“Um… Sorry. Can I maybe get some water or something?” River asked. “Honestly, this whole thing has made me a little anxious, and I could use a drink.”
“Sure.” Jessie nodded. “Why don’t you and I go into the dining room, where we’ve set up the snacks and some drinks? We can get something for Lacey, too. Cameron here can showher around a little, and maybe Kennedy can show you around later. That’s not a bad idea, actually,” she added, seemingly more to herself than to anyone else. “We’ll see the bedrooms in a bit; maybe after your luggage is in there.”
“Okay. You good?” River asked Lacey.
Lacey appreciated her checking because she hadn’t expected them to be separated at all this weekend, but especially not right away like this.
“I’m okay,” she replied.
“I guess you’re stuck with me, then,” Cameron said. “I just got here myself, but I think I know the layout well enough for us not to get lost. Want to check out the downstairs first?”
“There’s a downstairs?” she asked as River and Jessie walked off.
“Yes. I haven’t been down there yet, but I’ve seen pictures.”
“Sure,” Lacey agreed.
Cameron motioned for her to go first, and Lacey didn’t knowwhereto go until she noticed a staircase to the right. She walked down the stairs with a freaking movie star behind her and tried not to think about that fact as she arrived at one main room with a few doors.
“Game room. Pretty cool, huh?” Cameron asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she replied. “Definitely don’t have one of these in my apartment.”
Cameron laughed a little.
“Oh,” Lacey added, looking over at her. “I assume you have one of these at home.”
Cameron shook her head and replied, “No. We have a gym. Kennedy isn’t a big game room person.”
“Areyou?”
“I like pool and stuff. I don’t play often. I would love an air hockey table, though. My dad and I used to play it at arcadeswhen I was growing up, and he never let me win. I think I appreciate that now more than I did when I was younger.”
“I like air hockey,” she said. “I’m not good at it – like, at all – but I like it.”
“Not good at it?”
“No. You could gently push the puck over that air, and I’d have that joystick-looking thingy positioned perfectly for the whole twenty seconds or so that it would take the puck to reach it, and I’d still miss it, and you’d score. I have some hand-eye coordination issues when it comes to games and sports.”
“So, I should assume you don’t play any professionally?” Cameron asked through her laughter.
“No, I’m a masseuse.”
“Oh, cool. I’m an actor.”
Lacey laughed and said, “Yeah, I kind of knew that already.”
“Didn’t want to assume.”
“I entered a raffle to have a double date with you and your girlfriend. You didn’t think I knew who you were?”
“River could be a big fan and could’ve entered for you two. Maybe you don’t even watch movies.”
“Well, it was me. And I just saw a movie you were in, actually.”
“Ah, my most recent rom-com,” Cameron concluded and walked over to the pool table, where she dragged her fingertip along the side of it.
Lacey watched her almost entranced, which she shouldnotbe.
