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Chapter 7

The sleeve of Matthew’s hoodie tickled Eve’s exposed forearm. His grip was firm, but not too tight, and she was close enough to smell him. An intoxicating, woodsy scent. Slowly, she raised her eyes to meet his. Matthew’s lips remained pressed together neutrally, but his dark lashes fluttered over his eyes, which sparkled in amusement.

Can he feel my pulse? Eve wondered over the roar of her hammering heartbeat.

“Is everything okay here?” A stern security guard leaned forward, inspecting the pair, as if to sense whether Eve was dangerous.

Not dangerous, just incredibly uncoordinated.

“Sorry, yes, I just lost my footing.” Eve stammered. Matthew Cardhart released her arm, and cool air rushed in to where his fingertips had been. Resisting the urge to rub her arm, Eve held her purse firmly in front of her and turned to continue heading down the aisle. Her cheeks were burning with embarrassment and another emotion that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.

“Enjoy the flight,” Matthew called after her, amusement laced in his tone. For half a second, Eve tried to come up with a witty reply, but she was too flustered to do more than scurry over to her seat and try to pretend that the whole thing never happened.

Once seated, Eve rubbed her arm.

“Nervous flier?” John asked sympathetically. Just as he had predicted, his seat was right next to hers.

“You could say that,” Eve replied, not wanting to get into the details of her incident.

“Well, allow me to distract you,” John offered as the plane began its ascent. “I’ve read some of your work. It’s clear to me why Matt chose you.”

Eve frowned. Her work at Pixel Pulse was filler at best. “You mean my Top Ten lists?” she asked.

John laughed. “No, I mean your undergrad work. Your writing is very persuasive. Passionate. That’s exactly what you want in someone covering your exclusive news. Someone who can make the reader feel something.”

Eve’s confusion grew. How had John gotten a hold of her undergrad work? “You read my school assignments?”

“Sorry, I thought you knew. We vet any potential employees pretty thoroughly around here for obvious reasons. A lot of people just want to work with Matt for the fame. He’s been burned pretty badly from it.”

Eve thought about the half-finished draft of the article she had written about her conversation with Matthew, and her heart dropped. “It has to be hard to be thought of as a brand rather than a person.” She said as much to herself as to John.

“You get it,” he said. “Matt’s become a good friend to me over the past few years, so I would hate to see him get hurt.”

Eve raised her hand as if saying a pledge. “I’m not here to use him. I’m here to write articles,” she promised.

John eyed her for a moment, as if considering saying something else, but nodded instead. “We’ll see.”

The two spent the rest of the flight discussing the job details and getting to know each other’s professional backgrounds.

“There’s a qualifying round tomorrow that Matt is going to wear sponsored headphones to. If you could write a blurb for their website about how helpful the headphones were during the competition and how Matt performed with them, I’ll get some photos and keep his socials updated.”

Eve took out a notepad and scribbled down a few things. “How long?”

“Five hundred words.”

“Got it. When do they want it?”

“By the end of the day.”

Eve nodded. As she continued writing down details, a nervous-looking mother and her young son made their way down the aisle. The boy looked to be about nine or ten years old. They stopped in front of Matthew.

“Excuse me?” The mother whispered to Matthew, who had his head leaned back against the top of the seat. His eyes were closed, and he lightly nodded along to some music that could barely be heard playing through his earbuds.

The security guard seated behind Matthew rose from his chair. “Please move along, ma’am,” he said gruffly.

Eve watched as Matthew cracked open an eye and took in the scene in front of him. He quickly pulled out his earbuds. “Wait!” He called out to the woman before she could get too far away, and gave his security guard a knowing look. “What did you want to tell me?” he asked.

The woman gripped her son’s shoulders tightly. “Not me, my son. He’s a huge fan. He watches almost every single one of your streams, and he was wondering…” She nudged the boy, who took a tiny step forward.

“I was wondering if we could take a selfie?” the boy asked in a small voice without lifting his gaze from the carpet in front of him.

Matthew’s face widened into a huge smile. “Every one of my streams, huh? Well, of course we can take a selfie! Come on over, little dude!” he waved the dumbfounded little boy over cheerfully. The boy’s mom smiled in relief.

Eve smiled as the two of them crowded together and did several ridiculous poses for the camera.

“My friends are never going to believe this!” The boy said gleefully.

“Well, now you have photographic evidence,” Matthew said.

“Thank you so much,” the boy's mother said. She stuck out her arm and shook Matthew’s hand gratefully.

“Thank you for watching my streams,” Matthew said with an exaggerated point to the boy, who laughed and pulled his mother back to their chairs.

“He’s great with kids,” John said, following Eve’s gaze.

Eve, realizing that she had been staring, quickly looked away. “I bet that happens a lot.”

“Definitely! Security is pretty good about keeping people in line, though sometimes they get a little too carried away. That kid seemed sweet.”

Eve was about to reply when the captain's voice came from over the intercom announcing their descent.

“Alright, looks like we’ll be landing soon,” John said, reaching for his seatbelt. “Are you ready for round two?”