‘Yes, but your agenda and my agenda match up here,’ he said. ‘I get someone to talk to. You get screen time.’
‘You can’t eliminate your friends,’ I said slowly. ‘So I’d be on pretty much every episode.’
‘Precisely,’ Dylan said. ‘Think of how much sponcon you could get out of that.’
‘We want to do this in one take,’ Dylan told Murray. ‘No stopping. Straight through. Is that okay?’
‘Cece?’ Murray said. ‘Think you can do it?’
‘Yes,’ I said determinedly. ‘Just don’t interrupt me. Let me pretend you’re not there.’
‘All right,’ Murray said. ‘We’re rolling. In three, two…’
‘Dylan, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me last night,’ I said, digging my fingers into the top of the couch and doing what he and I had practised quickly outside, looking into his eyes, not at the camera, not at anything else. ‘You were a real hero.’
‘It was my pleasure,’ he said. ‘There’s no shame in having a panic attack. I’ve had plenty in my time. You’re not alone.’
The boom mic dipped in lower. I gritted my teeth. Don’t look. Don’t look.
‘I still appreciate it, though,’ I said. ‘You might not be the man for me, but you’re a really nice man. Thank you so much.’
‘Don’t mention it,’ he said. ‘I’m glad you’re feeling better. I hope we can be friends.’
Those little crinkles formed at the corners of his eyes as he smiled at me. Something in my shoulders unknotted, just the tiniest bit.
‘I’d like that,’ I said. ‘Friends.’
5
We pitched the idea to Murray immediately after he said, ‘Okay, that’s a wrap.’
He hated it.
‘I can think of a thousand reasons why this won’t work,’ he said. ‘One, where are you going to find the time, Dylan?’
Dylan shrugged. I tried not to pay attention to the way his muscles moved under his shirt, but it was very hard to ignore. ‘I’ll find it.’
‘Okay then, two, where amIgoing to find the time?’ Murray said. ‘We’re down to the absolute bare bones in terms of crew. We can’t bring anyone new into the bubble. And now you’re telling me you want to do all this extra filming? That means cameras. That means sound. That means lighting. That means me, coming down here and holding your hands. I’m good at my job, but I can’t fucking time-travel.’
‘We could mount cameras up there,’ one of the camera crew said.
Murray glared at her. ‘Stop eavesdropping.’
‘I’m just saying,’ she said, apparently undeterred. ‘Given we’re down on manpower, we were going to wire some of the rooms in the Villa to get extra footage, like they do inI’m Always Watching. We could chuck a couple of cameras up there and there’ – she pointed to the corners of the ceiling above the fireplace, facing the couch – ‘and just leave them running. You’d catch these two having their friendly little chats, but you’d also catch everyone in the living room and the kitchen. You could do bonus website content. Call it “Convent Cam”.’
‘What about audio? Those cameras don’t pick up sound for shit.’
‘We could hang a couple of shotgun mics,’ one of the soundies said. ‘The quality won’t be great, but they’ll pick up a fair bit.’
Murray made an unimpressed sound.
‘I’m wearing a mic basically all day anyway,’ Dylan said. ‘I can just leave it on whenever I come down here and bring down one for Cece. You could work a lapel mic, right, Cece?’
‘If someone’s willing to give me a crash course, I’m sure I could figure it out,’ I said.
‘Here’s a tip,’ Murray said. ‘Don’t jump in the fucking lake while you’re wearing it.’
‘That wasn’t my fault!’
