Page 31 of A Perfect Match
“That sucks,” I add.“I’ve been having annoying traffic flow interruptions too but nothing like a street being cut off.”
“What’s cutting off your traffic?”Asher muses as he assesses his hand.
“Just my newlandlord,” I say with a sigh.“Always blocking the curb cut for some new reason.We had a whole showdown the other day when he completely blocked the sidewalk with all his heavy ass patio furniture forhours.” I can hear Kru in my head correcting me that it wasn’thoursbut rather ahalf hour,and I tell imaginary Kru to shut up because I’m busy reassuring my brothers I don’t have feelings for my landlord.
“Oh my god, this guy,” Griffin groans as he lays down a card.“Piper, I’m gonna go talk to him.”
“Absolutely not,” I say, and then toss my card into the middle.“Not unless you want the altercation to be captured by the camera crew, and used as evidence in your inevitable harassment charge.”
He snorts.“Camera crew?”
Oh god.I forgot that they don’t know he’s filming a reality TV show.
“Yeah,” I say slowly, focusing extra hard on the cards my brothers are laying down.“He’s doing another reality TV show with the buildout of his restaurant.”
Silence stretches across the table for an unsettling amount of time.I can see my brothers glancing at each other, as though silently questioning how to handle this piece of information.Mom drifts back into the kitchen.
“Did you say they’re filming a reality TV show?”Mom asks, eyebrows raised.
“Yeah.Capturing the renovation process or whatever,” I say, clearing the table after I take the trick.I lay down another card to start the next round.
“All right.So I’ll lure him into your back room and confront him there, where the cameras aren’t watching,” Griffin says.His attempt to avoid a filmed altercation is cute, but it doesn’t work as he intended.
Now I’m in a sticky spot.
“Well, the cameras are sometimes on my side too,” I begin.
"Why are they bothering you?"Griffin presses, because of course he does.
I clear my throat."They’re notbotheringme.They’re just…” All of the attention is on me now, which makes my brain short circuit.“The producers thought it would be, you know, a good idea if I was…involved."
"Involved how?"Asher's stern voice comes out, the one that makes me feel like he’s my dad.
"Just as the neighboring business owner.I guess for filler."Asher plays a card, and we win the round again."You go, Asher.”
But nobody's paying attention to the game anymore.All eyes are on me.
"Wait.Let me get this straight," Jett says slowly."You’re on a reality show with the guy who’s trying to kick you out of your building?"
"He’s not trying to kick me out," I mutter, but Jett and my other brothers still don’t know the truth: that he actually did kick me out of my apartment.
“It’s safe to assume he’s trying to drive you out of there,” Asher says.“Did you sign a contract to be on the show?”
I swallow hard.“I did.”
All four brothers sigh tersely.Now I feel like I’m in trouble and don’t know why.
“You guys should be happy,” I say.“I’m getting paidandgetting tons of exposure.”
"Or getting tons of conflict," Griffin says, his dark brows drawing together."These shows thrive on drama.They're going to make you look like the villain or the victim, neither of which is good for business."
"That's not necessarily true," I argue, feeling a familiar defensive heat rising in my chest."It's a huge amount of advertising for Cloud Nine.Do you know how many Instagram followers those shows pull in?"
"Life is more than Instagram followers," Asher says dismissively.
"Sometimes Instagram followers pay the bills,” I snap."How do you think I built my business in the first place?Social media is how I get ninety percent of my customers."
"It's different," Dane jumps in."You control your own social media brand.This show?They control the narrative."
