Page 80 of You Fall First

Dutton giggles. “You look silly.”

“Do I?” I lick the tips of my fingers. “I’d say I look … delicious.”

“Take a picture for Uncle Noah!”

I release a long sigh. “Sure. Why not?”

“I’ll say cheese!” he hoots.

The truth is, I couldn’t feel more ridiculous than I already do. So I lift my phone and snuggle up to Dutton. “Lean in, Buzz.”

Chapter Twenty

Noah

“What do you think?”

Maureen’s spent the past ten minutes showing me the videos the PR company compiled for our new ad campaign. For better or worse, I appear in every draft. All the reels, still shots, proposed posts. Scratch that.

There’s nothing better about what the team landed on here.

Do our residents appear in the campaign, too? Sure. But they look like accessories, if I’m being honest.

There’s footage of me arm in arm with a resident crossing a breezeway between buildings. I’m helping a little old lady walk. Literally. There I am in the gym demonstrating how to use a rowing machine to an elderly gentleman. Me in the dining hall eating lunch with a couple of family members. Me at a long table of residents playing chess in the garden. Me in my office, focused on a budget proposal. Me heading to the parking lot at the end of the day.

That one’s shot from behind, and lingers on my …

Anyway.

I turn to wave at the camera and smile.

More me.

“Seriously, Maureen.”

She flips her monitor back toward her. “What? You don’t like it?”

“I mean … it’s a little heavy on the Noah show, don’t you think?”

“Don’t be so humble.” She cocks a brow. “You’re by far our best angle to really sell this place.”

I cringe. “That’s not my goal.”

“That’s the whole point,” she quips. “You look natural in every one of these montages. They appear to be real glimpses of how you legitimately spend your days here. Compressed for the benefit of a reel, of course, but completely authentic nonetheless.”

I rub my chin. Say nothing. Maureen isn’t one hundred percent wrong. Still, seeing the work we do here reduced to sleek, romanticized clips is just … uncomfortable.

“Noah.” She frowns. “Are you telling me this campaign misrepresents the Havenwood experience?”

“No.” I run a hand along the back of my neck. “None of this footage is patently false.”

“Precisely.” She smiles at me primly. “We want our audience to know that any family who moves a loved one here can genuinely expect this kind of treatment.”

I shift in my seat. “I guess this just wasn’t what I expected when you asked me to rush over here and show the PR team around.”

“To be fair, you could’ve weighed in earlier. So it’s a little late for negative feedback.”

“Yeah, no. You’re totally right.” I shake my head. “You asked me to review this stuff, and I put you off.”