“Oh, of course. I forgot to fill you two in. The storm changed everything. Even though the people from the magazine booked the cabin and were really intent on getting beautiful wilderness shots for the spread, plans changed. The roads are probably going to be hard to navigate for the next few days anyway, so they have decided to shoot the entire thing here.”
“So, what does that do for the timeline?” he asked.
“We are shooting out of one of the suites and it's staged already. That means if you are up to it, the shoot can happen today.”
“I thought the reason we came out here in the first place was to get wilderness shots with the drones,” Toby said, directing the statement at Easton. “That was supposed to be the whole draw.”
“I ran a test run already around the resort and I’m pretty sure we can get better stuff from here than we would have out there,” Easton said. Toby didn't look convinced. Having very little idea of what the two of them actually did, the conversation was fascinating to me. I thought I knew what Toby's job was, but I had never seen him at work per se. It was kind of sexy seeing him in that mode even though I would never admit it to him.
“The mountain is accessible from here, but here we have something else that we would have lacked out in the wild, and that's people. We can have close up shots following people up and down the slopes. Movement automatically makes a shot more dynamic and people love that.”
“Are you telling me that going out there in the first place was for nothing?”
“If we hadn’t had the first idea, we wouldn’t have gotten this one, relax. If you don't believe me, I can show you the footage.”
“In other words, yes,” he said, getting testy.
“If you want to blame someone, blame the weather. We restrategized when things didn’t go to plan. Are you going to get here and then bail because you’re mad at something none of us could control?” Easton asked him. I watched, surprised at this side of Toby. He was stressed too, he was just a little better at hiding it.
“Does all of this have to happen today?” he asked.
“We can do the drone shoot tomorrow morning, early, right after the sun comes up. What do you say? The indoor shoot though, we can do right now.”
Toby seemed to like that idea. He said to give him an hour and he would be ready. That meant I had an hour to get ready too. The group split up and I opened up the door to my suite.
The place was huge. Easily, the living area alone rivaled the size of my entire apartment. It was spacious with a large leather couch and two armchairs. Next to the fireplace which was already lit was a smaller table with two chairs on either side of it. Sliding glass doors opened to a small balcony that looked out over the wooded mountainside. A massive television was mounted to the wall and the luxuriously fluffy carpet lined the floor.
There were two bedrooms and of course I chose the bigger one. The king-size bed faced another huge television mounted to the wall and there was a fireplace in there too. It was spacious, decorated in earthy, natural tones and textures. I collapsed dramatically onto the bed. I closed my eyes, grateful beyond belief for the opportunity to be there.
I wished that was the only thing that I felt.
In front of Easton and Missy, Toby hadn’t given anything away about what had happened between us, and instead of reassuring me, that made me nervous. He and Easton were friends, and I had no idea whether he would tell him what had happened. Between the cabin and here, he had made a massive shift.
He had been insistent on riding here together but now he wasn’t giving any indication that he still wanted to be close to me. It might have been because we were no longer alone together, and he didn’t want anyone else to know but I still had questions.
What happened now?
I felt like we had unfinished business.
I got up and started unpacking. I didn't think my question was going to be answered as quickly as I wanted it to. No matter what, I would still have to interact with Toby during the duration of this trip. We were headed to a photo shoot. Watching him looking his best, working it for the camera was going to be a challenge and I wasn't sure I was up to it.
17
Toby
“No smile, please. Serious, give me serious,” the photographer said. I wasn’t smiling so I didn’t know what he was talking about. I looked into the camera and tried to focus.
“Easton, please, interact with the set. Move around,” the man said.
“Me?” Easton said.
“Not you, Easton,” he said.
“I’m Toby, he’s Easton,” I said.
“Toby, move around, interact with the set. You’re too stiff.”
Too stiff? I had done this before, gotten professional pictures taken here and there for work reasons and this was no different. I knew how to do this, even though I didn’t enjoy it.