Page 13 of The Cuffing Game
He rarely assigned nicknames to his contacts, but Mia had earned it. After their meetup at Ground Smoothie, she’d just texted him,This is Mia.And in class the following week, she’d gone back to bickering with him as usual. It was like he’d never gone out of his way to help her with her show.
Exhaustion already weighed him down like a bag of bricks. He’d just wrapped up a several-hours-long night shoot on campus for one of his senior production classes. He could just let Mia’s call ring. Or even hit decline.
But it could be an emergency. Mia hadn’t even called him when she was lost, so she must have had a really good reason to be calling him now.
To avoid crashing into any pedestrians, Noah got off his board and started walking the rest of the way to the fraternity house. He popped in his earbuds and took the call.
“My team loved the idea,” Mia said. “And so did the SPC.” Instead of sounding happy about this development, however, her voice was tight as she continued, “They think it has the potential to attract a lot of people. We can film and air episodes during winter break, since we can just upload videos onto the SPC YouTube channel ourselves. The only disadvantage is that no one will be in the office to help if there’s an issue, but I’m sure we can handle things on our own. I mean, it’s just a dating show. How complicated can it get?”
“That’s great.” Noah tried to keep his tone light, but he must have failed because Mia asked, “Um, are you okay?”
He grimaced. He must have soundedreallybad forGrumpy Miato be worried about him. Maybe it was a good thing he’d decided to walk the rest of the way home.
“Yeah. Just got done with an exhausting shoot. Anyway, when and where will we be filming, exactly?”
He paused at an intersection to open his Notes app.
“They suggested we do five days in Big Bear as the main location of filming and maybe do a big finale on the beach,Bachelor-style, if we have enough left from our budget.”
Adrenaline shot through Noah as he jotted down what Mia said. Oddly enough, talking to her about the show was giving him more energy, not depleting it. Then again, Mia always had this effect on him in Dr. Thompson’s class, so maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised. Even though they hardly ever agreed, he enjoyed talking to someone who was as obsessed with film as he was.
That was when he remembered a very important detail.
“Wait,” he said. “You hate pop culture. Are youreallyokay with the bastardization of your brainchild?”
Back at Ground Smoothie, Mia’s eyes had flashed when Noah suggested the changes, like she was about to throw her drink at him and stomp out. Even now, she didn’t sound particularly happy about her own show getting approved.
Instead of answering his question, Mia scoffed. “I donothate pop culture.”
“You saidAlienisn’t a classic. The same movie that theGuardiancalled a masterpiece. Even Roger Ebert gave it four stars.”
Mia let out a long sigh. “I liked theBarbiemovie. And that’s as pop culture as you can get.”
“Eh, with very heavy-handed philosophical themes—”
“I’m hanging up. I can’t believe you just dissedBarbie.”
“I didn’t!” Noah said quickly. “I liked it. Watched it four times. While the doll itself is pop culture, themoviehas an intellectual, high-culture side to it. It’s not the epitomeof pop culture.”
“You watchedBarbiefour times?”
“Yes. My English is decent, but it’s still my second language. I watch most Hollywood movies twice to understand all the jokes and themes fully. ForBarbie, I watched it two other times with Korean subtitles, once with my mom and once with my brother. Hey, you never answered my question.”
Mia was silent. If it weren’t for the barely audible sound of her breathing, he would have thought she’d hung up.
By then, Noah had reached his room in the Alpha Tau house. He sprawled out on Fossil Couch, so named because it’d been passed down from fraternity brother to fraternity brother for an unknowable number of years.
Mia let out a breathy sigh.
“I’m not happy with it,” she finally said. “But IthinkI’ll be okay with it. As long as it doesn’t get too toxic. My friends love the changes you suggested, and so does the SPC. My main priority is that it gets made and everyone is proud of it in the end.”
“All right then.” Noah got back on his feet and started pacing. He’d been in many projects, both his own and others’, in the last three years, but this was his first time getting involved in a reality TV show.Andthe first time he’d have to star in any kind of long-form production himself.
His throat tightened just thinking about all the heart-to-heart conversations he would need to have on camera. Three years of making all sorts of short videos, and nothing had fazed him like this. But maybe this sort of new experience would be good for him. And he was always pushing his own boundaries when it came to filmmaking.
Mia’s voice cut through his musings: “Are you still there?”
Choosing to focus on the far-less-intimidating production side of things for now, Noah asked, “When do we need to raise the money by? And start casting for the rest of the contestants?”
