Charming Like Us (Like Us 7)

“Thanks for coming tonight,” I tell him. “When I texted, I didn’t know if you’d be free. Is Charlie hanging back at his apartment?”

“No, he’s at a club in the city.”

Confused, I slowly stand up from a drawer. “So shouldn’t you be with him?”

He shrugs. “I got a temp to cover for me.” He says it like it’s nothing, but if it’s not a scheduled paid day off, Oscar doesn’t go off-duty for just anything or anyone. “I figured my boyfriend, who doesn’t text me while he’s at a shoot, probably either wanted my dick or to talk. Either way, I’m here, bro.”

My smile inches up. “Glad to know how I can’t get your ass running to me.” I dig in a filing cabinet. “After Jane’s wedding, I’ll be happy to never have to film another one for a good ten years. Maybe twelve.”

Oscar bends down to grab his T-shirt off the floor. “What about your own? I assume marriage is probably in your ten-year portfolio plan. All lined up with the white picket fence. An apricot tree in the front yard.”

I laugh. Apricot tree.

Found the camcorder.

I set the thing on the desk. “Maybe I should get you to redo my vision board, Os. It’s definitely missing the apricot tree.”

“You dodged that question fast, Highland.”

He asked, What about your own wedding?

I tinker with the camcorder. “I guess I assumed I’d have a wedding. I thought whoever I was with would want one, and I’d do what I could to make them happy.”

“Such a people-pleaser,” Oscar teases, leaning slightly on the desk.

Closer now, my eyes trace the scar above his brow and the curls that touch his lashes. “I like pleasing people. You, mostly,” I say into a smile.

He claps for me. “You’ve done well in that department.”

I take a bow and smile brighter. “Really, if I could avoid having a wedding of my own, I would. I’ve attended so many at this point that it just feels…empty?” I search his eyes, realizing I want his answer to the same question. And I can’t tell where he’s leaning, so I just ask, “Have you dreamed about a wedding?”

Oscar slowly shakes his head. “Who’s got the time?”

I laugh softly. “Don’t I fucking know it.” My brows rise. “Your parents wouldn’t be upset?”

Oscar reattaches a radio on his waistband. “Maybe a little at first. But they have Quinn and Joana, and they know I’m busy as it is. They’d get it.”

I can’t be certain, but I think my parents would be the same way.

Oscar eyes the camcorder in my hands. “You fix that ancient piece of shit yet?”

“Almost.” I slide in a new battery. “I had to buy a couple new—or I guess old—parts on eBay. Plus, this new battery.” I click the power button and the side panel screen lights up with footage.

This…is not what I expected.

Kinney Hale sits anxiously on a four-poster ornately carved, black bed. Her dyed black hair is chopped with blunt bangs. She’s twisting her hands together on bouncing knees.

“This is a security camcorder?” I have intense doubts about it now.

His heated stare punctures the screen. “Not a fucking chance.”

“Okay,” Kinney exhales. “This is video diary entry number…I can’t even remember anymore. But something really intense happened to me in school, and I just need to get it off my chest—”

We shouldn’t be listening to this.

I make a move to turn it off, but Oscar grabs my bicep, stopping me.

“—there’s this boy in my grade, and he’s a complete waste of space.” She battles surging tears. “We have art together, and he followed me into the supply closet and told me you can’t know you’re a lesbian, if you’ve never seen a dick. So he pulled down his pants.” She crosses her arms. “Yes, future self, I saw Tye Smith’s penis, and I really, really hate that all I did was stand there. I should have throat-punched him! That’s what Aunt Rose would’ve done.” Her green eyes glass. “I just looked at him and said still a lesbian.” She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Then he told me well, Kinney, you haven’t touched it yet. Then the bell rang, so he left. He left before I left! God, what’s wrong with me? And like, I can’t tell anyone because this is just so embarrassing.” She grimaces and stands up quickly. “Uh, I can’t.” She strides to the camera and must shut it off because the footage goes dark.

I quickly hit the power button. “We shouldn’t have seen that,” I tell Oscar, my chest taut.

“You, keeper of all secrets, are worried about one more?” He’s already pulling out his phone.

“It does get to me,” I say. “Having other people’s secrets isn’t always easy.”

He leans forward and puts a comforting hand on the back of my head. “You’re not going to have to keep this one, Highland.”