I pulled off my wet jeans and slid on sweats and a hoodie. I wastired enough to fall into bed for the night, but I was also hungry and insanely curious about how the show was shaping up. I padded down the back stairs in my socks to the second floor.
Hailey welcomed me into Neil’s room like it was her own.
“I think you’re going to like what we’ve got so far,” she said. “Come.”
She led me over to the desk, where his laptop was set up, and grabbed a second chair for me.
“Should we wait?” I asked.
“Nope, let’s go. My fingerprints are all over this edit, don’t let Neil convince you it’s his baby. And Ben still needs to take a crack at it.Andthe producers. They get final approval.”
My stomach twisted. I’d come to trust the team, but who knew what the big guys would do to the footage?
“Ready?”
I nodded, and she pushed play.
And there was Mel, in profile and shot from a distance with me hazy in the background, spinning on the ice. It looked cinematic.
“Wow,” I breathed.
“That was all me,” Hailey puffed up with pride. “My vision.”
“Neil let you?” I joked.
“He has his moments,” she replied, keeping her eyes on the screen. “I’m not sure why the sound isn’t working.” She smacked the keys, becoming increasingly frustrated. “Don’t worry, it’s a me thing, not a footage thing. I’m not used to his laptop yet.”
“I actually prefer no sound,” I said.
The footage at the rink cut to a close-up of Zoey.
“Aw, she looksadorable.” I put my elbows on the desk and leaned closer.
I watched my friend speak animatedly, probably saying nice things about me. Yeah, I definitely didn’t want to hear it yet. Accepting compliments still wasn’t easy for me, because I’d been taught that flattery led to ego, and ego led to failure.
An abrupt cut to me at Greta’s studio. I jumped and covered my eyes. “Oof.”
“What? You look incredible.”
“I don’t like watching myself off-ice.”
Because even after all these years, I could hear the laundry list of things that weren’t quite right.
The footage jumped to me in the “Movement” costume at Greta’s studio, looking at myself in the mirror. There were glimpses of Greta as she bustled around me, but the focus of the shot was tight on my face and slowly moving closer.
It was like a voyeur was looking at me while I looked at myself. An intimate moment snagged without my knowledge, like the camera was a secret admirer.
“It’s so close,” I said quietly.
But I didn’t hate it. I looked... beautiful.
“That was all Ben,” Hailey explained. “He pushed Neil out of the way to get it.”
I hadn’t noticed Ben behind the camera while we were at the studio. Hell, I didn’t realize that he even knew how to operate one, yet what he’d captured was perfect.
“Okay, I’ve seen enough.”
“Are you sure?” Hailey asked. “We also started roughing the footage from today, with your parents—”
