Page 46 of The Cuffing Game
Chapter Eighteen
Mia
The crew gathered in the production room for lunch, but Mia was too excited to eat. Leaving her breakfast burrito untouched, she crushed her can of iced coffee and tossed it into the recycle bin.
Kallie gave her a disgusted look as she ate her own burrito. “Mia, it’s barely past noon and you’ve already had two of those today.”
Mia put her hands up in a gesture of innocence. “Hey, I’m just trying to stay awake.”
Damien jabbed a forkful of salad in Mia’s direction. “Trysleepingnext time.” He waved his fork, causing a piece of lettuce to fly off. “And eatingfood.Like normal people.”
“You won’t feel it now, but wait until you’re older,” Kallie said. “All that exhaustion is going to hit you like a ton of bricks.”
“Oh, believe me, it’s already hitting me,” Mia replied. “Which is why I’m on my second can of coffee. I thought sleep deprivation was just part of film school, though?”
Alex groaned from where they were eating a half-unwrapped Uncrustable to “prevent any sticky disasters” while working on their computer.
“You definitely can’t sleep if you specialize in post,” they said. “Everyone’s always sending you the footage last minute and expecting you tomagicallyclean it all up overnight.”
Mia shot them a guilty look. “Sorry, Alex.” She turned back to the rest of the crew and said, “Let’s finish discussing logistics quickly so we can help Alex before we head to the slopes. So it seems like every crusher is now cuffed with their crush. Which is good!”
“Is it really good that everyone’s successfully cuffed with their crush already, though?” Kallie asked. “Maybe we need to spice things up a bit since it’s only Day Three.”
Mia bit her lip. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to “spice things up,” but she figured it was worth hearing what her friends had to say.
“Wecouldbring in some new people to challenge the established cuffles,” Damien said. “Kind of like how they have bombshells inLove Island.We’ll have to be careful, though. Since we have limited space in the lodge.”
Mia followed Damien as he walked over to his laptop. “Was there anyone who wanted to be in the show that lives close to Big Bear?” she asked.
After rapid-fire strikes of his keyboard, he replied, “Yup. There’s one. His name is Kyle Yoshida.”
“Will one guy be enough, though?” Kallie asked. “Maybe it’s worth searching for more girls, too?”
“We can ask a few other people, since we don’t know if Kyle or anyone else can even make it,” Damien reminded her. “It’s less than a week before Christmas. There’s a good chance everyone who originally applied is now out of town or busy doing holiday things. I’ll contact Kyle right now and reach out to some others, too. No guarantees, though.”
“Thanks, Damien,” said Mia.
Kallie thoughtfully crossed her arms. “You know, worst-case scenario, we can bring people back, right? I was thinking of Caleb’s crush, Carlos? He seemed interesting. He just didn’t have enough time on the show to form any connections. And he has a greater chance of still being in town, unless he booked a last-minute trip.”
“Good idea,” Damien said. “I’ll contact him as well.”
Mia settled back into her seat and finally bit into her breakfast burrito. The egg and bacon inside were now disgustingly lukewarm, so she dropped it back onto her plate and pondered upon what her friends had said instead. They definitely had some interesting ideas. Not ones she would ever have come up with herself, but not so completely out of pocket that she didn’t want to go through with them.
“All right, then,” Alex said as they finished eating their Uncrustable. “Adding more people sounds great, but let’s keep it at a maximum of two or three. I don’t want to run around like a headless chicken again.”
“We can definitely do that,” Damien replied. “As always, thanks, Alex. Let us know if you need anything.”
To Mia’s surprise, he looked up from his computer to flash the editor a smile. They returned it with a sheepish grin, which gave Mia pause. Damien and Alex didn’t normally ignore each other, but they also didn’tnotignore each other. So this little interaction was... unusual.
Mia cocked her head to the side, wondering if she should say something, but decided to remain quiet for now.
“While Alex is doing that,” Mia said, switching gears, “Kallie, let’s go look at some of the responses to the latest episode and gauge the viewers’ reactions so far.”
Kallie nodded. “Yup. Come take a look.” She scooted to the side so Mia could pull up another chair to her laptop.
With how chaotic the second episode had been when they were filming it yesterday, Mia had no idea what to expect. To her surprise, one of the most common discussion topics in the comments was Matías and Noah’s new friendship.
That moment with Matías and Noah in their room!??Noah’s so sweet!
