The second setup looked warmer than the first.
Instead of the plain studio background, Jack stood near a large industrial window where afternoon light filled part of the room. The production team had added a chair, a low table, and almost nothing else.
The cream shirt and brown trousers made the entire thing feel more relaxed.
Selina asked him to sit near the front of the chair.
Jack did, leaning slightly forward.
She corrected the position of one arm and had him turn his body a little more toward the window.
The first photographs felt good.
He wasn't staring directly into the lens much this time. Selina had him look outside, down at his hands, or slightly past the camera. Every few shots, she changed his position by a small amount.
Jack started enjoying this setup more.
He felt less like he was being photographed for a magazine cover and more like somebody happened to be taking pictures while he sat around wearing expensive clothes.
At one point, he glanced out the window while the crew adjusted a reflector.
Selina raised the camera without warning.
The shutter clicked.
Jack looked toward her.
"Keep looking outside."
He turned back.
She took several more frames while he rested his forearms against his legs.
Later, she added a light brown jacket over the knit shirt and had him stand beside the window.
The sunlight caught one side of his face while the other stayed slightly darker.
Jack shifted his weight against the wall and looked down as a stylist fixed the jacket near his shoulder.
Selina kept taking pictures during the adjustment.
Jack noticed only after the stylist stepped away.
"You're shooting between the poses too?"
"Sometimes those are better."
That made sense.
People usually looked most natural before they realized a picture was being taken.
Jack tried to remember that as the session continued.
...
Around noon, they stopped for lunch.
Jack changed out of the jacket but kept the knit shirt on while the crew brought food into a quieter part of the studio. He sat near one of the windows with grilled chicken, rice, vegetables, fruit, and water.
Daniel joined him a few minutes later.
The recorder came back out, though the interview felt even less formal now.
They talked about Harry Potter first.
Daniel wanted to know whether Jack had expected the books to become as large as they had.
Jack admitted that he hadn't.
The sales numbers still felt strange sometimes. The New York event had made the success feel real in a completely different way.
Thousands of people had shown up carrying books he had written.
Some had traveled for hours.
Others had waited in line most of the day and never even reached the signing table.
Jack remembered looking down from the upper floor and wondering how something that had existed in his head had turned into all of that.
Daniel asked whether the size of the audience made Fantastic Beasts harder to write.
Jack nodded.
"Yeah. Once people care, you start thinking about expectations."
He took a drink of water before continuing.
"But I can't write the whole story based on what I think people want. Then I'll just be scared of upsetting them."
Fantastic Beasts had already been delayed because of Zombieland, which bothered Jack more than he liked admitting. He hated missing his own deadlines. Still, rushing the book simply to hit a date would've bothered him even more.
Daniel asked whether readers should expect the new series to feel like Harry Potter.
Jack shook his head.
"It's the same world, but a different time and different people. I don't want it to feel like Harry's story with new names."
That was about as much as he wanted to say before publication.
The rest could wait for the books.
Daniel moved on.
The next question was about fame.
Jack leaned back in the chair.
That subject had become harder to explain over the last year.
He liked meeting fans. He loved hearing that somebody cared about a movie or had stayed up too late reading one of his books. The support had given him a life most people could only dream about.
The difficult part was how quickly attention stopped feeling like something attached to the work and started following him everywhere else.
He told Daniel about moments when he wanted to walk through a store, sit in a café, or spend time with Haley without wondering whether somebody across the room had a camera.
Daniel brought up the tabloid scandal from earlier that year.
Jack's mood changed a little.
He didn't get angry the way he had when the stories first appeared, though he still hated what had happened.
The rumors about him had been annoying.
The way they treated Haley, Emma, and Willa had been worse.
"They made people who didn't do anything look guilty," Jack said. "That's what pissed me off."
He'd wanted to answer immediately when the stories started spreading. His lawyer had stopped him and told everyone involved to stay quiet.
At the time, silence had felt weak.
Later, Jack understood why it had been the right move.
The evidence had spoken louder than any angry interview could've done.
Daniel asked whether the experience had changed Jack's opinion of journalists.
Jack shook his head.
"Some people lied. That doesn't mean everybody with a notebook is the same."
Daniel seemed pleased by the answer, though Jack hadn't said it for his benefit.
It was simply true.
They talked for another fifteen minutes before the next wardrobe change was ready.
...
[Meanwhile...]
[Dunphy House] [6 PM]
Haley stood in the kitchen with both hands planted on the counter, staring at the handwritten recipe in front of her like it contained instructions for defusing a bomb.
The page had survived weeks of cooking classes, several drops of olive oil, one coffee stain, and a suspicious brown mark near the bottom that Haley had decided never to investigate.
At the top, written in large letters, were the words: LAMB PIE.
Haley looked from the recipe toward the ingredients spread across the counter. Ground lamb, carrots, onion, peas, potatoes, butter, herbs, stock, and several small bowls containing things she had measured earlier because her instructor had insisted that preparing ingredients before cooking prevented kitchen disasters.
Jack had flown into Los Angeles the night before after another exhausting stretch of filming in Georgia. He had spent practically the entire day at the Studio doing the GQ cover shoot, and Haley knew he would probably come out of it tired, hungry, and ready to collapse somewhere comfortable.
Preferably somewhere involving her.
She checked the time on her phone, then opened their message thread again.
Jack had sent her a picture earlier from the dressing room. He was wearing charcoal trousers, a white shirt, and a dark navy jacket with his collar open.
Haley had stared at the photograph for an embarrassingly long time.
She opened it again.
"Seriously," she murmured while zooming in slightly. "How do you always look so sexy?"
..
//Haley's Commentary//
Haley sat on the couch with one leg pulled close to her chest. She smiled as soon as she started talking.
"Jack has been gone for weeks. We talk on the phone and video call almost every day, but it's not the same."
She pushed some hair behind her ear.
"We can talk, flirt, eat together, and even watch movies while we're on video call. But when the call ends, I still remember that he's far away in Georgia filming a zombie movie. Although he came back to LA a couple of times and we had fun..."
Her smile became softer.
"I miss him a lot."
Haley looked down for a moment.
"I miss lying beside him. I miss stealing food from his plate, even though he keeps saying it's stealing and not sharing. I miss watching movies with him and catching him asleep halfway through."
She smiled again.
"And I really miss kissing him."
A small pause followed.
"And yes, I miss having sex with my boyfriend too."
Haley raised one hand.
"Come on. We're nineteen, we love each other, and he's really good. Of course I miss that."
She leaned back with a happy smile.
"So tonight, I'm making him dinner. Then we're going to sit on the couch, cuddle, kiss, and spend some time together."
Her smile turned playful.
"And after that, I have a few more ideas... Risky ideas. I'm gonna rock his world tonight."
Haley paused and looked slightly worried.
"I just hope the lamb pie tastes good."
//Haley's Commentary End//
...
Haley's phone rang. She saw that it was a call from Emma. She answered the call.
"Hey, bestie, what's up?" she said.
--
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