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Nina followed him down to one of the loungers where they sat next to each other, drinking their beers in silence for a of couple minutes.
Cam glanced at her. “Well, today’s been fun.”
Nina laughed despite herself. “Yeah, I know. What a riot.”
He smiled. “Wanna do it again tomorrow?”
Nina met his eyes. “Absolutely not.”
Cam laughed and sipped his beer.
Nina watched him for a second. “Cam?”
“Yep?”
“I’m sorry about earlier,” she said quickly, nervous about his reaction. “I was out of order.”
He didn’t reply for a second, and at first she was worried that he was offended. Then she realised he had that expression, the one that meant he was carefully thinking about what he wanted to say. It was strange that she was able to read him, even though they’d only known each other a couple of days.
He ran a hand through his hair. “You know, when I was younger, I was so shy that I couldn’t even speak to a girl?”
Nina frowned, surprised at both his statement and the change in subject. “I can’t imagine that.”
He glanced at her. “If you think back to how awkward I was at our meeting the other day, then you probably can.”
Nina remembered his cold demeanour at the bar on her first day and also at her initial visit to the villa.
Cam picked at the label on his bottle. “I was a total geek at school. I got into making music in my early teens and spent every waking moment on it. I even got a part-time job once I turned thirteen to fund my habit,” he smiled. “It drove my mum mental.”
Nina imagined him on his makeshift decks in his adolescent bedroom, making a racket and his mum banging on the door. She smiled.
“Needless to say,” he continued, “no girl ever looked twice at me in high school, and university was pretty much the same.”
Nina frowned. She’d looked only once and found him very attractive. But she’d been attached at the time and so couldn’t act on it.
“Then I started to make a success out of my passion and things changed,” he said. “It was like fame drew people in and suddenly I was more interesting…more desirable.” He rubbed the back of his neck.
She studied him intently, hanging on every word, aware that he was revealing a significant vulnerability. She touched his arm. “Go on,” she said quietly.
He fiddled with the top of his bottle. “Once I really hit it big and broke in the States, there was more pressure to appear a certain way. I went with it and the attention spiralled.” He glanced at Nina. “Not that I’m complaining… I was more than happy about it, and I’m aware the pressure I experienced regarding appearance is nothing compared to what women have to endure.”
Nina shook her head. “It’s still a lot to deal with.”
He smiled. “Anyway…I think it all went to my head. I’d like to think I’ve never been conceited, but it’s like I got addicted to the attention of attractive women who never would’ve been interested in me in a million years”—he shook his head—“and who I know wouldn’t have been interested in Cameron Wild from a working-class estate in Glasgow. Yet they were all delighted to be in the company of Logan Wild, LA producer. However, in spite of the name I hide behind, it’s still just me.”
Nina absorbed what he was saying and understood what he was getting at. He’d been flattered and unable to believe his luck. He’d had low self-esteem and being courted by all these beautiful women had boosted his confidence.
“So,” he said, “I don’t think you were one hundred percent wrong before when you were critical of my being with certain types of women. And I’m not defending the superficiality of it, just trying to explain and hoping you won’t think I’m a shallow dick.”
Nina smiled. “I don’t think that.”
He let out a deep breath.
“Can I say something, though?” she asked.
He shot her a worried look.
“It’s nothing bad,” she said, and his expression softened. “At high school,” she continued, “and at university, for that matter… Was it really all the girls who didn’t go for you—or just the popular, confident ones?”
