There wasn’t much to mince, though, since there wasn’t much ofanything. All the walls were contractor white. LVP flooring in the same gray wood grain that everyone and their grandmother used nowadays. Shiny new countertops, shinier new light fixtures—all bargain basement again—and plastic film still on all the windows. When she’d said new construction, she’d meant it.
It was a three bed, two bath, with a master suite. Aras checked all the lights as he went through, and they all turned on. Nothing smelled like burning. Nothing got weird with every light in the house on. He didn’t check every single outlet, but one in each room, and they all came back in good shape.
When they were all heading back to the front door, Aras stopped Mason and looked straight at him. “Is this what we’re doing, now? Evander decorates the place and we’re all just muscle?”
Mason shrugged. “Getting paid to make Ev do most of the work seems pretty nice, doesn’t it?”
In theory sure. In practice, Aras’s skin tightened at the thought of sitting around doing jack shit.
Mason apparently interpreted his silence correctly, since he carried on. “You were talking carnival stuff with her at the hotel. Focus on that. Since I’m pretty sure none of us know what the hell it is.”
Aras rolled his shoulders. He had to admit, it scraped at him a little. Theyshouldhave had some idea about carnival glass. He’d been collecting it since they were all in high school. But hell, maybe he didn’t talk about it enough for any of that to break through.Or maybe they don’t care enough.
“I’ll focus on thecarnival stuff, then.” Aras sucked his teeth, then moved out of the back bedroom so they could get on. They still had to check the backyard, which was certain to be just as boring but totally serviceable as the rest of the house.
He flagged down Eliza as they went to the back door. “Hey, I need someone to look over any HOA bullshit we’re going to have to deal with.”
“Done and dusted.” She put her hands on her hips offered a half-cocked smile. “HOA here is only concerned about the public spaces, and avoiding anything dangerous on property. No fire-breathing dragon statues outside, no barbed wire, and we should be good.”
“Some small panacea.” He nodded and headed out with the others.
Chapter five
Dane
Duetonothingbutconvenience, Dane had been pulled in for lighting on the big idea meeting with Caroline. The house was pretty sizable for one person, but the way it was arranged, Vince and Kyle wanted someone who could squeeze into a tight space without getting in the way. Dane was short and skinny, so he fit the bill, and was wedged between two cameras with a light on a tripod at his back.
He was also very nearly rubbing his crotch against the back of Aras’s skull the way they were all positioned, but he pointedly didn’t think about that. If there was any…southern expansion, his bulge would probably close that gap. Which would hardly be the sort of behavior anyone would call professional. And also, Dane would absolutely melt into a puddle of pure embarrassment if he accidentally cock-checked the back of Aras’s head.
Vince, the director of photography, waved his hands, quieting everyone and drawing attention. Then he held up three fingers. Two. One. The cameras focused in and Dane double-checked that the lighting looked decent. He was on fill light duty. Since they were filming in a house, not a highly controlled studio, it was never one-hundred percent clear whether or not fill lighting or back lighting would be needed, when it would be needed, or how long. In general, he would take his cues from Kyle, but he was on orders to fix something if he noticed it first.
Mason, as per usual, took the lead, tapping the butt of his pen against the folding table they’d brought in. “So, like you said, this place is pretty solid already. Nothing major that needs to be addressed as far as we can tell.”
“Other than beingterminallydull,” said Evander.
Caroline nodded, blowing out a slow breath. “That’s good. You always hear horror stories of these new construction houses getting half-assed.” She cringed. “Can I say ass?”
“Don’t censor yourself.” Aras’s voice was low, and he didn’t move at all as he spoke. “That’s production’s job, not any of ours. They have all kinds of fancy beeps they can put in if they don’t like us saying ass or taint or fuck.”
He wasreallypushing Dane’s buttons and didn’t even know it. Dane quite liked hearing Aras say all those words and he leaned his hips slightly back, just in case the tingling rush actually hardened things up.This is insane.
Mason cleared his throat politely. “So anyway, that means we can basically jump right into the fun design part of this process without worrying about cleaning, fixing, any of that.” He reached down and pulled a laptop from his messenger bag. “We’ve got a little web-app that we like to use that’ll help give us a better idea ofyourstyle so that we’re not just making the houses into extensions of our own personalities.” He navigated his way to the app—Dane could just barely see the screen from where he stood—then turned the laptop around and scooted it over to Caroline. “We can answer any questions you might have about it. Otherwise, just go to town and select the stuff that speaks to you.”
“All right.”
“If you can multitask?” Aras shifted a little bit back, barely missing running himself into Dane. He looked over his shoulder and gave a sheepish frown. “Sorry.” He scooted forward again and sat up a bit straighter. “How techy are you? Or how techy do you want to be?”
Caroline clicked a few times, then looked over at Aras. “I don’t want, like, a smart home or anything like that.” A couple more clicks. “But I’d like, I don’t know, lots of entertainment? And I like kitchen gadget kind of stuff.”
Aras nodded. “Entertainment meaning what?”
“I always liked the idea of music in every room. Lots of screens to watch whatever I want.” More clicking, then she looked at him again. “I hope that’s not too selfish or crazy or anything. You don’t have to, I’m just throwing out the ideas. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry either.” Aras’s voice was sharp enough, it sounded more like a command than a consolation. “We’re brainstorming. Say what you actually think instead of what you think we want to hear, otherwise there’s no point to us even being here to do the job.” He scratched a little bit out on the hotel notepad he’d taken with him, then looked around at the others. “Don’t let me do all the talking. Unless you’re all suddenly stricken by idiocy and can’t work your mouths.”
A couple beats of silence, and Dane felt unduly uncomfortable as they all seemed to be judging Aras for his comments. Not that the judgment was necessarily undeserved, but in the time Dane had been working on this production…well, that sort of talk wasn’t out of the ordinary for Aras.
“So, kitchen gadgets.” Robinson didn’t talk much as a rule. His voice was as soft as one would expect from someone who didn’t speak as often. “You like to cook?”
