Page 60 of For the Cameras

Not that I should have been thinking about Chase again. It had been a few days since Chase and I had filmed each other, and I’d had the hottest fucking night of my life getting to suck his dick for the first time.

But he’d left my house quickly right after, and I’d been reminded of reality. Iwasstill my same old lonely self, even if I’d been proud to suck his cock earlier that night.

I’d tried to think about anything else for the past few days, but it had been nearly impossible. I hadn’t received the final edited videos from him yet, but I kept checking my texts and emails, way too often.

Chase also hadn’t been texting me like we had been doing before, on my Adam Dix accountoron our regular text message thread. I knew I’d probably overextended a little when I’d asked him to grab dinner that night, but it wasn’t personal.

Chase just didn’t do that kind of thing, and that was okay. Ihadto be okay with it. My crush was undeniable, but it wasn’t going to lead anywhere. I knew I just had to keep moving forward, buckle down, and rein it in.

I’d been dealing with unrequited crushes for my entire life.

It didn’t have to be any different with Chase now, just because we’d sucked each other off.

“I had no idea that’s how you two got together,” I said to Shawn across the table. “Was Nathan upset that you got together with his best friend?”

Shawn shook his head. “Nah. Not exactly,” he said. “I was scared shitless to tell him, but we’re all like one big, happy, foul-mouthed family now.”

“I can imagine.”

“Thanks for meeting me here,” Shawn said, reaching down to his work bag to grab a stack of paperwork. He slapped it down on the table, laying it all out, and then pulled out an iPad and opened up a blueprint rendering on it. “I’m excited to show you this stuff. The plans for the backyard are my particular favorite. Our new landscaper Sawyer is going to make your place look like a dream.”

“I’ve been waiting for the backyard part of the renovation,” I said. “Can’t wait to see it.”

Shawn showed me 2d blueprints as well as some 3d renderings of options for the backyard. Every single one of themwas gorgeous, with a sunken area in the back for a hot tub and fire pit and a more elevated area for a grill. One of the options included more stone, and the other two featured more plants and natural landscaping.

“You guys are wizards with this stuff,” I said. “I have no idea how I’m going to choose.”

“That’s a good thing, and it means we’ve done our job right,” Shawn said. “You don’t have to choose just yet, and it would probably be better if you choose on camera, too.”

“Right,” I said. “People love seeing the options.”

“And we will showcase them in your episode, for sure,” Shawn said. “We just got the hardware in yesterday and it looks really cool. Retro and modern at the same time, just how you like it. We’re heading back to your place tomorrow for the final phases of the kitchen.”

“Tomorrow. For some reason I thought it was in two days.” I swallowed and involuntarily, my knee started bouncing.

That meant that Chase would be back in my house again tomorrow. After not speaking with him for the last few days, that was even more nerve wracking than ever.

“You got it,” Shawn said. “Did you see the email about the dinner with Emmett Waycott this Friday, by the way? The marketing guy?”

I vaguely remembered an email from this morning talking about dinner in a ludicrously fancy restaurant.

“I saw it briefly, but I figured I was sent that email by mistake,” I said. “That’s meant to be you guys and Emmett, right?”

Shawn’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. Emmett specifically requested that you be there for the dinner.”

I furrowed my brow. “Really?”

“He said he really hit it off with you,” Shawn said. “He said if he’s going to be making the Fixer Brothers his biggest client, hewants a good idea of howourclients feel about us and interact with us.”

I sat back in the leather booth, suddenly feeling like I had a mobile spinning around in my head.

“You can just tell him I’m very happy with your services,” I said. “I really don’t think he needs to waste his money on bringing me out to dinner. Doesn’t that place charge, like, three hundred dollars per person?”

Shawn clicked his tongue. “It’s the nicest restaurant in Denver,” he said. “It might even be more expensive than that, after drinks and dessert.”

“Good Lord,” I said.

Shawn smiled. “Chase had the same reaction. He called me up today saying that he’s ‘not worthy’ of a restaurant that fancy and that they’re going to kick him out for having the blue streak in his hair.”

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