Paulette Reyes, Camera Operator, House of Fame
58
#thishouseisntbigenough
CASH
It felt like a war between us. When I stepped into the kitchen, she moved to the opposite side of the counter. When she stepped into the home gym, I took my water bottle and left.
I shouldn’t have cared, but I did. The more she avoided me, the more I wanted her to look at me. To respond to me. To see me as something other than an obstacle.
I wasn’t imagining it. The production team saw it too, and after a week of forcing us into shots together, Dana called us both into the biggest of the production trailers.
I took the seat in front of her desk while Emma leaned against the right wall, her arms folded over her chest.
“What’s the problem?” Dana said the minute my butt hit the chair. “Because viewers are going to be bored by both of you staring at walls.”
I said nothing and waited for Emma. After a moment, she cleared her throat. “There’s no problem.”
Dana studied her, then me. “Emma, sit down.”
A long, suffered sigh came from her, then she slunk into the chair next to me. Dana clicked a pen into action, then clicked it back into itself. “Emma, we need the relationship with you and Layton to progress.”
I felt my muscles knot and bind in an agonizingly tight fashion.
Emma shrugged. “Okay. Like how?”
“They’ve already been naked together,” I bit out. “What more do you want?”
Dana held eye contact with Emma for a long moment, then continued. “We were thinking of a date night. Something casual, but with drinking and heavy petting near the end.” Her attention pulled over to me. “And since everything is just hunky-dory between you two, let’s make it a double date. Cash, you can bring Eileen.”
I was torn between relief at being there to chaperone and disgust at what she was proposing. Heavy petting? What the hell was that? She didn’t have to do that. We weren’t being pimped out by MTV.
“What kind of date were you thinking? Like, a restaurant?” Emma leaned forward in her seat, and her elbow brushed mine. We both immediately withdrew.
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “What do you consider heavy petting?”
“It’s when one person touches another person in a sexual way,” Dana said to be slowly and clearly, in a tone appropriate for a child. “And don’t worry, you don’t have to touch Eileen if you don’t want to.”
I ground my teeth together and fought the urge to upend Dana’s desk.
“Like, making out, right?” Emma offered unhelpfully. “I can just make out with him?”
“That’s finnneeee,” Dana said. “I just want heat. I want the cameras melting, and you two actually interacting on the double date, okay? Come on. Fans love when you’re together—just don’t start swinging fists.” She smiled as if this was all in good fun.
“And we’re filming this when?” Emma asked.
I couldn’t believe she was so casual about this. Then again, this was the girl who kicked me off her photoshoot and stripped naked with Layton. I’m almost glad I wasn’t there. I’m not sure I could have held back if he’d put his hands on her.
“Tomorrow night. We were thinking of you guys at the Santa Monica pier, then a bonfire at the beach.”
“Adorable,” I muttered.
“Okay.” Dana stood up from her chair. “Good chat, kids. From now on, you’re chummy, okay?”
Emma and I filed silently out without responding.
59
#santamonica
CASH
Emma wore a blue sundress that caught every guy’s eye we passed. I shoved my hands in the pockets of my board shorts and tried to stroll in as normal a fashion as possible, given the fact that Eileen was hanging on me like a leech.
“People are staring,” Eileen clawed at my arm. “Is it like this every time you go out?”
I looked past the guy who was fixated on Emma’s legs and glanced around. Eileen was right. A crowd was beginning to form, and it was probably due to the camera crews and not us, but that was hard to know.
Someone in one of the booths said something to Layton, and we stopped to watch him peel off a twenty-dollar bill and hand it to the guy, then pick up a toy rifle. Emma beamed at him. She couldn’t genuinely be impressed by this. The guy probably grew up shooting baby deer. He leveled the rifle on his shoulder and fired a series of shots at a row of cans. They all fell in quick succession, and Emma cheered.
I turned to Eileen. “Want something to eat?” I nodded to the funnel cake trailer.
She tugged my hand out of my pocket and laced her fingers through mine. “Sure.”
We were at a picnic table, Eileen practically in my lap, trying to feed me a piece when Emma and Layton appeared, her arms wrapped around a giant fluffy bunny.