Luke walks ahead of us, and Sam tugs on my arm, mouthing, “He’s so hot.” She fans herself with her hand, and I roll my eyes. She’s a twenty-nine-year-old woman reverting to a teenager in real time.
“Don’t you have a bakery to help at?” I ask under my breath.
“No,” she says, her eyes following after Luke. “My mom will be fine without me.”
“Sam,” I chastise.
She lets out a frustrated breath. “Okay, you’re right. I better go.”
She hurries down the hall to her bedroom, and I find Luke in the kitchen looking around the space, his glasses now hanging on his collar.
“I always wondered what an Archie apartment would look like,” he says, turning around in his spot, taking it in.
I’m suddenly very happy I cleaned.
“This is it,” I say, holding out my arms before letting them drop by my sides. “Should we get to work?”
He looks over at the island where there are a couple of hard wooden stools tucked under the counter, and then over at the living room area, nearly blockaded by our massive green couch.
I suddenly realize there’s not a lot of workspace here.
“Should we sit on the couch?” I ask, pointing at the enormous thing.
“Sure,” he says. “Do we climb over it?”
“Sometimes,” I say. “Or we squeeze over here.”
I go to the side of the couch that we use as the entrance and show him how we get into the space.
“Very nice,” he says, once he’s shimmied his way in. It was a lot harder for him; his legs are more muscular than I realized. Suit pants leave a lot more to the imagination than the jeans he has on.
He sets his bag down on the coffee table, where Sam and I eat most of our meals, before taking a seat on one end of the couch. I take a seat on the far end, away from him. It sort of feels like one of those long dining tables that you see in Regency-era movies. Usually Sam and I are sprawled out on this couch, not sitting on opposite ends.
Except that even with the space between us, it feels sort of intimate to be sitting in my living room with Luke Wilder.
“Okay,” he says, grabbing his bag from the table and pulling out his computer before settling in, tucking one leg under the other. “Should we get started?”
We should, because the sooner we get started, the sooner this will be over.
We just need to come up with one simple statement. Should be quick and easy.
It turns out it’s neither quick nor easy.
By thetime the sun is setting, we’re still no closer to a statement for Bailey and River. Six hours of drafting, submitting, and waiting—and so far, every version has had at least one unhappy party.
The first one we sent was about Bailey and River’s commitment to the show and how they promise to give the best possible performance and ended with how dedicated they are to the audience.
Luke thought it was perfect, I thought it was too cold, but we submitted it anyway. Bailey approved, River approved, the studio said it “reads like a corporate merger.”
So, it was back to the drawing board. This time we tried to focus on their relationship, making it sound like they are—at the very least—friends. Bailey rejected it immediately, saying it was inauthentic.
The one that both Luke and I thought would work went something like “Kingdom of Flame and Moonlighthas always been bigger than any one moment. Bailey and River are proud to bring season four to fans and are focused on honoring the story they’ve been trusted to tell.”
It was beautiful. I think I even teared up when Luke read it back to me. Though that could have been from exhaustion. Both Bailey and River approved. But then the studio said it was too vague and that “fans will pick it apart in twenty minutes.”
“This is feeling impossible,” I say, grabbing the carton of chicken fried rice and spooning some ontoa plate. “We can’t be vague, but we also can’t not be vague. And we have to keep it authentic.”
After the last rejection from the studio, Luke declared that he was starving and also that he wanted to make sure I was well fed so my brain would work—which I found annoying, but he wasn’t wrong—so we had Chinese delivered. We’ve now got a full spread on the coffee table. My apartment smells like garlic and ginger.
