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Sitting at home from now on, worrying about our next choice of show and meal from room service rather than chasing some attention or a few more zeroes on the bank accounts.
Which are pretty healthy by the way, no real need for any of us or anything from now on if we don’t really want to.
Olivia breathes a sigh of relief once I tell her Denise is actually my mom, making me wonder what she was thinking this whole time until she explains.
“I thought she was, well. Y’know?” Olivia says, asking a question instead of answering one.
It only gels with me once she opens her eyes wider, pushing her silent statement home.
“Oh. Really? You actually thought...?” I half ask before shuddering.
I mean, I love my mom. But not like that, and besides, we only need small doses when it comes to each other’s actual company in real life.
Most of our contact is through the phone or email.
It’s not like she lives in my pocket.
“Tell me more about this movie idea,” Olivia says suddenly, taking a sharp turn I didn’t expect in the conversation either.
“But, the articles?” I ask her in a short reply. “Hollywood gossip… Journalism?” I try to remind her calmly, noting her coy smile.
Reminding myself about the other things I’m already thinking that have nothing to do with her work.
Family. Babies. A life of leisure.
“You can finish up working on anything you need for Naomi anytime you want now,” I explain, motioning again towards the ready-made workspace.
“Then you could start working on your own articles. Your own business, Denise has already offered to make sure you get all the help you need to get things off the ground,” I tell her, feeling myself fidget for some reason.
“Between us, we have more contacts in Hollywood than I’m sure even your current boss has,” I hear myself tell her firmly.
Concerned she might somehow choose the movie star lifestyle over a simpler, home life.
Here, or anywhere else she chooses. But along with me.
“You seem keen for me to write something of my own, Jack?” she asks, still smiling. “Why is that?”
“Well, that movie deal.” I remind myself aloud as well. “It’s already at odds with the articles published yesterday. The studio already wants to sue the media for copyright infringements. The pictures taken on set were unauthorized and the stories that followed, simply untrue,” I sigh.
“I mean, you could. Maybe should really sue them too. Nobody asked your permission to publish those photos,” I remind her.
“Now I know what it feels like, I guess,” she flushes. Her face deepening with color as she reflects on her career choice. “But you’re forgetting. I still work for Naomi and her column. Wouldn’t that mean I’m as guilty as she is in all this?”
“That’s not what I meant,” I tell her. “I mean, it’s a great chance to turn things around and start working for yourself instead of that paper.”
But she frowns. “You mean, work for you and your mom agent?” she almost snaps, before apologizing.
“I mean, it sounds like you’re just asking me to choose one side over another, Jack.”
“You wouldn’t be working for anyone, Olivia. You’d be your own boss and this would or could be your own place. You can have anywhere else if you like...” I hear my voice trail off.
“You’re not just talking about work, are you Jack?” she finally asks, and my head shakes out of reflex before I even find the words.
“Maybe I’m not.” I finally confess.
“Maybe I don’t want this to all sound so much like I’m trying to keep you to myself if only to stop you from running away,” I add, thinking how crazy it must all sound to her so soon. Remembering what she’s told me how things stood with her just a single day ago.
It’s her turn to look shy now. “I’ve got no problems with you keeping me all to yourself,” she murmurs, biting her lip.
“I just might need more than one day to process all this,” she adds, glancing around before settling her eyes on mine again.
I can hear myself swallowing hard, aware of my feelings more than ever and what I should say.
But given what she’s just told me herself, I know anything more is too much too soon right now.
Even though it’s going against my every instinct.
“But you’ll stay at least?” I ask, not meaning to sound desperate but needing to know she will.
She nods slowly, her smile refrained but her eyes still on mine.
“Oh, I’m sure we can come up with a reason for you to keep me around just a little longer,” she muses aloud, almost to herself as she opens her legs just enough to make my gaze shift before she closes them again.
A low groan escapes from deep inside me and for the first time, in case I hadn’t noticed already. I’m done. Finished.
