‘Might as well tell me not to look at Bigfoot,’ Brian muttered.
Neil ignored him as the cameraman signalled. The red light of doom appeared.
‘So,’ Neil said brightly, ‘Callie, tell your family about your special someone on the show.’
‘Sam,’ Callie said flatly.
‘Sam, right,’ Neil smiled fondly, as though Sam was his very own child. ‘And how do we feel about that? Mum? Dad? Hannah?’
Brian coughed awkwardly, and Callie jumped in to save him the embarrassment of explaining. ‘Brian’s my mother’s second husband.’
‘The normal word for that is stepdad,’ her mother added.
Callie nodded. ‘Yeah. That.’
‘Mea culpa,’ Neil said, hand on heart. ‘So, what do we all think of Sam?’
Her mother’s smile tightened. ‘Well, we don’t really know him, do we? But he seems lovely. From the telly. The sort of person I’d definitely pick for my daughter.’
Callie met her mother’s gaze for half a second. Her mother looked away first.
‘But you must have opinions! It’s your daughter’s love life.’
‘They’re not pretending to object for drama,’ Callie said mildly.
‘No one’s pretending,’ Neil said too quickly. ‘We’re giving the audience emotional honesty. Bit of texture.’
‘You mean conflict?’ Callie asked.
He laughed too loudly. ‘Viewers respond to stakes. Every good story needs them.’
‘I thought it was all about genuine emotion?’ Callie asked, trying to keep her tone light.
Neil crouched beside her, dropping his voice. ‘I know this might feel a bit… but we need something to cut the sweetness. Otherwise, it’s fluff. We need a few… hard questions.’
Christine startled slightly. ‘What hard questions?’
‘How about how you feel about Callie maybe falling in love on national telly,’ Neil said smoothly. ‘The fear of losing her to the limelight, maybe?’
Christine’s jaw clicked. She glanced at Brian, smiling for him. He seemed oblivious.
‘You make it sound like she lives here,’ little Hannah said.
Callie looked directly into the camera. ‘Cut.’
The cameraman stopped the red light automatically at the word before Neil gave him a look. Then he turned to Callie. ‘Honey, you don’t say that. I say that.’
‘Sorry,’ Callie said. ‘But I just don’t want you giving them instructions like this. I’m the one who agreed to be part of the story. These three are doing us a favour. The least we can do is let them be themselves.’
‘Fine,’ he said, smile fixed. ‘Let’s just do a take. Maybe it’ll happen naturally.’
‘It won’t.’
‘We’ll see.’ He signalled.
The red light blinked on.
Christine cleared her throat. ‘So… Sam,’ she said awkwardly. ‘You like him, then?’
