Page 10 of For the Cameras

I sucked in a big breath. “Let’s head back in. I’ll try my best not to screw it up again.”

“You’re doing great,” Chase said. “Just pretend nobody’s watching.”

“Instead of adozenpeople watching.”

“Hey,” Chase said. “Pretend it’s just you and me. Okay?”

I nodded at him. “You and me?”

“You and me,” he repeated with a dimpled smile.

We headed back in and I plunged in like I was getting into the deep end of the pool. I tried to do as Chase said, turning on mental blinders and pretending nobody else was in the room.

Once we got rolling, I still flubbed the first take again. But after that, I delivered the next one perfectly.

Flynn seemed visibly relieved, giving me a little salute. “We’ve got it. We can head home for the day, folks.”

I let out a long breath as if I’d been holding it all day.

“Great first day,” Charlie, one of the Fixer Brothers Construction crew guys, hollered out, starting up a round of applause. “We’re going to rock this reno, Adam.”

Sweet, sweet relief. I was so glad the first day was over. I was still looking forward to the renovation, but all of thepeoplingtoday had been overwhelming.

Slowly but surely, the construction guys and the TV crew hauled out all of their equipment and filed out of my house one by one. When I headed back into the short entryway, I saw Chase, the last person heading out of the front door with a metal tripod in his hands.

“Hey, you,” he said, his kind eyes landing on me.

Something about the casualness in the way he talked to me made me both comfortable and a little jittery at the same time.

Nobody usually talked to me in the way he did. On calls for work, I was Mr. Richardsen. And in public, I was typically introverted enough that a lot of people kind of just left me alone.

Some people just regarded me as a nerd.

Others probably figured I didn’t want to chat because I was sobadat chatting.

But Chase was already talking to me like he was my friend. And I realized it had been a long time since I’d had anything close to a new friend.

“Thanks for your suggestion earlier,” I told him. “I tried to ignore everyone. It didn’t work, but it made it at least a little easier to say my lines.”

“I was proud of you,” he said with more of the same warmth. “Hey, I’m about to head to Jade Brewery with some of the Fixer Brothers guys, if you want to come along.”

“No, no thanks,” I said immediately, my usual knee-jerk reaction when people invited me out.

“You sure?” he asked. “We don’t bite. Well, I do, but not unless someone asks for it.”

“Not tonight. But thank you again, Chase.”

“I figured,” he said with a nod. “Maybe next time.”

“Probably not next time,” I told him, knowing that I was probably making a mistake by being too honest. I never wanted to seem ungrateful when in reality I was just being my usual, introverted self.

“Why not next time?” he asked.

“Because after a day like today I prefer a drink alone out on my balcony, honestly,” I said. “I’m not much of a going-out-to-bars kind of guy.”

He gave me a nod. He was being very respectful, even if his eyes made me feel like there was a battering ram in my chest.

“I understand,” he said. “Jade Brewery is much more chill and relaxed than most bars, but I respect it. You like being alone.”