by Naomi Niles
“That is the nature of the beast, babe. You gotta stay flexible.”
“Bullshit, Marc. How long have you known about this meeting?”
He paused. “For about a few days now.”
“Goddamnit!”
“Hey, hey, calm down babe. The meeting should be no longer than 15, 20 minutes. In and out, you know? Just like you like it. In and out. I promise you that.” He put the phone down and yelled at someone in the background. “Hey, get the fuck off that, buddy! You’re going to break it!” He slid his mouth back to the phone and continued speaking as if he never stopped. “So, meet me at 85th and Boulevard at 2 pm.”
“85th? That’s not where your office is.”
“Yeah, I know. We are meeting somewhere else. I have to–” he yelled again, “Shit! You know what, I’ll do it! I’ll fucking do it myself!”
“Marc?”
“I’m sorry, babe, I’ve got to go. This mechanic is supposedly fixing my hoverboard, and he has no clue what the fuck he is doing. None! I will see you today at 2 pm. Don’t be late, Ezra, this is serious business.”
He hung up before I could ask him anything else about the meeting. I had plans to go work out with Jeff today and get our routine up and going again, but now, I was going to have to cancel. I wondered what the meeting could be about. Things seemed to be going well as far as I could see, so I didn’t know what to expect. I sent a good morning text to Hannah, thanking her again for the time she spent with my boys. Things got off to a shaky start between them, but once I saw Nolan open up to her, I knew she would be fine. Nolan was the hardest cookie to crack, and if he didn’t like you, there wasn’t a thing you could do to change his mind. He was a shy kid, and on top of that, he was very selective with whom he wanted to connect with.
She responded a few minutes later. “Good morning, handsome. I’ve been up for a while. I have a meeting today with my agent, and I am nervous about it. I couldn’t sleep one bit.”
“A meeting? My agent just called me a few minutes ago about a meeting that he was supposed to tell me about a few days ago. It is odd that we are both meeting about the movie today. Do you think it is bad?”
“I hope not. I thought things were going well. I’ve heard about times when production companies had to stop shooting the movie because of budget issues, but we just flew to New Zealand, so I don’t think that can be it.”
“I hope it’s not. I am looking forward to the release of this movie.”
“Yeah, me and about a thousand other people I told about it. It will be a complete embarrassment if the movie I was so excited to be in can’t even make it to the big screen. It would feel like everything I did was a waste.”
“Not completely. I mean, we did get to meet each other.”
“Yeah, that is something I can take away from it.”
“Yeah, but don’t jump to conclusions. We will find out what is going on soon enough.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m going to get ready. I’ll see you later?”
“Of course.”
I put the phone on my desk and laid on my bed for a few more minutes. I knew Jeff was going to be pissed that I had to skip another workout day, but business is business and I had to take care of that first. I shut my eyes to get a little more rest, but the next time I opened them, it was 12:53 pm. “Shit!” I threw the covers off and quickly hopped into the shower. I didn’t want to be late for the meeting, so I had to hurry.
I arrived at the location with 10 minutes to spare. The large, red brick building had various suite numbers positioned on the windows. Fuck. He didn’t give me a suite number. Just as I pulled out my phone to call Marc, Hannah’s car drove up into a parking spot just to the left of mine. I squinted my eyes to make sure it was her, then I got out of the car and knocked on her passenger side window. She unlocked the door for me to climb inside. “Ezra? What are you doing here?”
I leaned in for a kiss. “This is where my agent told me that the meeting was. I had no idea you would be here, too.”
“This is my agent’s building. Suite 257, right there,” she pointed to the door right in front of her car.
“Well, I guess they wanted to meet with both of us.”
She exhaled. “God, I am so nervous. I know what you told me this morning, but I don’t know, I’m still nervous. I got a feeling they are going to say something bad. I don’t know what I will do if something happens to this movie. Months of filming, studying the script, and everything all gone down the drain.”
I grabbed hold of her hand to comfort her, “You don’t know what it is about. It could be a good thing. Maybe they are adding another character to the movie, and now, we have to reshoot some scenes. Maybe it is just some small housekeeping stuff like that.”
“I hope so, but then, they could’ve just told us that on the set. They wouldn’t have had to call a meeting for the both of us, you know? It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
“We will find out soon enough, but until then, let’s just wait and see what happens. No point in stressing over it, especially when we are just feet away from the news.”
“I hear you, Ezra. I hear you.”
She was worried, and I could tell that there was nothing I could say to get her to feel otherwise. Just then, another car drove into a parking spot in front of the building. I saw Marc in the driver’s seat as the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. Marc jumped out of the car as I looked at the time. It was 1:58 pm. I opened my door and yelled his name as he stopped and spun around. Suddenly, a smile flashed onto his face, “Ezra, babe! I was running late, and I figured you were already inside.”
I stepped out of the car, “Yeah, I would have been if you told me the suite number.”
“I did. I said 257.”
“No, you told me the location, not the suite number.”
“Ah, semantics,” he said with a smile as he stood in front of me. “Anywho, it is good to see you! New Zealand, huh? How was that?” He looked towards Hannah as she stepped out of the car. He removed his shades as she became the center of his attention for a second. “Wow, Hannah! Darling, you look simply ravishing! This celebrity movie life fits you well!”
“Hey, Marc,” she said, forcing a smile on her face as he leaned in for a hug. “Thank you for the compliment.”
“My pleasure! We, shall we go inside? I believe they are waiting and it has just turned 2 pm.”
Leonard sat inside the building with the two women I auditioned for, as well as one extra person that I hadn’t seen before. She looked to be Hannah’s agent, because when we got inside, Hannah went straight to her. “Hello, my movie stars!” Leonard said, greeting us both with the customary double kiss that I had become accustomed to. “Thank you for meeting with us here today. I supposed we could have discussed this on set, but I wanted you all to be the first we told about this. Have a seat, please.”
I took a seat next to Hannah as she nervously tapped her foot against the floor. The subtle thuds coincided with the anxious heartbeat inside my chest as we waited to hear the news. “So, we are right on schedule for everything, and you two are doing a fabulous job,” Leonard said, “but, we have hit a bit of a snag.” The air was immediately sucked out of the room, and for that moment, my heart seemed to stop beating inside my chest. “Budget. We’ve um, what’s the word?”
A woman to his right assisted him. “Hit a roadblock.”
He glared at her with pursed lips. “No, that wasn’t the word I wanted, but I’ll take it. It seems we have exhausted much of our funds for this movie and we are only halfway through the shoot. Now, I have proposed another budget to the company, but we are yet to hear back from them, so for right now, we have to put everything on hold. I know I told you guys to have a few days off when we got back from New Zealand, but that is the reason behind it. We spent far more money out there than we expected, so it put us in this position. We will pick up eventually, but right now, things are in limbo.”
I dropped my head. Hannah looked away from Leonard a
s if to hide the tears that were forming in her eyes. Leonard spoke up again, “No, no, no! We will not have any of that sadness here! This is simply a part of the business. Things like this happen more often than you think. What’s the big movie? Short Stop? Yeah, that budget was adjusted twice, and the film took much longer to record because of it, but it got done. The production companies will not hesitate to up the budget if they know the movie will be a success, and this movie here? This will be a success! So, don’t you worry about anything. Ezra? Hannah? I am sure this production will be up and running again soon.”
As the meeting continued, I faded his voice out of my mind. No matter what he said, it felt like things were coming to an end for my dream. It was funny how things that felt so close to me could seem so far, and right now, my dream was one of them.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Hannah
I buried my head in my pillow and cried out loud as soon as I got home. Ezra wanted to take me out to get a bite to eat after the meeting, but I didn’t want to go out anywhere. It felt like I was slipping into a state of depression, falling down a dark pit with no way to stop myself from hitting bottom. After all the hard work, I knew that this dream was coming to an end. I’ve heard of budgets getting cut before, and then the movie never gets produced. I felt like this was one of those situations. There was a knock at my bedroom door, but I didn’t respond.
“Hannah?” Carrie walked into the room.
“No, Carrie, just go away, all right! Just go away. It’s all over. Everything is over. My dream. Everything!”
“Hannah, you know I am not going anywhere. What happened?”
I lifted my head off the pillow and wiped my eyes. “They cut the budget for the movie, so everything is on pause right now. No more filming, nothing! This fucking movie is going down the fucking drain!”
“Whoa, whoa, Hannah. Just calm down, OK?” She sat beside me on the bed. “Listen, I don’t know how the movie industry works, but just because they cut the budget doesn’t mean that everything is over. You said it is on pause right now, right? So, that means–”
“That means they are just delaying the fucking inevitable! That’s all that means, Carrie! Watch! In a few days… in a few weeks, they will call me and tell me that the movie is trashed. I know it! I knew it was too good to be true! It always is for me, Carrie! It always is!”
I buried my head back into the pillow while Carrie rubbed my back. “Hey, come on now, Hannah. It’s not over, and you know I am a ‘glass half full’ kinda girl, so maybe you need to hear this from me. Just look at it this way, during this little break that you have, you can go on other auditions and things like that. I mean, if they know that you landed one of the leading roles in Satin Sheets, then I am sure they will look your way quicker. That is something you can put on your acting resume, and I’m sure it will catch any director’s attention.”
“No! No, no, and no! I don’t want to go through another fucking audition! I want to finish this fucking movie like I fucking planned on fucking doing!”
There was a long pause between us. I sniffled in the silence as Carrie’s eyes wandered around the room. “Soo, I’m guessing that you just wanted to say, ‘fucking’ for a record number of times in a sentence?” My eyes were slim in her direction. “OK, OK, I’m backing off. But honestly, Hannah, I think you are overreacting just a tad. I mean yeah, it’s fucked up that things have come to a halt so suddenly, but then again, there is a positive to everything, and you just have to let yourself see it. It’s not the end of the world, and it definitely is not the end of your dreams.”
I wanted to believe Carrie, but most of all, this was the first time in the past few months that I wanted to wake up from this dream because it slowly started turning into a nightmare. For the next few days, I didn’t even leave the house. I kept my phone close to me at all times, thinking that Leonard or somebody from the production team was going to call me and tell me that the movie was done. I couldn’t rest until I knew one way or the other. Carrie tried to get me go to out with her, but I stayed in the house, wrapped in a housecoat like I was in mourning. It felt like I was, though. It felt like my career was on its way to getting buried and there was nothing I could do to stop it from happening.
Ezra called to check up on me, and I kept conversation with him to a minimal. I didn’t want him to hear how depressed I was for too long because I felt like it would rub off on him. Three days later, he showed up at my home. I was in the room when Carrie opened my door and stuck her head inside with a smile on her face. “Hey, how are you today?” I sat in my bed with a bowl of ice cream in my lap while I watched television. I didn’t respond to her. “Oh, you’re good? Great! Well, I have somebody who wants to see you.”
“What? Who is it, Carrie? I look a mess, and I don’t feel like seeing anyone right now.”
She opened the door all the way, and in stepped Ezra. I quickly placed my bowl on the nightstand, then covered my body with a blanket. “Ezra! What are you doing here?! I look a mess! Get out!”
The door closed, and after that, I sat still, hoping that he did what I asked. But I knew Ezra, and I figured he had to be standing in the room, waiting for me to remove the covers from my head. A few seconds went by in complete silence, so I slowly removed the covers to find him standing right near my bed with his arms folded across his chest. “Ezra!” I yelled, “Get out! Now! You are so hardheaded!”
He laughed out loud and sat on the bed. “Baby, seriously? I’ve seen you early in the morning, and your stinky breath was all in my face. Do you think I care about how you look right now? I know you’re having a rough time, but honestly, even when you feel you are at your worst, I know you still look better than half of these fake women out here in Hollywood. So, come on,” he tugged at my covers, “let me see that pretty face of yours.”
“Awww, Ezra. Thank you. I’m still not moving the covers, but that was sweet of you to say.”
He laughed. “Come on, Hannah.”
“No!”
“Welp,” I heard his shoes drop to the ground. “That just means one thing. I’m coming under there with you.”
“Ezra, no! Stop!”
He grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled it up so he could slide under it. I laughed as he made his way up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “Since you didn’t want to be nice, I had to break and enter.” He looked around for a minute. “Um, I bet it is going to get hot under these covers because I know you haven’t brushed your teeth or your tongue this morning.”
I elbowed him in the side. “Shut up, Ezra! I’m not in the mood to laugh right now. This shit is so fucking annoying. Have they called you?”
“Who?”
“The production company.”
“Oh. No, I haven’t heard from them.”
I exhaled. “Ugh! See, it is over, Ezra! Everything we worked for is done!”
I felt tears starting to form in my eyes again, but I fought them back. I didn’t feel like getting another headache from crying so much. “No, it’s not done, Hannah. It’s not… but… since I’ve already seen you, can we get out from beneath these covers? It is really starting to get hot.”
I squinted my eyes at him. “I hate you.” Seconds later, I removed the covers from over our heads, and it was like a fresh breath of air sweeping our bodies. “Now, are you happy? You’re the one that intruded on my personal space. I should’ve kept you under there.”
“Cruel and unusual punishment? Doesn’t seem like your cup of tea.” I poked my bottom lip out, but he leaned forward and kissed it softly. I didn’t give in on the first kiss, but by the third, I couldn’t resist. I pressed my lips to his, and at that moment, I felt like all of my problems were releasing from my mind. He had the innate ability to take away my pain without even trying. “Now,” he said after we released, “how is that?”
“Better. Thank you.” I cuddled next to him on the bed as the television replayed the celebrity news. “We could have been one of the celebrities
on this show, Ezra. Paparazzi following us around everywhere we go because people always want to know what we are doing. That is what I dreamed of, but now, it just seems like it will stay a dream because I can’t ever get anything to go right for me. Even when it seems like it is going to be an excellent set up for my future success, something happens, and everything is derailed. It happens every time. I was a fool to think that this would be any different.”
“Wait,” he said as if he had to get clarification about something. “So, you want paparazzi to follow you around and invade your space?”
“Huh?”
“I don’t know if I would like that. I mean, I think I would end up socking some of them in the face. It seems like that can get annoying, and sometimes, I just want to be left alone. I don’t know if I would like that part of the celebrity status. I know it comes with the territory, but I think I would try my best to stay hidden for as long as I could.”
“Yeah,” I said, flipping off the television with the remote control. “Well, I guess we will both stay hidden now. I’m not going to another fucking audition. Fuck this acting shit, you know? I’m going to just go work at Macy’s or something. Get on with my life because this is nothing but one big disappointment after the next.”
“Macy’s? One of the mannequins? Because with the way you are losing weight, you might be a good fit. Can you pose real still for a long time? Let me see.”
“Ezra! You are sitting here making jokes, and I am being serious! You know what, just forget it.”
I tried to get off the bed, but he pulled me back down. “OK, OK, I’m sorry baby, I’m sorry.” He held me close and kissed me on the neck. “And I’m going to be honest with you about something, OK? Don’t be mad.”
“Don’t be mad? Great. More fucking bad news. What? Did you get back with your ex or something? Just tell me now because I don’t feel like I can be any more depressed than I already am.”
“On the contrary. My agent called me today. Early this morning.” He paused for a while until I punched him in the arm to continue. He laughed out loud. “I’m sorry, I just wanted to build the suspense. He called me and said that the director wants us back on set next week so we can continue shooting. Everything was settled. The budget is fine, and we are back rolling again.”