Chapter 9
nine
It took me three days to recover from the bungee jump. I spent half of Saturday in bed, alternating between more nightmares of the disaster I avoided or illicit dreams of Tripp. On Sunday, I shifted my energy to baking cookies and eating them. By Monday, I still wasn’t ready to face reality, but I sucked it up and rode with Ava to Take the Leap’s offices to review the footage from the trampoline park and bridge.
This was the first time I’d been back to their office since Ava had pulled the stunt with the elevator. As we drove over, I mentally prepared myself to tackle the elevator without any intervention or stalling. When we walked into the lobby, I stayed one step ahead of Ava and beat her to the elevator. Without saying a word, I pressed the up button and stood to wait for the doors to open. Once inside, I hit the button for our floor and stepped to the back of the space.
“Who are you?” Ava asked. “And what have you done with Sadie?”
“You shouldn’t be surprised that I’m taking control. Especially after the crap you pulled last time.”
“Fair point. Are you ready for this?”
We hadn’t spoken much over the weekend. She’d had a date with the son of a friend of her mom’s, and I’d pretty much stayed in bed and spent the entire weekend reading.
“I think so, I’m just hoping it doesn’t turn out to be too humiliating,” I said as we exited the elevator on the forty-fifth floor. “Hey, Chloe, we’re here for Tripp and Liam.”
“They’re down in the content editing room, do you know how to get there?”
“We can manage, thank you!” Ava said and guided me down the hallway to the right. “The good news is that everyone in the editing room was there, so none of this will be new for us. And I’m sure it all looks great.”
“You mean the part where I panic at the trampoline park or the part where I break down on the bridge?”
Before I could answer, Tripp greeted us in the hallway. He directed us into the room where Liam and Kyle sat in front of two large monitors. The video on the screen was frozen on an image of me and Tripp talking at the trampoline park. In the image, he was staring down at me with a look on this face that I don’t quite know how to read. Amusement? Curiosity? Admiration? Or, more likely, annoyance at whatever I’m saying.
Kyle tapped the play button and the sound of my voice filled the room. Cringing, I braced myself. It was one thing to see my face on screen, but it was another to have to sit and listen to myself talk.
“I think this banter is good, here,” Kyle said. “Liam wants to cut it.”
“Why?” Ava asked. “It’s pretty amusing, and helps the audience get a sense of who Sadie is.”
“Yeah, but it’s also kind of weird. Or lame or flirty. Honestly, I don’t know,” Liam said. His usual cockiness was gone, instead he glanced at Tripp as if he were asking permission to speak freely. “We have a brand image to uphold.”
Tripp’s face dropped. Too soft . I recalled the conversation we’d had at coffee. Liam thinks the banter could hurt their image.
“We’re revamping the brand,” I said, “remember? The whole point of this is to bring in a new audience, which means we need to show both sides of the brand—the extreme, edgy side and the approachable, friendly aspect.”
Tripp cleared his throat, “Sadie’s right. We leave the banter.”
“And all those sweet nothing whispers of I’ve got you ?” Liam choked out a laugh as he gagged. “Like what was that?”
A rush of pink flushed over Tripp’s face. I smiled up at him and covered my face with my hands to hide my blush. Sweet nothings . Seriously? He was just being supportive. Liam opened his mouth to speak again, but Tripp silenced him with a glare.
“It shows viewers that your team is concerned about their safety and wants everyone to feel safe on whatever excursion they book,” Ava said, jumping in to break the awkward silence.
“We’re trying something new here, Liam, and we need everyone on board. Now, let’s move on.”
“Speaking of trying something new,” Kyle said, pulling our attention back to him, “I think we need to get some footage of Tripp introducing Sadie and the campaign. If we just drop this on the feed, it’s going to feel out of place. We can film that today, if that works for you guys?”
Tripp glanced at me. I shrugged in response. “Sure, we can do that. I’m presentable enough, I think.” I glanced down at the pastel striped shirt and jeans I was wearing. I’d done my hair and makeup this morning as well.
“You look perfect,” Tripp said, his voice heavy.
Liam coughed and stared at him with his face twisted in a look of disgust. He quickly shook it off and grabbed a camera from the shelf behind the monitors. “Let’s get this over with, then. We have a lot of editing to do.”
Tripp and I followed him back into the lobby. He directed us to stand side-by-side in front of the Take the Leap logo. We decided to improvise a quick conversation that could be used in the video. Tripp introduced me, and I shared a bit about Savie and myself.
“Stay tuned for the full video later this week,” I said and nudged Tripp with my shoulder, “I get a little too wrapped up in this guy, here.” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. Ava stared at me with her mouth hanging open. Rather than keep talking myself deeper into a hole I wouldn’t be able to climb out of, I snapped my mouth shut.
“Hey, I have no complaints,” Tripp joked back. His hip bumped against mine as he slid his arm behind me and rested his hand on the small of my back. I resisted the urge to close my eyes and lean into his touch.
“That’s enough,” Liam said and turned off the camera. “We should probably stop before you completely implode our brand image.”
Tripp shifted beside me and dropped his hand. I stepped away from him. We made our way back to the editing room and returned to our seats. Before we could start the editing again, we were interrupted by a familiar voice at the door. I exhaled a deep sigh.
“Seth?” Ava asked and turned to face my brother. “What are you doing here?”
“I was meeting with the technical team to go over some of the app updates and they mentioned you were working on the footage. Mind if I crash the party?” he asked and took a seat next to me without waiting for a response.
“Sure, make yourself at home,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“This is weird,” Liam said. His gaze drifted between my brother and me. “It’s like you’re the same person but yet not at all.”
“We are twins, man,” Seth said.
“If you didn’t look so much alike, I don’t think I’d have believed you. She is nothing like you. Wait until you see her lose it on the bridge.” Liam snorted a laugh.
Seth drapped a protective arm around my shoulder. “I’m just proud she did it.”
“Suck up,” I whispered to him, “I’m still pissed about dinner.”
“I know.”
“All right let’s get this going, I’ve got a budget meeting at two,” Tripp said. His gaze met mine for a moment. Rather than look away, I kept my eyes locked on him. I searched his face for a hint that I hadn’t read too much into his continued support of me. But all I saw was the face of a man who knew exactly what he wanted. Could that be me, I wondered? Did I want it to be? If anyone else noticed the look that passed between us, they didn’t say anything.
Kyle hit play again, and I covered my eyes when the video cut to footage of me at the trampoline park. When it got to the part where I started jumping while holding Tripp’s hands, I dared to take a peek between my fingers. I couldn’t quite hear his whispered reassurances, but I could read the words on his lips. The same warmth I’d felt that day spread through me again. Why did those three words cause such a dramatic reaction? Rather than obsesses over the question I didn’t know how to answer, I shifted my attention back to the video.
I barely recognized the woman on the screen. She was smiling and laughing and jumping on a trampoline. She climbed up a ladder and jumped down into the arms of a man who looked genuinely happy to have her. Again, I wasn’t going to dwell on that random thought. Tripp was doing his job, and so was I.
For the next two or so hours, we worked our way through the rest of the content to narrow it down into one long video and a few shorter options to share on social media. After the trampoline park footage, I stopped hiding behind my hands. Ava patted her hand on my knee as Tripp paced the floor behind us offering directions on what audio to add or what clips to cut and include. He paused beside me every few minutes as if to make sure I was doing okay. I’d smile and to reassure him I was fine. Watching the footage hadn’t been as painful as I expected, but I focused all my attention on Tripp. He was natural on camera, and the way he looked at me sent a thousand errant and unproductive thoughts of all the things we could do off of camera through my head. I squashed each and every one of them.
I was already risking my life by doing this nonsense, I wasn’t about to risk anything else—like my heart.