had someone come over and be my “guest,” and that was because I’d been pushing it to do one with Guillermo and Connie. Setting my phone down, I thought about my options. Boogie had plans, I knew that. I thought about a couple of friends who were aware of what I did on the side, but they weren’t crazy about being on camera. I needed Deepa’s help doing other things out of the frame, so she was no help. My parents weren’t anywhere nearby either, even though they were backups to the backups to the backups. It was really last minute to try and find someone else, especially when I had all the ingredients I was going to use ready to go. I’d already cleaned the hell out of my kitchen and didn’t want to waste that either.
Who else could I ask?
I thought about it as I made a quick dinner of pasta, olive oil, parmesan, red pepper, and some leftover broccoli and chicken breast. And it was while I was eating in front of the television, watching another episode of the Turkish romance I was catching up on, that the idea came to me out of nowhere.
And like with most of the scary things in my life, I asked myself, What is the worst that could happen?
It took me two whole minutes to find CJ’s Picturegram account and another two minutes to write and then rewrite the message I wanted to send him.
THELAZYBAKER: Hi, CJ! By any chance, do you know anyone (or 2 people?) that might be interested in doing a video with me tomorrow? I can pay in food or a little bit of money.
Straight and to the point. Perfect. Chances were, he probably got so many messages that mine would get buried, but it was worth a shot. Maybe, worst case, I could recycle an old video? If my nephew was feeling better, I could try to switch shifts with some people and go up to Killeen next week? I knew I had to work on Saturday. Some of my followers would complain, but some people complained about everything. I’d had someone whine once about the color of my shirt; it had hurt their poor, sensitive, little eyes, according to them.
I mean, I couldn’t magically make someone appear to be in one with me.
For one tiny second, I thought about Zac…. But he didn’t have time. He had messaged me a couple of times since the day we’d been grocery shopping, but from the pictures he posted on his Picturegram, he was busy doing drills and whatever the hell else he worked on during his time off from football. I was glad he was posting more workout stuff on his accounts, like I’d suggested weeks ago.
But I didn’t want to bother him or guilt-trip him into doing this for me. Because I knew that if I told him I was in a tight spot, he would offer. And that, more than reaching out to CJ, made me feel like I would be taking advantage of him.
Plus, CJ had kind of hinted at being interested in being in one of my vlogs, hadn’t he? And if he said no, it was no big deal. He was already busy with his own preseason. But maybe, just maybe, he would know someone who would be interested.
An hour later, when my phone buzzed, I was surprised as shit when I saw the icon for Picturegram on the screen and CJ’s Picturegram handle in small letters beside it: CJDANIELS NEW MESSAGE.
Worst case, he was going to say no, he didn’t know anyone, and that would be that. No big deal. I opened the app and went to my direct messages.
CJDANIELS: Hey. What time tomorrow?
Oh shitttttt.
I wrote him back immediately.
THELAZYBAKER: 10am? Honestly, I have the whole day. I usually film during the day, but I can make it work anytime. [smiley face emoji]
I was rereading what I wrote him when a reply came through.
Don’t get excited. He might still not know anyone.
CJDANIELS: OK.
OK?
Well, it wasn’t a “no” at least. What else could it mean? Maybe he was going to ask someone for me?
I waited until the episode of the Turkish show ended and then got up and loaded the dishwasher. I waited until I had it all set, ready for me to start it tonight just in case I used a couple more dishes, and then went to check my phone. The light flashed in the front, and I saw the screen