Page 18 of Charming Like Us

He groans. “Fuck, okay.” He sits up straighter and turns on the ignition. Biting a chunk of banana, he tosses the rest over his shoulder in the backseat. “I thought they wouldn’t notice if I left—they’ve been buried in some new development going up in Malibu.”

Real estate. It wasn’t their first careers, but it’s what they’ve poured everything into for as long as I can remember.

I’ve inherited their work ethic, the kind that drives me every day to reach higher. Do more. Be more. But it has consequences.

I’d think Jesse breaks the rules just to get their attention, but he probably wishes they forgot about him right now. He’s just a free spirit that doesn’t like anything tying him down.

But when our parents are working and he thinks he can pull shit over them, I’m usually the one enforcing his punishments from across the country.

“They noticed, and you’re still grounded from last time,” I say. “That means no surfing. Not even before school. Definitely not during school.”

Jesse considers this for a second before setting his phone in a car holder. “You’d think differently if you were here, Kuya. The swells are—”

“Sick,” I smile. “You already told me.”

His eyes soften, almost sadly. I know he misses me.

I miss him every day.

I sigh heavily. “I have a new project—”

He perks up. “Can I help? Please. I beg of you, Jesus Christ on a cracker, Kuya, I’d do anything.” He makes a praying motion with his hands.

My brother wants to attend college for photography. To the University of Pennsylvania. My alma mater. But he doesn’t have the grades for Penn, so he’s been trying to build his resume. I’ve let him help me here and there on smaller projects I was hired to produce. Like music videos and commercials.

Never have I let him twenty feet near aWe Are Callowayproduction. I trust him, but maybe not with that much responsibility. He’s still just seventeen.

“I’m going to have to think about it,” I tell him. “It involves a Cobalt.” I don’t give him more information than that.

“I won’t make a peep. I’ll just do grip work.Please. It’s the summer before my senior year. I might not get this chance again.”

I haven’t filled the grip position yet. Fuck, I haven’t picked out any of my crew for the pilot, which is the test episode and will usually become the first episode of a series if it goes to network. It’s still so early.

It feels like two seconds ago I was just in my apartment with Charlie having the first meeting. I haven’t even slept since then, and he still needs to sign the contract.

And I still need to talk to security about the show. His bodyguard.

Oscar.

Strange heat blankets my skin. Nerves? Anticipation? I hate not knowing the name to this feeling.

I push it away and concentrate on the details. How I have an experienced, trustworthy group of people that work with me on my production team forWe Are Calloway.How the plan was to grab some of them to work on this pilot.

“You have summer school,” I remind Jesse.

“I can do the class remotely…probably.”

“Let me think about it,” I say again. “It’s a big deal. It’s not a small project.”

He nods and pulls his SUV out of the parking lot, heading home. “How mad are they?”

“You’re definitely gonna getthe look.”

“The one that’s followed with,halika nga rito.” He sayscome herein Tagalog, his voice light-hearted.

“That’s the one.”

I feel his smile. “I know that look well.”