“What’s your idea?” she asked and leaned back on the loveseat she was sharing with Kennedy, looking around the house they had bought three years prior, after they’d decided to move in together.
Their first two years as a couple, they’d primarily gone back and forth from one place to another. Kennedy had had a three-bedroom house at the time, and Cameron had had a two-bedroom condo close to the studios. Due to the proximity to work for both of them, Kennedy had crashed with her most of the time, but after a couple of years of that tedious back-and-forth and them having to remember where they’d left their hairbrush or a shirt that they’d wanted to wear, they had boughtthishouse together.
Cameron had been excited, thinking they’d decorate it as a couple and do it slowly between their movies, but one day, shortly after they had moved in, she’d come home to find the living room already painted, and the furniture she hadn’t ever seen had been sitting places like it had been there all along and she just hadn’t noticed. She’d spent the previous night on set in her trailer because of her early call time, and in just two days, Kennedy had paid an interior decorator and a crew to come in,paint the walls a pale purple, and move the furniture in. They had fought about that, but in the end, Cameron had given in.
The furniture was ivory and soft leather, which wasn’t Cameron’s thing, and she’d heard Kennedy later tell people during a dinner party that it wasn’t real leather when Cameron knew that it was. The room was still that pale purple, and they still had that furniture. The decorator had returned, and she had taken care of the kitchen, the dining room, the three guest rooms, and their bedroom, along with the den, the gym, and the backyard. It had all been done in about six months, and Cameron hadn’t had much to do with it at all.
“A TV show.”
“What?” Kennedy said. “I told you, I’m not doing TV again.”
“No, not like that,” Jessie replied. “Not a role.”
“So, we’re producing or something?” Cameron asked.
“No, it’s not really a TV show. I misspoke. You’re going to be in it, but as yourselves, not as a role. And it would be on YouTube. Ten to fifteen minutes at most and some other social posts.”
“I’m sorry; you want me to be on YouTube now? I have two Emmys, a Golden Globe, a People’s Choice Award, I was nominated for–”
“Oh, knock it off, Kennedy. We all know your resume,” Zane interrupted. “It’s not like that. It’s for charity, and it’s a good idea.”
“I’m not sure I even know what the idea is yet,” Cameron admitted, leaning forward toward Jessie, who sat opposite them.
“It’s for charity, like Zane said, but you’d be going on a double date with a winning couple.”
“Your plan is for us to double date with some people?” Kennedy asked.
“Not just that. You’ve seen that before. Celebs do posts to get people to donate money to the cause, whatever it may be,and they get a prize if they win. Sometimes, it’s a trip to a movie premiere, and other times, it’s a night out with the celeb, or, in this case, celeb couple.” Jessie pointed at them with two fingers. “I have a better idea than just a double date, though.”
“Can’t wait to hear it,” Kennedy replied sarcastically.
“A double dateweekend. You two, the winning couple, and a whole double date weekend in a beach house. I already have it picked out. I just need to rent it. I have a charity in mind, too. It’s one you’ve worked with before, and it will do well to help rehab your image. The couple will be there with you from Friday night to Sunday morning, and we’ll have a very small camera crew there. They’ll film, and we’ll do posts for the charity and just some fun ones. They’ll see you thrownoglasses and not fight, looking like the perfect couple that I know you are, and in the end, we’ll post a short video on YouTube from that weekend. The charity gets a nice sizeable donation, which is also good PR, we get a lot of social content for your pages for the next several months, and you two get to show off how good you are together and assure everyone that the fight you had was just a normal, everyday long-term couple expressing themselves and that you’ve already moved on and wish the public would, too.”
“Hold on. You want us to double date with completestrangersfor the whole weekend?” Cameron asked.
“Is that even safe?” Kennedy asked.
“The house is a six-bedroom mansion. You’ll be fine. And I’ll have security there anyway because we’re shooting. Besides, the other couple will have their own room, and the camera people will be there, too. I’ll be there. So, we’ll have plenty of people around, and we’ll even pick the couple.”
“Pick? Isn’t it usually just a raffle? Drawing their name out of a hat?” Cameron asked.
“Yes, but this is different. You’d be sharing a house with them for a couple of nights, so I want to handpick the coupleyou’ll be doing that with. Besides, that also helps me craft the narrative and the weekend.”
“Jessie, this is crazy,” Kennedy suggested. “I’ve never heard of a celebrity doing anything like this.”
“I know. That’s the point. It’s not just a quick two-hour dinner where you rush off in a town car, and they drive home in their, I don’t know, Toyota or something.”
“Hey,Iused to drive a Toyota,” Cameron said. “Don’t knock them till you try them.”
“Please, I drive a Nissan. Act like you two pay me that much,” Jessie replied sarcastically. “Anyway, the idea is that itisunique. That’s the whole point. You’re going above and beyond for the charity. They’ll get more money this way, and we’ll make it so that the minimum donation to be entered is a little higher. That should help with the basic screening, but there can be other, smaller prizes like signed photos or something like that. Maybe a video call with the two of you. We’ll figure that part out later.”
“I don’t know…” Kennedy looked toward Cameron. “What do you think?”
“I’m not thrilled that the public thinks I threw a glass at you in a room filled with people, to be honest, so if this is something we can do to help with that rumor, I think we should do it. Or, at least, really consider it.”
“Sleeping in a house with two strangers who are probably fans of ours? I don’t know, Cam. That seems like it could be dangerous.”
“Yeah, but we’re handpicking the couple, right? It’s not random, so we can, hopefully, find out if they’re that type or not. Like, if they have posters of us on their walls or something, they’re not getting into the same room with us.”
