“Who knows, maybe your future husband, Ethan, will want to work with you, and this will be how you fall in love,” Nittha said, her voice sounding dreamy.
“Oh god.” Gabby sighed, clutching her lemon-berry iced latte, which had also been my treat and another useless bribe. “Not that again.”
“Seriously, don’t think about it anymore. I’ll figure it out,” I said, ignoring the little voice in my head that was almost desperate enough to partner with Ethan or Buzzy at this stage. Nittha and Gabby exchanged glances like they didn’t entirely believe me, and I jumped to change the subject. “Are you two gonna go to that go-kart thing?”
“Yes,” Gabby replied too quickly. I had forgotten how much that girl loved fun-complex games. Give her a claw-and-stuffie machine, darts and balloons, or anything that dispensed tickets, and she would be happy for the rest of her days.
“If Gabby wants to, I’ll go, I guess,” Nittha said, with the appropriate amount of enthusiasm for an under-twenty-ones TrendCon activity planned by the convention organizers to keep us out of the casinos and looking like we were having a moderately fun time should anyone decide to post about it. “You?”
“Maybe. It’s right after BamBam’s panel, so I’ll see if sheneeds me to do anything first.” At this rate, I might have to go go-karting to find some niche creator to step in front of my camera. Noticing my friends exchanging another set of pitying glances, I changed the subject again before my desperation started to waft off me like a smell in a cartoon. “Nittha, should we go get those lights? BamBam seems to think she’ll need over an hour to do glam.”
“Why does she need more than an hour?” Gabby raised an eyebrow as the three of us started to make our way to the elevator bank. “She must be really serious about taking this rivalry to the next level after she and Buzzy showed up in the same outfit.”
I smirked. “Oh, you have no idea.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
The joke was entirely onme. As it turned out, BamBam did need a lot of time to film her beauty routine. In fact, she needed so much time that I finally had to show her how to turn off my two cameras and Nittha’s lights, then go down to set up to film the panel. I’d only just finished begging the con videographers to let me put a GoPro at the back of the room with them when attendees and panelists started arriving for Silver Influencers: Secrets to Embracing Your Age.
Picking a spot toward the right-back of the room, I walked a few seats in and dropped into a chair, then took out my phone so I could both monitor my video feed and film BamBam from a different angle once things got started. Maybe, if I won the TrendCon challenge, I’d buy myself another camera. Clearly, I needed one if BamBam was going to film more of these kinds of day-in-the-life—
“Funny seeing you here.” Ethan’s voice was tinged with humor as he slid into the seat next to me.
Fifteen thoughts slammed through my mind simultaneously. Why was he here? Was Buzzy here, too? The room wasn’t full, so why was he in my row with his camera out? And why did he smell good? Spicy and clean at the same time.
Okay, the answer to that last question wasn’t entirely necessary for my survival. I shook my head and tried to refocus on getting the answers that might keep both of us alive. “Why are you here?”
“Same reason as you.” Ethan shrugged. “On the upside, they aren’t wearing the same thing today.”
“What?” I glanced over at the little knot of people BamBam was standing near more closely. In her bright-yellow sleeveless kaftan she was easy to spot. Sure enough, there was Buzzy in her customary taupe shirtdress. The two of them were as far apart as humanly possible from one another and sending each other intermittent frosty glares. I whipped my head around to face Ethan. “Do you want to be excommunicated from your family? Don’t sit so close to me.”
“It’s the best angle.” He said this with a completely flat affect, but behind his deadpan expression, a smile was lurking. “Are you going to enter the contest?”
“A, you can’t sit here, so don’t try and distract me. B, I’m trying but Mini doesn’t want to enter,” I answered, ticking points off on my fingers.
“A, I’ll move once the panel starts. They are too busy hating each other to notice us right now.” Ethan paused, a half smile finally surfacing when I laughed, then continued looking at me like he’d won a little victory. “And B, why won’t Mini doit?”
“About twenty-seven reasons, some of which are valid. Freeadvertising irks her. Plus, she won’t admit it, but even if we split the one hundred and fifty grand, it’s enough money that I’d have options outside of being beholden to my parents after graduation. That would probably put her in a tricky spot with them because they don’t exactly see filmmaking in my future, but—”
I cut myself off as I watched his expression become pensive, as if he was actually thinking about my predicament. Why was I telling him this anyway? Shaking my head, I pivoted. “Actually. The details don’t matter. She won’t do it. I don’t have an audience or accounts to win on my own, obviously. I tried Nittha, but she’s too busy with another project, and Gabby’s already working with other people. Hence, I’m still figuring itout.”
“Alright, gentlefolk, we are gonna get started here if you could settle in. A few housekeeping rules…” someone in a TrendCon staff T-shirt said into the mic, calling the room to order.
I raised an eyebrow at Ethan, in case he’d missed his cue to get up, then unlocked my phone to check my camera feed. Hopefully, no one had knocked into it and messed up my angle. The event camerapeople would not be happy with me if I tried to sneak back there to fix it.
I glanced over right as Ethan leaned forward to catch my eye, placing his elbows on his knees.
“I’m gonna enter. If you want, we could work together and split the prize.” His voice was soft, as if he hadn’t proposed that I break literally every rule my family had ever laid out for me.
I searched his face for any hint that this was a joke. It had to be. He held my gaze, his honey-brown eyes showing no signsthat this was a trick. Instead, he appeared perfectly comfortable. Hopeful, even.
Maybe it was the way he was watching me, but for a brief moment, a tiny sliver of my mind wondered if it could work. If the idea wasn’t as obviously bad as it sounded. After all, we both clearly thought our grandmas were ridiculous for holding this grudge. And he did seem genuinely nice. And a little funny, even.
Ethan nudged my knee with his, the touch sending sparks across my skin. I pointedly ignored the prickling sensation where my body was trying to memorize his touch.
Stay away from that boy.BamBam’s words from the plane crept into my thoughts. I didn’t know anything about his style. I hadn’t even seen his videos. Looking over at him, I said the thing I knew I had to say all along. “That is another terrible idea.”
Ethan’s face faltered, and then his easy smile returned. “Well, if you change your mind…”
