The ten minutes that follow include a lot of our banter, even a fair amount that I thought would get cut. There’s my screwup with the food processor played at regular speed, then again in slow motion, then slower motion, then one more time at regular speed for good measure. I have to fight really hard not to laugh out loud.
But besides that, I spend a lot of the video mesmerized. It’s all moments that I remember. But threaded together the way they are, with zoomed-in shots on our faces or hands at certain moments and emphasis on lines one or the other of us said…Benny and I look like the two leads in a gosh darn romantic comedy.
I feel my face flaming red by the end of the ten minutes and thirty-two seconds.
We didnotlook that cutesy in person, right? I mean, my goodness. At times, it wasn’t even just cutesy, like when he was cleaning pistachio off my face and then went on to draw on me with batter. His fingers weren’t running over my cheeks thatslowly, thattenderly,were they? Surely they added some weird effect there. And they kept making it look like Benny is watching me when I’m not looking. Not just watching,gazing.There are a few shots of me doing it right back, which I certainly don’t recall.
And the banter seems so much more…I don’t even know,charged.Was it charged when it was happening? Annoying at times, maybe, and definitely funny at others. But my gosh, we were making macarons! That was the main focus. The video would have you believing we were on a first date with some light pastry-making on the side.
I, for one, am appalled.
I’m even more scared to scroll down to the comments now, but since that is my actual job, I make myself.
Omg these 2 are the CUTEST…
wow I ship this so hard, is it creepy to ship a couple teenagers, idc
Benny is hot pls tell me he’s legal
Didn’t expect to find my new OTP in a FoF vid but here we are
Reese could get it, js
More Benny and Reese!!! Gotta see the romance play out!
When he painted her face I think it made me believe in love again
“Reese’s Cup” omg I SCREAMED he loves her
So they totally want each other, right? I’m not imagining it?
SHIP IT. This is better than cable omfg
I slam my laptop shut and yank the headphones free. It makes more of a commotion than I meant to, and the others turn to look at me.
“Sorry,” I whisper. Then I sink down in my seat and rub my temples.
Well, didn’t see that one coming.
I can’t believe I didn’t think to let any of my family or friends back home know about this over the weekend. Of course Nat and Clara are shocked that I didn’t give them a warning. They’re the only ones who keep up with FoF, but that doesn’t mean this won’t find its way onto the phones or computer screens of everyone else I know by the end of the day. The internet is weird like that, and everyone in my community seems to know everybody’s business, so if even one person comes across me in a video, it’ll be everywhere. This might be okay if it was just a normal cooking show with normal amounts of charm and personality from the host, the kind of stuff most Friends of Flavor videos contain. But this? This’llhave Mamaw starting to plan my wedding to Benny before the week is through.
I’m more concerned about what everyone else in my world will say, though.
Not to mention, the editors left my “damn” in. Even bleeped, you can tell there’s an offensive word.
Hell’s bells. This is so far above my pay grade.
I sit there in sulky silence for a few more minutes, processing what I just watched and read and how the devil I’m supposed to deal with it, both in the job and personal capacities.
I realize, rationally, that the video is perfectly innocent. There is nothing inappropriate going on between Benny and me, even with the clever editing and everything. But in my experience, people will take anything and run with it.
And as the comments have made clear, they already have.
I let my head fall into my hands, all of the unwelcome thoughts starting to flood in. Thoughts of what happened the last time I had much of an online presence. The last time I got involved with a boy and the outside world saw fit to comment on how I conducted myself with him. Of all the labels that stuck to me over the course of a few months during my freshman year of high school—slut, easy, bitch.Labels that kicked off a long list of judgments and names and presumptions.
I’m so careful about how I interact with the people around me, especially with guys. I know that I keep walls up, but those walls have kept me safe in the time since it all fell apart. I thoughtI’d been keeping myself well and truly guarded in the time that I’ve been here, several thousand miles from my old life, but clearly I’ve already become too comfortable. I let myself get dragged into the brightest of spotlights that’s ever been on me, and even let a bit of my real self show while I was at it. And now it’s out there for strangers on the internet to think and say whatever they want. Reese Camden, happy, at ease, and, sure, having a little fun with a cute boy. The response is positive.
Up until it isn’t anymore.
