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Then she smiles. “I like that idea.” She steps inside and puts her glass on the kitchen counter. “Are you coming?”
“Right behind you.”
“I can’t believe Mrs. Perl’s cat peed all over you. How hard did you squeeze her?” Fiona dabs the sleeve of my shirt with a wet cloth. It’s not doing much to soak up the urine.
“I barely touched her. She seemed okay at first when I carried her up the stairs.” I made it one flight before the senior citizen of a cat relieved herself all over my arm. And then she had the audacity to purr like it was an innocent cuddle toy.
“It was a very heroic thing to do.” She rinses the cloth and gets back to rubbing the wash cloth all over my arm.
“What do you think happened to our pizza?” I ask to distract myself.
“I’ll go check.” Fiona walks out of the bathroom, leaving me to finish cleaning my shirt. I take a minute to wash my face and roll up my ruined sleeve, and its mate. I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Being back in the south, especially at night, isn’t doing my hair any favors. I wet my hands and run them through my hair, slicking it back as best as I can. It’s not my best look, but at least I no longer appear like I’m a member of a nineties boy band who just rolled out of bed.
“Pizza’s here,” Fiona calls from the kitchen. “The delivery guy showed up before I got a chance to call the restaurant.”
I walk out, the scent of oregano and melted cheese hitting me and making my stomach growl louder than ever.
“About time,” I grumble, too hungry to play it cool.
“Let’s get you fed.” Fiona pulls two thick paper plates—the good kind my mom buys for the annual 4th of July family cookout—from her pantry and puts two large slices of pizza on it.
“Pineapple? You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What’s wrong with you? Best pizza ingredient ever.” She shrugs and serves herself a slice.
“It is not. And you know I can’t stand it. You did this on purpose.” I take a bite, too hungry to care that there’s something fundamentally wrong with fruit in your dinner.
“I had no idea,” she says, the twinkle in her eye giving her away. “Besides, you’re eating it. Can’t be that bad.”
“Alright, you win this round. But don’t think you’ll be so lucky tomorrow when we take the scripts to Dave.”
“We’ll see about that. I talk a pretty good game, and I’ve known Dave much longer than you have.” She takes a bite, and raises her glass.,
I have quite the battle on my hands tomorrow.
5
FIONA
“We need to look at the big picture here. Sci-fi sells. Look at the big movies that came out this summer. Well, over half of them fit solidly in that genre.” I glance up at my boss sitting behind that immense desk of his, looking every bit the cut-throat executive I know he can be when he needs to.
“And the vast majority of those are part of huge franchises, making it harder to compete.” Joe looks and sounds the part in his designer suit. And I don’t know what it is with him and this script, but he will not make this easy for me.
“That’s a valid point,” Dave says.
“Don’t forget about the potential to turn it into a series of movies. Radiant is a complete story all wrapped up in a neat bundle with nowhere else to go.” I’m not about to give up on my idea.
“Which means we can focus all our time and energy to make it great. No need for contract clauses for future movies. It’ll do exactly what you are looking for. Put you on the map with the movie everyone’s talking about. It’s a perfect first date movie, and the girl’s-night-out crowd is gonna love it. Not to mention every single fan of the book.”
“Those are some powerful demographics,” Dave says, and I know I have lost. Worst of all, Joe has some valid points. “I’m going with Joe’s gut on this one. I hope that won’t be a problem.”
“Of course not.” I plaster my best attempt at a fake smile across my face.
“Good. I’m excited to see what the two of you do with this. It’s time to think about a team. Any thoughts on who you may want to star in this thing?”
“Not yet. We didn’t get a chance to discuss any additional steps,” Joe says.
“Of course. I’m surprised how quickly you two could agree on a screenplay.”
