The truth was that over the past two months we’d all gone in disguise to a couple of different clubs to watch Miss Behave perform so JJ could scope out the competition. She was new on the drag club scene and JJ’s natural competitive streak was flaring.
Ben looked at me curiously. “Now I am dying to know.” He pulled out a fork and passed it to me, it was a clear indication that we’d be sharing off the same plate. I suppose friends share, so why did it feel so damn intimate? The two of us sitting across the counter, after our early morning “run” sharing breakfast. I calmed myself by changing the subject.
“Are you and your brother close?” I asked.
“Very!”
“So he might come and visit you here sometimes?”
Ben looked slightly confused by the question. “I’m sure he’ll come.”
“Well, then I’m pretty sure you’ll know the story behind itverysoon.”
I winked at him this time, but immediately wished I hadn’t, because his face lit up. I returned to the pancakes . . .
“Mmmm. Oh my God these are . . .” I said, closing my eyes and taking in the flavors—Oh sweet sugar. Sugary-sugar fest—this was my kind of breakfast—I confess I eat chocolate for breakfast sometimes—I opened my eyes and looked at Ben, he was staring at me.
“Has anyone ever told you how adorable you are when you eat?”
“Um . . . you know that sounds mildly creepy and fetish-y, right?”
“Am I creepy, Sera?”
“Mmm, it’s borderline sometimes.” I looked at him closely. “The only reason you get away with it, is that you’re just so weird, people don’t know what to make of you.”
Ben laughed, reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. My stomach flipped and I wanted to quickly change the subject again.
“So how are you finding the new job?” I asked.
“It’s going okay, we have that massive calendar shoot coming up soon and none of the creatives are really cracking the idea yet.”
“Aaaah, the calendar shoot,” I said. It was infamous. One of the clients, a luxury car brand, did a once-a-year calendar shoot usually in amazing exotic locations and everyone wanted to be a part of the team that went. They only took a small group of people, and it was usually based on good work. It was almost a competition each year to see who would go.
“It’s the only piece of work the CEO cares about. He never even looks at the other work we do. This is a bit of an ego trip for him, I think. He likes to hand out pretty, glossy calendars to people and watch them being shot with gorgeous models. And they always want to work with some pretentious, overpriced photographer flown in from Milan or something. As if they think our local photographers aren’t good enough.”
“High stakes?” I asked.
“Very, and not to be offensive, but you guys have been coming up with pretty lame ideas for the last few years. I really want to do something interesting this year, but no one is thinking outside the box.”
“Lucky they have you to force them out of the box then.” I smiled at him, it felt so comfortable and natural talking to him about work like this. As if we had been colleagues for years.
“I think Angie is probably the only one who’ll make it out the box.”
At the mere sound of her name I stiffened up. I jumped up quickly. “I have to go.”
“But you haven’t finished.”
“I know, but I don’t want to be late for work.”
“Really, afraid your boss might have to discipline you? And yes, that was a purposeful sexual innuendo, in case you were confused about it.”
“Friends,” I corrected him. “Remember.”
“Okay. Friends.” But his smile said something else entirely.
“I’m going now,” I said and started walking towards the door but then turned around, went back to the kitchen and stole the plate of pancakes.
“Friends share,” I said playfully and let myself out.
