33. Chapter 33
Chapter thirty-three
Quinn
Quinn walked into the little corner coffee shop with a knot in his stomach. He’d talked with production a couple times, although mostly over email, but this was his first time meeting up with anyone since he walked away from the house.
Eliza waved him over to a tiny round table in the center of the floor. He took the empty seat and folded his hands in his lap, where she couldn’t see him wringing them so hard the skin turned white. “Don’t really know how to open this talk up.”
Eliza smiled tensely. “Are you okay?”
“What?”
“You ran off because you had a bad experience with my hosts. Are you okay?”
Quinn blinked at her for what felt like an eternity before he finally got his tongue to actually work. “I thought this was about to be a meeting about how I shouldn’t have left and I’d ruined the production.”
Eliza shook her head. “You are supposed to be reaping the benefit of this situation. I would definitely prefer that you’d stuck around and that nothing bad happened, but it’s on me and the crew to handle things. Not you. If you want to make a formal complaint about any of them, I’m all ears.”
“What, no.” It shot out of his mouth almost before he could comprehend what she’d said. “I don’t have any ill will toward Jake, if that’s what you’re thinking. We went into…we had our eyes open and things just didn’t wash out the way anyone hoped.”
“And Ozzy? Evander?”
He stumbled a moment on them, then shook his head. “If you need me to sign something that says I’m not going to sue over this, I will. I don’t want to mess with anyone over this. I’m happy to see this all out to the end. All that’s left for me is seeing the final product, right?”
“We can do the walk-through with whoever you’re comfortable with. I don’t even know that we’re going to need much footage at this point.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Like I said, none of the production stuff should be put on you.”
“So the show’s really in jeopardy now? Already?”
“It’s not your fault. Trust me. It’s between everyone on the back end.”
“Ozzy and Jake.”
Eliza didn’t say anything, but that also meant she didn’t disagree with his assessment. Not directly, at least. “I wanted to talk to you to make sure you were still feeling comfortable, but also to let you know that the timeline got delayed a little. I know you were probably looking forward to moving in a little sooner, but we haven’t been able to get too much work done the last couple days, and we don’t want to leave the job half-finished just to keep up with our own schedule.”
“I’m really not upset about it. You all have done so much already.”
“And we’re going to finish.” She splayed her hands flat out on the table. “I also wanted you to know that you can call me at any point if you want to change anything about who you’re around when you’re there. We still would like to keep some surprise, so if you wouldn’t mind staying away a bit longer, but if anyone is bugging you or causing you stress and you need an assist, reach out. No one should have to deal with emotional trauma because of this show.”
Quinn nodded, tightening his hands around each other even more, until it started to hurt. “Any update on Jake? Is he still doing okay?”
Eliza sighed. “I can’t discuss his medical situation with anyone without his permission. That’s not me saying he said not to tell you specifically. He didn’t give me any permission to tell anyone other than our medical team, just so they know what the situation is.”
“Of course.” Quinn finally had to release his hands before he burst a blood vessel or something. “I’m sorry all this went down this way.” I knew better than to let myself get involved.
“Well, I’m not giving up hope. Knew there were going to be struggles bringing everyone together again. I’m still manifesting the TV show I want to see in the world.” Her face tightened a bit, but she didn’t let it dampen her smile. Much.
She rose and laid a hand briefly on his shoulder. “I’m going to dash to the little girl’s room, then there’s some more specifics I want to go over with you. Nitty gritty stuff, since we can’t have you coming over to the house all the time.” She gestured lackadaisically toward the counter. “Order whatever you need. It’s on the corporate card.”
She stepped away and Quinn sighed, drumming his fingers on the tabletop. Partially out of nerves, and partially to try and work out the stiffness and numbness from clutching himself so hard. He really wanted word on Jake, but that was just the infatuation rearing up again. Something he needed to get quashed down fast if it was already proving this problematic. A couple weeks and I’m obsessed. What the hell?
He went up to the counter and scanned over the menu, then ordered an iced dirty chai latte. While he waited at the other end of the counter, his hand drifted down to his pocket and grabbed his phone. It felt ridiculous, being nervous to use his phone. He was a grown man with free will. Just because he had access to Jake’s number didn’t mean he would call him or text him or anything like that.
He flicked through the apps, not sure what he was even looking for. If he was looking for anything at all, even. He checked the few notifications that popped up, including his VideoHead app. He only subscribed to fifteen or twenty channels, the stuff he really wanted to make sure he could always find, and let the algorithm guide him back to anything else. It worked for him. But he kept the updates on to make sure nothing slipped by. So he checked to see what it was.
Jake’s face in a thumbnail. Everyone from Pine Point Fixer Uppers, staring up at him from the tiny phone screen, but of course he focused in on Jake straight away. Right when he was trying to hold out and not think about him. I should unsubscribe so that doesn’t happen again.
He hovered over the button.
“Quinn?”
The barista. He turned off his screen and went for the coffee sitting on the counter. Then Eliza came out and headed back to the table. “All right, so let’s get into this.”