy from what I’ve seen. I just wasn’t expecting that answer. I thought you would have said someone like Zac Efron or Robert Pattinson.”

“I mean those two, yes, obviously make the cut. Hello, High School Musical and Twilight were on repeat in my house.”

“The cut?”

“Oh yeah. You don’t think I only have one actor crush, do you? The list goes on for miles.” I drink more of my wine. Geez, could I sound any more boy crazy? I mean I am, but he doesn’t need to know that. Or maybe he already does know that. Either way, I pivot back to where we started. “But Mark will always have my heart.”

“Noted.” He wipes his hands and props a leg on his knee. “Tell me something else about you, Tess Lewis.”

I ponder for a second. “Hmmm, I love sunflowers, the color green…” Suddenly I get excited when I think of the perfect fun fact that I have yet to use at welcome back professional development meetings at the beginning of the school year. “I love to collect snowglobes.”

He nods and narrows his eyes. “And you were making fun of me for my Lego collection. How dare you.”

“This is not the same thing.”