“Okay, here we go, folks,” Parker said from somewherebehind the camera that was suddenly aimed at Olivia like a gaping eyeball.
A cold sweat broke out over her skin, and her breath lodged high in her chest.
A new person stepped forward, a man with a shaved head and glasses at the end of his nose. “Olivia, Chuck, I’m Dan, your director for this interview. Pleasure to meet you. TJ is going to lead you through some questions. Just answer them naturally and honestly, and we’ll see where we end up. Okay?”
Olivia found something about this new person calming. She didn’t know what, but she was thankful for it because the lights, the camera, a half-dozen people staring at her, and her ex sitting three feet away in front of them all—the one person she might have turned to for comfort if she could only stand him—had her ready to burst with nerves.
“Sounds good. Thanks, Dan,” Chuck calmly said.
Olivia found a surprising ounce of relief in the sound of his voice and nodded.
“Great. Here we go!” Dan said. He disappeared behind the camera and called action.
TJ leaned forward, ready. Olivia noted that he didn’t have a script or any notes. “Olivia, Chuck: America’s new favorite couple. Thank you for joining us.”
“Hi, TJ,” Chuck said, and Olivia took the cue from him.
“Hello,” she added.
“So, by now everyone has seen your public breakup in all its glory. In that clip, you both state you would not get back together. Olivia even put a dollar amount on the likelihood. And now here you are onName Your Pricein an attempt to live together for the next month. By the time this interview airs, that video will be news to no one, so we want to give viewers thechance to get to know you better. Who are Olivia and Chuck? What’syourstory?”
He blinked at them with a wide, expectant smile, and Olivia found herself too aware of the camera to speak.
The warm rumble of Chuck’s voice caught her off guard and once again eased her discomfort. “Well, I’m an actor, and Olivia is a writer forMix. They were doing a spotlight on me, and we met when she came to interview me. Of course, as the consummate professional she is, she immediately dropped the assignment when our relationship turned personal.” He said it fondly. As if the memory was one that he held special.
In truth, Olivia remembered it fondly too. Despite having cursed his name and wishing she’d gone through with the assignment and never agreed to a date in moments she was most frustrated with him, the memory of the first time she saw him up close still set a swarm of traitorous butterflies loose in her belly.
“Was it love at first sight?” TJ said with a bounce of his eyebrows.
Chuck laughed a funny sound. “It was something at first sight, that’s for sure.”
TJ sat forward in his chair. His elbows pressed into his knees. “Tell us more about that. You two have incredible chemistry; I can feel it right now. I mean, anyone who saw the video can see it plain as day. Is that what drew you together?”
Heat blossomed on Olivia’s cheeks. She hoped it wasn’t visible on camera.
“Olivia? What are you thinking?” TJ asked, and she felt her face grow even hotter.
She was thinking about how after she’d told her boss she couldn’t keep the assignment, she and Chuck went out thatnight they met and made out outside Mel’s diner, a blur of lips and loose clothes and wandering hands. She was thinking about how they slept together the next night and the next and the next and the next. She was thinking about how every time they were together it felt simultaneously like stars aligning and the worst idea she’d ever had. She was thinking that her feelings for him were a complicated mess, and she’d made it even messier by agreeing to let a TV show tape them for the whole country to watch.
But she wasn’t about to say any of that.
“I guess you could say our chemistry drew us together.”
“Mm-hmm. And what tore you apart?” TJ asked, startling her like he’d thrown a bucket of ice water on warm embers.
Olivia and Chuck swapped a glance, and she realized there wasn’t an easy answer to that question.
“How long is this interview?” Chuck said with an awkward laugh. He smoothed his palms over his knees, and Olivia wondered if he was nervous too and simply better than her at hiding it.
“As long as it takes!” TJ said with a guffaw. “I sense this story goes many layers deep. Why don’t we start with that day in the street? What led to that argument and Olivia’s now viral declaration?”
Olivia snorted, feeling the rage of it all come rushing back. “He stood me up for my grandmother’s eighty-fifth birthday party.”
TJ flinched, and Chuck took a sudden interest in looking at his fingernails. “Ouch, Chuckie,” TJ said. “That stings.”
Chuck rolled his eyes. “Don’t call me that, and I didn’tstand her up. I had an important audition to go to.”
“For which you didn’t get the part,” Olivia added. “So itturned out leaving an innocent old lady wondering why her party guest ghosted her was all in vain.”