could hear me. I glanced at Trevor, who today was wearing dark slacks and a light gray button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up as he stood there with a watchful expression on his face. “If you change your mind, I swear you can back out at any second. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Asking was a shot in the dark, I didn’t expect anything.” I smiled at all three of them, and it was only Trevor who didn’t return the expression. “Really. No pressure at all.”
CJ shifted where he stood, and I noticed that he was in a black T-shirt and dark jeans, his only jewelry a heavy gold watch. He looked nice.
“I can’t cook to save my life,” he said suddenly.
I had to think about that for a second. “That’s okay. I’d probably scream and cover my head if someone threw a football at me. And we’re just going to be farting around. It’s fine.” I turned to the older man, needing to prepare myself. “Trevor, did you want to be in one too?”
The older man yawned before replying, “No. I’m only here to make sure he isn’t getting wrangled into doing a porno or something else stupid.”
I blinked and had to make sure I heard that correctly.
I had.
“Nope. I promise. No freaky-deaky shit. That’s on Tuesdays.” I blinked again. “I’m kidding. I have an LLC, an accountant, and a real business bank account. I have a SEP IRA.”
He didn’t think I was funny, and it wasn’t the first time someone didn’t. Oh well.
Turning back around, I made my way toward the stairs that went up to the second floor. “CJ, did you end up liking the frozen yogurt?”
“I ate it all that same day.”
I smiled.
“Almost ate Zac’s too, but he got to it before I did.”
That sucker had never told me he ate it, much less if he’d liked it.
“You had frozen yogurt?” Trevor asked out of nowhere.
CJ answered him.
“I have a little bit leftover if you want it, Trevor. It’s strawberry-flavored,” I offered the uptight man.
He paused to think about it. “I do love strawberry.”
I bet he did. “It’s yours. CJ, do you have any requests for what you want?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Banana bread. If you make frozen yogurt in the future, I’ll take some too.”
I’d make him both. It was the least I could do. “Amari?”
“Anything.”
We reached my floor; my door was the second one down. Unlocking it, I ushered the three of them in, giving Amari and Trevor an extra smile as they entered.
Deepa and I had already set up just about everything around my kitchen. We had it down to a science. Diffusion paper covered my windows year-round, muting the natural light that came through. Usually I had my shutters down anyway, but I liked the consistency of leaving the paper up. That and I was lazy.
My camera was set up to capture the island and the stove, highlighted by two soft light boxes set up on opposite ends. One was on the left and one was on the right, tipped down at forty-five-degree angles toward where I usually stood. We’d already checked the LAV microphones to make sure the audio was good.
I’d made sure my camera batteries were charged, and from the look of Deepa standing by my laptop, she was double-checking the memory cards to make sure they weren’t full. Even though I’d already warned her who was coming, she still seemed to jump a little bit, and I knew I wasn’t imagining that her smile was bigger than normal when I introduced her to CJ and Amari. They were both polite to her. Trevor… whatever. I’d tell her about him later.
I ushered my guests toward the kitchen, realizing how small it looked with both of them in it. We’d roll with it. Knitting my fingers together, I brought them under my chin and said, “I’m so happy you’re here. Really. Thank you.”
It was Amari who said, “You’re welcome. My mom’s gonna love it. Can I say ‘hi, Mom’ on it?”
“Yeah, your whole family. Whatever you want.” I bounced up to the balls of my feet. “So, I’m not sure how much time you have, and I can work around you. I don’t want to take up more of it than necessary. Do you want to do one with all three of us at the same time? Do you want to do one each? I have four recipes ready we can do. I got the ingredients