I rise from the dead groggily, rubbing at my eyes, throat parched. Tea. I need tea. My morning routine dictates I check my phone before I do anything though and that’s when my stomach crashes through the floor.

Hello Gavin, are you turning up today?

It’s Adriano. Fuck! Today is the photoshoot!

Before I even register what I was doing, I batter his number onto the touchscreen. I have the phone glued to my ear, held in place by my shoulder, as I flail around the room wrestling with my skinny jeans. He answers after a few rings and before he can even ask me what the issue is, I’m talking at a hundred miles per hour.

“Hi, Adriano? Yeah, yeah. I completely forgot about the shoot today, I’m so sorry! I got caught up in the Halloween buzz last night.” Adriano asks if I’m hungover – do I need time to recover? He doesn’t even sound mad – he’s joking around with me which is a relief. “Yeah, no, no, I’ll be fine, honestly! I’m just gonna head out for the bus now!” I put the phone on loudspeaker and throw it on my bed as I begin to fight with my old grey jumper - the one with the studded sleeves and the black inverted cross on it. In the living room, I hear the faint groans and moans of Ryan waking up. “Aw, fuck!” I yell suddenly as I grab my wallet. “I need to go draw cash out for the bus! Oh, shit, sorry, sorry. I don’t mean to swear but oh my god. Right, sorry, sorry!”

“Gavin, it’s okay!” his voice reassures me, “I’m not heading out until the afternoon. I can pick you up to save time.”

I agree and give him my address.

I guess on the plus side, I don’t need to worry about my camera equipment - it’s always charged up, ready to go. I keep everything in my old Lowepro camera bag - lenses, spare battery, extra memory cards, filters, etc, and of course my Canon itself.

Adriano tells me he’ll be around ten or fifteen minutes so I quickly run the straighteners over my hair to spike it up, grab my thick rimmed black glasses (which I’m technically supposed to wear all the time but rarely ever do…) and head through to the living room. Ryan is sitting in a ball of duvets and throws, his head in his hands.

“You rough too?” I smirk as I pass him – he raises a hand and waves it at me, dismissing me.

“There’s a goddamned rodeo going on in my full body right now,” he groans.

“Go and stick your fingers down your throat,” I tell him, raising my voice slightly as I head into the kitchen and flick the kettle on. “Trust me – if you feel like you’re gonna throw up, just get it over with. I’ll make you a cup of tea and there’s some liver salts in the bathroom’s medicine cabinet if you need them.”

“Thanks, man,” with that, I hear him stagger out of the living and down the hall, followed by the unfortunate sounds of him gagging.

When he returns, we sip our tea in silence until he clears his throat.

“I had a lot of fun last night, Gavin. Thank you.”

“Thank me for what?” I ask him, a smile breaking out on my face. “Yeah, it was quite fun. That party was absolute bollocks though, mate.”

He nods. “Yeah… I mean, like, thanks for putting up with me when I’m drunk. I know I talk a lot of shit when I’m crunk as fuck.”

“I thought you were pretty interesting when you opened up.”

“I don’t even wanna know what I was saying,” his face is bright red, eyes glued to the steaming mug in his hands. I begin to chuckle quietly – someone’s suffering the shame of not remembering most of his night out, haha!

“Well, we were talking about fucking…aliens, ghosts, demons,”

He cuts me off. “Wait, actually fucking them? What?”

I shake my head. “Nah man. It’s like a form of punctuation here.”

“Cursing?”

“Yup.”

“Okay…”

“So anyway, Bigfoot, the indy referendum, our families, etc. Then you started going on about your art and it was really cute.” Did I actually just fucking say that?

“Cute?” he frowns as he takes a sip of his hot tea.

“I don’t mean like that – I mean, like, the way you got all animated and super excited was…”

“Was?”

Um… I don’t even know what to say.

“Inspiring?”

“Inspiring.” He nods, taking another drink.

I’m about to dig myself an even deeper hole but I’m saved by the horn from Adriano’s car.

“Well, that’s me off then,” I say, quickly roasting my throat as I down my hot cup of tea as fast as I can and instantly regretting it. “I’m doing a product photoshoot this morning. You’ll still be here when I get back, right?” Ryan nods and emits another groan as he lowers his head. “I’ll see you later, okay?”

As I batter down the apartment building stairs, camera bag slung over my shoulder, I can’t help but wonder why I said he was cute. It wasn’t the word I was looking for but it was the first thing that came to mind. I hope Ryan just brushes it off but a part of me in starting to worry in case he overthinks the simple statement and starts feeling awkward.

In the car, Adriano banters with me as we drive out to Prestwick – a nearby little town where Lion & Panda is located. Before we go to our destination though, we stop at a passing ATM and  I run over to draw out some money for the bus back home. I coulda saved myself some cash by not drinking last night and driving out here but fuck it – it was Halloween night.

To my surprise, the studio isn’t on the main streets – it’s in a little back alley. As we trundle into the area, I make a mental note of the layout of the streets so I can see how to get back to the bus stops. Adriano comes in with me and I’m surprised at how clean the inside is compared to the outside. The stairs leading up to the second floor are all freshly carpeted and the entire place has that weird but pleasant office smell. Lion & Panda is sealed away from prying eyes behind two big pine doors that remind me of the kinda doors they had in the older building of the secondary school I attended. In fact, the entire building interior kinda reminds me of a school. I discover that the building is actually a shared collective of several small businesses.  As we pass some of the closed doors branching off from the main corridor, I notice signs for a letting agency, a beautician, some kind of electrical contractor – there’s a whole bunch of random industries operating in here. I wonder if Lion & Panda designed any of their logos.

We come to the doors for the studio and Adriano knocks first before entering. When we do, my ears are assaulted by a chorus of salutations. The studio is huge and spacious – there are a couple of expensive looking computers dotted around in the corners, a huge conference table in the centre of the room and the high walls are covered in murals and motivational posters.

I’m greeted to the team one by one.

There’s Muriel, a rotund little elderly lady clad in an eyesore of a dress that looks like a pair of old curtains. She apparently deals with the finances and general secretarial work. She peers up at me through her weird triangle shaped glasses as she shakes my hand with an iron grip.

Next up is Lynda herself, the owner of the business. She’s a little overweight with long brown hair and warm eyes – taller than me and clad in burgundy jeans with an emerald shirt and brown leather boots.

A nerdy looking twenty-something blonde is next to greet me – he’s wearing a plaid shirt, jeans somehow even tighter than mine, a full beard and one of those irritating little man buns. He explains he’s Taylor – he deals with social media and accounts and sometimes he designs the odd website, depending on how busy the in-house designer is.

As they bombard me with information about themselves and their jobs, I have to wonder why – I’m literally just here to photograph some stuffed animals and then I’m gone again. There’s no need to be treating me as if I’m joining their team…

The last person to meet rises like a short zombie from behind a massive computer monitor and shuffles over to me. It’s Charlie – the designer Adriano had mentioned. She’s a small, skinny girl with really short brown hair and glasses. I would honestly have mistaken her for a preteen boy – she’s wearing an oversized hoody that hides the shape of her small frame and the dark circles under her cheerful eyes tell me she works hard at her craft – I can respect that. She reaches for my hand and I shake it gently. She’s so tiny, almost like a doll – I’m a little afraid of breaking her.

“Hey,” even her voice is quiet. She gives me a little wave with her free hand and then shuffles back over to her computer. “Adriano has already told me about the project. What’s your aesthetic?”

“My…aesthetic?”

“What look are you going for?”

I shrug, “I kinda forgot to consult with my partner on it, sorry.” It doesn’t seem to be a problem as those little glasses peer over the monitor, scan me up and down, and then disappear again.

“I’ll base the aesthetic off your own style.”

Sure, cool I guess.

The job itself is piss easy – Adriano sets up some studio lights and hands me a bag of stuffed toys. He tells me to upload the images onto Lynda’s computer and she’ll transfer the images over to Charlie later. Nice – I don’t even have to edit them. It’s ten minutes of work so I dick around for an hour while Charlie works on her design. Occasionally she calls me over to get my thoughts on her work so far – she’s going for a slightly gothic look. Weird, I don’t think I look gothic at all? Or maybe it’s the ‘alternative’ look? I don’t know.

Taylor shouts me over and starts showing me what he does – he explains some viral marketing ideas but it’s all over my head. He smells lovely – I have to bite my tongue to not ask him what aftershave he’s wearing. I kinda want a bottle of it myself.

Adriano offers me a run home – he needs to head back anyway as he’s departing from Glasgow Airport at half two in the afternoon. Charlie takes note of my email and sends me the final logo. She was eager to design a few alternatives but I explain it’s just for a college project and we’re happy with anything. The final logo is quite gothic looking with medieval text coupled with modern text – old and new. I love it. It fits the idea of taking something old and reworking it into something up to date and modern. Perfect! I thank her for her work, say my goodbyes to the studio staff and jump back in Adriano’s car. As we drive, he jokes with me not to breathe a word of our little expedition to the rest of the class because they’d all cry favouritism. My lips are sealed – they always were.

Ryan is properly dressed again when I get home. I drop him a text as I’m approaching the house and I’m pleasantly surprised to find him sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea ready for me. I fire up my laptop and throw myself down beside him, legs crossed, laptop resting on my lap.

“I’ve got something for you,” I tell him excitedly. He tilts his head curiously, eyes sparkling again now that he’s freshened up from last night’s antics. As soon as he sees the logo flash up on the screen, he starts gushing with excitement.

“Dude! Did you have to pay for that? Holy crap!”

 I shake my head, “See that photoshoot this morning? This was my payment.”

We exchange a confident grin – this is gonna be great.