Nobody stays. Everyone leaves.
Then I’ll be all alone again.
I swallow around the tightness in my throat.
“Do you think…” He sounds vulnerable in a way I haven’t heard from him before. “Do you think our video will do well?”
I don’t usually keep tabs on that type of stuff. Sebastian handles the business end of things. I just do what he says will work. But this time, I really,reallywant our video to do well.I want it to outperform every other video The Camboy Network has ever made. “I hope so.”
“Do you think Sebastian will let me join The Camboy Network if it does?” Santino asks with his eyes downcast. His fingers grip my hand tightly, like he’s bracing himself for my answer. But he doesn’t need to worry.
“He will.” I haven’t been confident in myself for a while now—in my ability to perform, in my value to my friends. But I am absolutely certain about this: if Santino wants to join The Camboy Network, I’ll do everything in my power to make it happen.
CHAPTER
SIXTEEN
SANTINO
I’ve been looking forward to today ever since I saw it listed in Sebastian’s binder. Cake tasting day. Hell, yeah.
We’ve taken over this fancy bakery place. Like, they’ve literally closed their store to the public for our shoot. Me, Bellamy, Noel, and Sebastian are sitting at a table in the middle of the room. All around us are light boxes and cameras set up on tripods.
A waiter serves us slice after slice of cake, every single one with wild flavors I’ve never heard of before. Strawberries and cream, passionfruit and white chocolate, spiced coconut and papaya, pistachio and dark chocolate. Who knew cakes could come in all these different flavors? I feel like I’ve won the cake lottery.
“This one is champagne and crème de cassis.” The waiter circles the table, setting a single serving of cake in front of each of us, explaining things like the texture of the crumb, the balance of flavors, and other random things I don’t understand. All I know is every bite I’ve taken so far has been fucking delicious and I would like to take home one order of everything, please.
“Mmm,” I groan around the bite in my mouth. “This one. This has to be the one.”
Noel shoots me an unimpressed look. “That’s what you said about the last three cakes.”
“Yeah, ‘cause I hadn’t had this one yet!” I shovel another forkful into my mouth and Noel rolls his eyes.
“This oneisvery good,” Bellamy says.
“Should I add it to the shortlist?” Sebastian asks.
“Yes, definitely,” I answer before Noel can object.
“How many more do we have?” Noel asks, pushing his barely-touched slice away.
“Two more, sir,” the waiter says dryly.
I wince. The guy’s been perfectly nice to us the entire time and Noel’s been nothing but a grumpy asshole to him.
Across the room, Hayden’s been rotating between the cameras, checking angles and adjusting settings. I catch his gaze and we share a look. He’s tried to explain that Noel is only this gruff on the outside and that he’s actually a marshmallow on the inside. But I’ll believe it when I see it.
He gives me a shy smile that’s little more than a quick curl of lips. I wish he wasn’t all the way on the other side of the room. I wish he was sitting with me at the table.
It’s been a couple days since we shot our scene together. Since we sat in the dark, in the middle of the night, and talked. It’s felt like a dream. We went on a walk and lounged in the park under the sun. He asked me what I felt like eating and when I said lasagna, he made the best fucking lasagna I’ve ever had—from scratch. He read to me from his books and we played video games late into the night.
A few times, I’ve caught him staring off into space with an air of sadness surrounding him. But he always seems to snap out of it pretty quickly. He smiles when I tease him. He laughs at my dad jokes. I know mental health isn’t something that magicallydisappears on its own, but it doesn’t seem to be bothering him as much. I hope I’ve made things a little easier for him.
Listen, I know this whole falling-in-love thing is only a story Sebastian’s weaving for the public. It’s supposed to be make-believe. It isn’t supposed to be real. But it feels very fucking real.
We look like a couple. We’re acting like a couple. Wefeellike a couple. So when does it stop being an act? Because I haven’t been acting. I fell in lust with Hayden from the first moment I set eyes on him. Now I think I might be falling in love too.
Is it too fast? Yeah, it probably is. Do I know everything about him? Nope, definitely not. But sometimes you just know, don’t you? In that place, deep in your soul, where reason and logic don’t matter. Being with him feels right—and I think that might be enough.
