“Yep. Send me the pics and I’ll see what I can do.”
And that was apparently the end of the conversation, as Lena jumped up. “Next. I just had an idea. You’re coming across as so much more confident than you were even a few weeks ago. We need to keep up the momentum. I checked your social media just now, and…you don’t post a lot, do you?”
“Not really.”
“It’s fine. All I was going to say was, you should start adding pictures. Help to get you out there, less hiding away and more pushing yourself forward. It’s a good idea, right? I’m not saying take loads of selfies, but maybe a few every now and then, and post some stuff showing what you’re up to, or whatever.”
Grabbing my phone from my nightstand, I started scrolling through my embarrassingly bare social media account. “I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to post a few more pictures.”
“No time like the present.” She grinned at me encouragingly.
“Okay.” A smile spread across my face. “I’ll do it. Starting now. In fact, I’ll start with a selfie.” I stepped right next to Lena, flipping on the selfie camera. “What’s the best angle? I never take these.”
She tutted. “Sometimes I feel like you hide yourself away too much. You’re gorgeous, Raine. You need to appreciate your own looks.”
My cheeks heated at her words. “Ha. I know I should try to appreciate myself. It’s just…I-I don’t really know how to.”
“Tell yourself every day. You already have so much more confidence in yourself than when I first met you. You just need to keep it up.”
“I’ll try.”
“Good. Okay, selfie tips.” She took the phone from my hand. “Ponytail out, flip your head, and get all that hair shaken out.”
I followed her commands. “Now what?”
“Now, we take five million pictures and pick the best one to post.” Turning the phone towards us again, she pressed her face up next to mine. “Silly poses. Tongue out. Fingers up.” I ended up in fits of laughter as she made me do a series of increasingly ridiculous poses and facial expressions, until eventually she stopped. “Go through the pictures I just took, and pick the best.” She handed the phone back to me, and I flipped through the images, smiling. I actually looked like I was having fun. There was a sparkle in my eyes and a genuine smile on my face. I selected an image of us mid-laugh, neither of us looking directly at the camera, and added a filter effect.
Looking at it objectively, I could admit to myself that it was actually a pretty good photo.
“Don’t forget to tag me. I’ve got loads of followers.”
“Of course you have.”
She rolled her eyes. “Not because it’s me, but because of my brother. Every time I post a photo with him in it, people go crazy. Look.” Swiping through her photos, she paused on one of Cassius holding her in a headlock, both of them laughing. They were on a beach somewhere, both wearing sunglasses, and Cassius’ ripped, tattooed body was prominent in the picture. I stared at the likes. “How many thousand?” I whispered, shocked.
“Yeah. That’s the power of Cassius Drummond.” Another eye-roll accompanied her words, and I laughed as I handed the phone back to her.
“I guess you must be used to it by now. Anyway, what caption should I put with our photo?”
She shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
“Posting it now.” I captioned the image with just one word—“friends”—and posted it, making sure I tagged Lena.
“Perfect.” Lena viewed the picture on her own phone. “Maybe I should ask Cassius to take a photo with you—that’d get people talking.”
“I don’t want people talking. I just want it to look like I’m doing fine on my own.”
“Comfort zone.”
“Stop saying that to me.”
“Remember, you can handle anything. You’re strong.”
“I don’t feel very strong.”
“Raine. You. Are. Strong.”
She gave me a quick, unexpected hug. “I’m proud of you, you know? Now, send me those pics so I can forward them to my cousin’s girlfriend.”