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“Plus, there haven’t been all that many good ones—the Alien movies, obviously, being the exception.”
“And Moon.”
“Oh, yeah, Moon was great!”
“There’ve been a couple set on Mars—”
“Both of them awful,” she pointed out.
“And Apollo 18—”
“Don’t even talk to me about that movie. It made me so mad.” There were enough loony conspiracy theories out there about the Apollo program. The last thing anyone needed was some crap horror movie fueling the fire. “Have you seen Europa Report though?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“That one was pretty good. Documentary-style alternative history. You should check it out.”
He shoved his pizza between his teeth, pulled out his notebook, and made a note. When he was done, he pulled the pizza out of his mouth. “There was Event Horizon too.”
Esther’s nose wrinkled. “A truly, truly terrible film. I will not allow you to commit such a travesty.”
He grinned at her. “See, this is exactly why I need you.”
She felt her cheeks warm and looked back down at the pages in her lap. “All right, shut up and let me read the rest of this.”
It was actually good. At least, it had the potential to be good. He’d chucked most of the plot from the other script. A lot of the main characters were more or less the same, but the structure of the story was totally different. The whole film took place in space now, with no scenes on earth. And it was set in a near-future world, so the technology was slightly advanced.
“You know what it reminds me of?” Esther said when she’d finished reading it. “That Firefly episode—”
“‘Bushwhacked’?” he said around a mouthful of pizza.
“Yes! The one about the Reavers! So great.”
“That’s exactly what I was going for.” He swallowed, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “I mean, that was kind of what I was going for before, but now instead of switching genres midstream, I’m establishing it right up front. At least, that’s the idea. We’ll see how I do with the execution.” His blue eyes twinkled behind his glasses. He was so excited, he was smiling with his whole face, from the bottom of his beanie to his bearded chin.
Esther couldn’t help smiling back at him. “Jonathan Brinkerhoff, I think there may just be hope for you yet.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Talk to me about explosions in space,” Jonathan said as he strode into Esther’s apartment a few weeks later.
“What about them?” Esther asked, closing the door.
He’d been coming over two or three times a week to ask her science questions or show her the latest pages of his script. Or sometimes for no reason at all. Weirdly, she didn’t mind having him around so much. She’d even started to enjoy it.
After two years of having only a passing acquaintance with her neighbors, it was nice to be friends with one of them. To have someone to hang out with who was living right next door. Someone she could see without making plans in advance or having to fight LA traffic. It was like living in a sitcom—she was Monica with the nicer apartment, and he was Chandler, dropping by all the time just because.
Esther never knew when Jonathan was going to turn up. Sometimes he’d text in advance to ask if she was going to be around, but sometimes he’d drop by with no warning. Because he was bored, she supposed—or lonely, maybe. When he wasn’t in class, he spent most of his time alone, writing. It seemed to leave him craving human company some days.
Instead of being annoyed by his unexpected visits, Esther had begun to look forward to them. They broke up the monotony of her routine—and okay, maybe she was a little lonely too. She liked having someone she could talk about her day with when she got home from work. It was better than spending every night alone with her cat.
Jonathan went straight to her fridge and helped himself to a beer. She didn’t mind that either, because they were beers he’d brought over last week. He was always bringing her things: takeout, beer, coffee, even ice cream one time.
“Would you be able to hear an explosion in space?” he asked as he dug her bottle opener out of the drawer by the fridge.
“Depends.”
“On what?”
