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“You ready?” Nate asked with a wink.
He had on dark jeans, a gray T-shirt, and sneakers. I’d changed out of my everyday workout kit and into a complementary outfit—jean shorts, a gray crop top, and matching kicks. The company had sent us the same pair after we mentioned them on one of our videos last month.
“Sure,” I said, nodding at Honey. She was taking behind the scenes
“Here we go. I’ll count you in,” Honey said.
I turned away from Honey where she stood for behinds the scenes footage and faced the videographer we’d hired for this job. I took a deep breath and released it.
Showtime.
“Five, six, seven, eight.”
And then I couldn’t focus on anything but the choreography I’d crammed into my head the last few days. This was take six. One of us kept fucking it up and breaking down into laughter. We were going to have some amazing bloopers, but I was ready for this to be over.
The music started, and we strode forward. My arms and legs moving almost of their own accord. I skipped backward a step. Nate caught my arm, and I did this little jump-hop thing where I landed on his other side. We looked at each other, smiled, and walked back toward the camera. We’d added the look after one of our mess-up runs. Honey had thought it looked too good and we needed to add it in on purpose. She wasn’t usually wrong about these sorts of things.
“And that’s a wrap,” Honey called after we finished.
I laughed and bent forward to get air into my lungs. I could sprint through an entire soccer game, but walking toward a camera for one minute left me winded.
“That was the one,” Nate said. “Even that smile was perfect.”
He touched the side of my mouth, and I stepped backward. Yeah, I needed to talk to him.
Honey rushed over to show us the behind-the-scenes footage. We watched side by side and then agreed on the one that we were going to use. Everyone packed up, leaving me and Nate alone.
“Coffee?” I asked.
“Or…we could go back to your place,” he suggested with a wink.
I laughed softly. His thirst trap stuff hadn’t actually worked on me. It was the fact that underneath the persona, he was a real person I enjoyed being around. But sometimes, he forgot and tried to use his charm on me. I was sure he used it on anyone who was within range. It wasn’t on purpose. I just…wasn’t interested.
“Coffee,” I said instead.
He nodded, not seeming to care that it hadn’t worked. “All right. I’m down.”
We drove separately to my favorite local coffee shop, Monomyth. Luckily, it was the middle of the day in the summer, so it was relatively empty. Students normally filled all the available spaces with their laptops and notes. I ordered a dirty chai latte, and Nate got a large black coffee. Then, we took our drinks to a seat by the large window in the converted old house.
“I think this video is going to be a huge success,” he said.
“Me too.”
“While I’m here, we could do the ‘I See the Real You’ challenge.”
“Oh yeah, I was so happy for you when I saw that go viral.”
“I’ve done a few of them now because people asked. You know how it is.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “The can you do that again because I blinked?”
He laughed and nodded. “Stuff like that. But it’d be fun to do it together.” He looked me up and down. Though he’d seen me in a lot less, I still flushed at the attention. “You’d barely have to do anything for the glow-up.”
“I don’t think so,” I said, taking a sip of my drink.
“I could even film for you.”
“I don’t want to do the challenge.”
“Why not? Don’t you know the guy?”
“Which is why it’d be weird,” I told him. Though, of course, that wasn’t the reason at all. I couldn’t imagine doing any videos to Campbell’s songs. Let alone to the song written about me.
“We wouldn’t have to do a hot glow-up. You know people have taken it to a whole new level already. Some people are switching the camera to show themselves in a T. rex costume or going from, like, a slob on the couch to still a slob on the couch. Like, that’s just who they are.” He snapped his fingers. “A perfect Blaire Blush version might just show you in your workout outfits and then switching to a different color. We could do a bunch of them and change out your hats. Obviously, you already are who you are. You don’t have to change for the camera.”
“Or get naked for it,” I teased.
He grinned. “Just for me, love.”
I snorted. “Awfully full of yourself.”
“Should I not be?” he asked, leaning back in his seat and putting his hands behind his head. His giant biceps flexed, and he raised his eyebrows.
