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Sylvester considered the information I’d given, stroking his chin in thought. “I did try my best to erase evidence, keep things on the down low. But he tends to know everything. I don’t know, it was just a suspicion. And I’m right to be paranoid after everything else that happened. I’m not, of course, suggesting that you didn’t deserve the pay or the work. The success of his memoirs proves your skill, don’t worry.”
“Thanks.” I looked at Sylvester – really looked at him. I’d known him very well, once, and I didn’t think he had lied to me now about any of the drama with Apollo. “Thanks for being honest. I know you’re suspicious of me, and you didn’t have to tell me all of that history... so, thank you.”
Sylvester blinked at me as if he were unsure how to react. An urge rose up inside of me and I acted on it immediately without thinking. I stood up, walked around to his side of the desk, crouched down and took his face in my hands. Then I kissed his firm and slightly chapped lips, breathing in the scent of his hair and his aftershave, for just a moment. I pulled away, leaving him looking just as nonplussed as he had before the kiss, but slightly more flushed.
I picked up my bag, turned around, and headed for the exit. “See you next time! I’ll send a scheduling invite.”
Sylvester said nothing as I left, and I didn’t look back.
Sylvester
Iwatched Luna exit my office, the swelling in my pants taking a moment to fade as the ghost of her lips remained on mine, the scent of her shampoo and her skin still lingering around my desk space for a short while after she was gone.
As soon as I snapped back to life, I unlocked my computer and scrolled through the unread emails that had mounted up during the meeting.
I had a response from the film director who’d been stalling for years on their next movie which had been funded by my company.
Mr. Brock,
I don’t think we’re going to see eye-to-eye on this. Simply saying you have a timeline for the film’s release does not make it so that the filmcanphysically be made by that point in time. Therefore, it is arbitrary.
Eli Robinson
I groaned. Dealing with divas was part of my job, and indeed, part of the entire entertainment industry. But it was even worse when the diva couldn’t at all be controlled. Eli Robinson was one of the world’s most popular directors, famed for cerebral action films with a surreal or arthouse edge to them. Each one went on to become a cult hit – and then, a cult classic. Eli was getting old, but she’d never lost her edge, or her stubbornness when it came to her art. And there was nothing I could hold over her in order to get her to make the film faster.
I tapped out a quick response.
Eli,
I understand you have your own ways of working that, admittedly, are beyond me. However, if you might share with me some of the challenges impeding your progress, perhaps I may be able to offer some assistance, even if just as a sounding board? My office and phone are open to you whenever you like.
Sylvester
Although frustrating, getting stuck into work mode was helpful on this day. I needed distractions, and my usual ones – parties, socializing, sex – weren’t working. Perhaps I’d take a page out of Jude’s or Forest’s book and become a workaholic.
The fact that answering swathes of emails was currently preferable to sitting with my feelings should have been a warning sign of things to come.
My next meetingwith Luna was scheduled for a week after the first. It passed by peacefully with my new distraction of ‘actually focusing on my job for once’. I didn’t receive a response from Eli Robinson, but she tended to be quite slow with her emails, then send two or three at a time in quick succession when she got around to it.
When Luna next arrived at my office, I was the absolute picture of an organized and hardworking CEO. My inbox was showing zero and I’d moved onto sorting through the spam and promotions emails that I never normally looked at.
I welcomed her in, and she started setting up her recording equipment. She was wearing her classic t-shirt, jeans and jacket combination that seemed to stir something in me. Maybe it was just Luna herself that stirred something in me. No, it was definitely Luna.
We’d barely had time to sit down when the office door flew open and in stormed Eli Robinson herself, in the flesh.
I stood up, unsure of what was happening but knowing I had to make sure Eli felt suitably welcomed. “Eli Robinson herself! What a rare and brilliant pleasure.”
“I’m interrupting something.” Eli said it as a statement, but she didn’t seem embarrassed about it. “You asked me what challenges are impeding my progress. You really think that you, personally, can solve things that have been plaguing me for years? That I’ve spentyearspondering every day?”
I arranged my face into one of apology. “I am so sorry. I only meant to offer my help if it might be useful to you. If it isn’t useful to you at all, I can only hope you take my words in the way they were meant – as a gesture of solidarity with your process of working.”
Luna was looking at me with an eyebrow raised. I ignored her.
Eli was grumbling into her scarf. Then she looked up at me sharply. “Okay. I believe you.”
“Good.” I smiled, and waited for her to say something else. I wasn’t sure why she’d burst in.
“It’s the soundtrack, Mr. Brock. The film I envision... the soundtrack is so specific in my mind. Not the exact instruments or melodies, but the – thefeelingsI want it to evoke.”
