“It’s not a big deal. And the car is kind of strange, so it won’t be a luxury ride or anything. And we have to bring it back soon.” Ethan’s eyes went from mine then down to his feet, as if he wanted to say something more but changed his mind. Exhaling, he said, “It might be tight, time-wise.”
“Got it.” I nodded. Sure, I didn’t know anything about cars, but I did know about product trades and tight filming schedules. “How much time do we have with the car?”
“An hour and a half.”
“Okay. Let’s say it takes us twenty minutes to get there and twenty to get back, plus a half hour to film the fountain.” I did some quick math as we approached the doors. “That should be enough time to have some buffer if—” I cut myself off as I caught sight of Ethan’s face. “What?”
“Like I said, I don’t usually film this kind of stuff, and the car is unique, so I’m shooting slower than I want to be and…” Ethan’s unsaid words hung in the air as if it was causing him pain to admit whatever he was struggling to say.
“And?” I prompted, trying to make my voice sound gentle and unhurried, but with an hour and a half to go, we really didn’t have much time for dawdling. I added, “Ethan, I can’t solve a problem I don’t know about. We’re partners, remember?”
“I need to finish filming the car. I’ll try super hard to be fast. Also, I brought you a snack so you don’t have to get hangry while you’re waiting.” Ethan said this quickly, in one long exhale.
“You brought me a snack?” I laughed, mostly because I was surprised. If I was in a hurry, getting anyone a snack would not have been on my mind.
Ethan’s cheeks turned pink, and he was suddenly very interested in the way the hotel doors slid open. After a moment, he glanced back at me and said, “Well, yeah. I knew you might have to wait for me to figure out how to film this. And I know how you feel about being hungry, so…”
“Aw, you care about me not murdering anyone,” I joked, throwing my hands over my heart. “You are so sweet.”
Was he blushing? Maybe he was trying to be nice to me because he actually did care beyond being desperate for a new friend or finding a rebound, as Sterling had suggested. The thought melted a little piece of my iceberg heart.
“I mean, I’d like to think I am. But it’s not really that,” Ethan said, the pink in his cheeks deepening a shade. He shook his hair out of his face, as if the motion would brush off whatever feelings were behind the flush. “I actually want us to make it to the fountain this time. The way you were glaring at me this afternoon, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you decided to eat me if we hadn’t made it to that food court.”
“Okay, I wasn’t that bad.” I rolled my eyes.
“You accused me of getting too many hugs as a kid.” Ethan snorted.
“Because you clearly did,” I said, trying to get a handle on mygiggles and infuse my voice with some indignance. “I’ve never met anyone who comes off as well-loved as you do.”
“Whatever.” Ethan smirked, then pointed toward the side of the valet stand. “Car is there.”
“You can try to change the subject, but—” The thought fell away as I turned to the left and caught my breath. “Wow.”
Calling that thing a car might have been an overstatement. Technically, it did have four wheels, but that was about where the similarities ended. The thing looked more like an oversized ATV than any kind of car.
“I promise it drives.” Ethan rushed to add, “And I’m a very cautious driver, so don’t worry about the no-doors part.”
Again,no-doorsseemed like a misnomer. It was basically two hot-pink bucket seats bolted to a frame covered in the kind of LED lighting that changes colors all the time. Like if someone took one of the quads fromMad Maxand made it the opposite of intimidating. In theory it had a roof, but the roof was made of clear fiberglass with a cartoon bird covered in sparkles on it. If I had to guess, the valet had left it out in front of the casino not because it was cool but because they were afraid to move it.
“You traded a vid for this?” I coughed, careful to keep my voice low in case anyone was around.
“Desperate times.” Ethan smirked. “It’s not like we had a lot of time to plan. Just wait until you hear the start jingle.”
Ethan pulled out his phone and started filming little details on the car, occasionally stopping to talk directly to the camera. Internally, my brain squeezed, and I tried to keep my thoughts off my face. He wasn’t mic’ed. The sound quality, given how close we were to the crowds, would be trash. I bit back a sigh.He’d have to do all this again in a voice-over later, not to mention he didn’t have a shoulder rig, so all his footage would be shaky cam or long-arm stuff, my personal pet peeve.
“I feel extremely silly right now,” Ethan said, dropping the camera and facing me. “I know you don’t watch my stuff, but if you did, you’d know that it is the most no-frills content that was ever created.” He sighed, his shoulders slumping as he glanced back at the car. “This video is the opposite of my channel and it’s going to suck.”
“No, it’s not going to suck.” I felt the lie slip off my tongue before I’d even had a chance to think about it. “Because we can still save this. Let me help.”
I flipped my backpack around and started pulling out my camera and a tripod. I was halfway through getting my camera mounted on the sticks when I felt Ethan’s eyes on me. “What?”
“You really want to help?”
“I mean, yeah. You brought me a snack.” I shrugged, feeling my cheeks get hot. “This feels like a fair trade.”
Ethan chuckled. “Who knew that a bag of jalapeño chips was the key to your heart? I was trying way too hard before.”
“Who said anything about my heart?” I took my lens cap off. “Chips will only get me to level up your filming game. Honestly, watching you struggle was killing me. Now go start the car when I tell you to.”
