Chapter 7

Theo brought his empty bowl to the kitchen. Mara was still looking at Delia's stream, where his fans were being told to leave.

"Give me your phone," she said.

"What for?"

"Your own livestream."

"I don't do livestreams alone."

"You don't sing for Delia alone either, apparently. Give it here."

He handed it over. Mara wrote a short notice on his account: I'm going live tonight. Come talk to me here. She showed him the screen before posting. Theo hesitated, then nodded.

"I'll have nothing to say."

"Start with the people who came looking for you."

They sat on the couch. Mara stayed outside the camera's view while Theo started the broadcast. The first comments were from viewers who'd just left Delia's stream. He read one aloud, stumbled over how to answer, and glanced at Mara.

"Tell them you saw what happened," she said quietly.

"I saw some of the comments," he told the camera. "You shouldn't have been made to feel unwelcome because you wanted to see me. I'm sorry I didn't tell you myself that I wasn't going on tonight."

The comments sped up. Someone said they were glad he'd come online. Someone else asked whether he really read messages from his fans.

"I do," Theo said. "I don't always know how to answer them."

He picked a question about the film he'd been watching and gave an honest answer. Soon he was responding without Mara pointing to each comment. He admitted which scene still made him cringe and thanked the viewer who said it had made her laugh.

The audience grew. Theo kept glancing toward Mara when a question caught him off guard. Once he looked at her instead of the camera for so long that the chat began filling with guesses about who was sitting beside him.

"Look at the lens," Mara whispered.

He obeyed. A viewer asked why he was suddenly taking directions from someone offscreen. Mara laughed before she could stop herself.

There's definitely someone there, the chat replied.

"Is that your staff?" another comment asked. "Why don't you tell her what to do?"

Theo looked straight at Mara, then at the camera. "Because I wouldn't dare."

Mara covered her mouth, but he was already reading the flood of questions his answer had brought in.