Chapter 16 Interview Time
Interview Time
I’d been trying and trying, but I couldn’t hold it in any longer: “Naya, might I know what the hell you’re doing?”
For ten minutes, she’d had her shirt lifted up and was moving some white thing all over her stomach. Whatever she was trying to do evidently wasn’t working, because she wouldn’t stop cursing between clenched teeth.
“I’m trying to hear the baby’s heartbeat,” she replied, very focused.
“How pregnant are you again?”
“I don’t know. Six weeks, maybe.”
“I think that’s a little soon.”
“Who asked what you think?” she snapped. “I want to hear it, and I’m going to hear it, and that’s that.”
Jack lowered the volume on the TV and asked me, “What’s she doing?”
“Now you’re jumping in,” Naya jumped in. “Can’t everyone just leave me alone? I’m trying to hear my baby’s heartbeat, Ross.”
“Did I miss the moment you decided to keep it?” Jack asked.
“I wasn’t aware I had to inform you,” she replied. “Anyway, yes, I’m keeping it, I’m going to be an excellent mother despite whatever you may think, and if you make any smart comments, I’ll throw this thing at your head.”
“Jeez. I was just asking,” Jack said.
“Wiiiiiiill!” Naya cried. “I think something’s wrong!” As always when she was upset, Will came running out of his room, looking pallid and scared, and asked her, “What is it? Does something hurt? Are you sick? Is it…?”
“I can’t hear the baby’s heartbeat!” she shouted.
Will closed his eyes, trying to gather as much patience as he could before telling her, “Naya, you’re six weeks pregnant. Of course you can’t hear the heartbeat. Now put that damned thing away! Doctors say they can be dangerous!”
“I’ve been reading tons of stuff on the internet, and I didn’t see anything about it.”
“Oh, the internet!” Sue piped up. “The same internet that tells you how Avril Lavigne is really a lizard person? Good job, you’re a crack researcher.”
I decided to try and help out: “It’s too early, Naya.
I think it’s something like twelve weeks till you can consistently hear a heartbeat.
And Will and Sue are right. Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re not a doctor.
Now just relax and take care of yourself and rest and look forward to when you can finally hold that baby in your arms.”
“I like how you skipped on the gross part. The baby has to come out before she can hold it. You do know giving birth is the worst pain you’ll ever experience, right?” Sue asked her.
Someone knocked at the door. Will went to answer while Naya, still looking suspicious, as if she didn’t trust any of us, rolled up the cords on her machine and lowered her T-shirt with an expression of defeat.
“Does somebody want to tell me where the star of the show is?” said a voice that sounded vaguely familiar.
No one else reacted except Jack, who instantly panicked, flopping on the floor and crawling behind Sue’s armchair to hide, almost knocking it down in the process.
Alas, his efforts were in vain. Joey walked in, crossing his arms and knitting his brow as he stood in the middle of the living room.
“There you are!” he called out.
Jack’s butt was clearly visible from behind the chair. His eyes peeked around the other side. “I’m off today,” he protested.
Joey was incensed. “You’re off? You think you deserve a day off? Should I remind you that you took months off to go to rehab, and you’ve been MIA ever since? It’s almost June! Now we need to talk. No more excuses.”
“What’s so urgent?” Jack asked. “I’m busy.”
“He’s busy watching television,” Will butted in.
Jack’s shoulders sank as he finally got serious with Joey. “Whatever it is, I don’t want to do it.”
“Ross,” Joey began, “if it was up to me, I’d let you live your life, but you signed a contract, and you committed to promoting the film. Now, it’s just two interviews. The production company can make you pay serious money for bailing on these things, and we’re still at the very beginning here.”
“I’ve been planning on going out of town,” Jack said. “Jen and I were thinking of spending the summer somewhere.”
Surprised, everybody turned to me. I smiled awkwardly and shrugged.
“Look, Ross,” Joey tried to reason with him.
“I know you’ve been through some tough times, and I’m the first person to give you credit for doing what you did, with the rehab and all that.
But still, rules are rules. You can’t just up and vanish right now.
You’re not the only person in the world with problems. I’m not asking a lot, but what I am asking, I need you to do. ”
Jack sighed, walked over to the couch, and slumped down next to me. Will asked when we were leaving, and I told him we didn’t have a solid plan yet, but we were thinking sometime in the middle of June.
“Great,” Joey said. “Let’s do this, then: we’ll go ahead and set up some media spots now, and I promise you whatever comes up afterward, I’ll try to make it something you can do over email or Zoom. Then we can pick back up when you’re home.”
Jack frowned, but he really couldn’t object. I thought it was a good idea, and I said so. And to relieve Jack’s worries, I added, “You worry about your stuff, and I’ll take care of the details for the trip, OK?”
“I’ll help,” Naya said. “I’m the queen of cheap flights and hotels.”
Joey leaned over Jack and stuck out his hand. “So…do we have a deal?”
“I guess so,” Jack replied.
“Good. Then get your ass up off the couch and throw on something decent, because I went ahead and set up an interview for half an hour from now.”
Jack groaned and scuffled off to the bathroom.
“You’re good at that,” Sue told Joey. “None of us can get him to do anything. Maybe you want to move in?”
“Yeah…” he said, glancing at his phone. “I don’t think so. What are there, like five of you here? I need my privacy, my days of living with roommates are over. Tell the little prince I’ll be waiting downstairs in my car.”
He turned, stuck his hand in the bag of cookies Naya was eating, bit into one, and walked out the door.
Jack did his part and dressed up, enough to elicit laughter from Will and Sue.
Not Naya—she was already hypnotized by the internet, shouting out places we could stay, hotel prices, attractions.
I didn’t get why she cared, but since it kept her mind off her own issues, I let it slide and went to work on dinner.
Jack gave me a kiss goodbye. When I was done and had set out everyone’s dishes, Naya started grilling me:
“Somewhere hot or somewhere cool?”
“I don’t know…it’s summer. So hot, right?”
“OK, hot…” She was typing at an alarming pace. “Beach or mountains?”
“Beach. That way I can get a little tan.”
I remembered how when I was little, my siblings always said I was shorter than them because Mom spent so much time swimming when she was pregnant, and the warm water had made me shrink, like wool when you wash it too hot.
The pathetic thing is, I believed them. I thought the story would entertain my roommates, but when I told it, Naya responded, “Oh waah. That must have been so traumatizing. Now can we focus on planning your trip? I’m thinking Australia. ”
“It’s a little far, isn’t it?”
“Plus, there’s all kinds of creepy animals there, it’s like Jumanji,” Sue piped up. “They’ve got sharks, alligators, kangaroos. A kangaroo can kick you and knock you out!”
“OK, fine,” Naya said. “Then how about Italy?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “For some reason, Italy’s never really attracted me.”
“OK, well, you could go to Rangiroa in French Polynesia. That’ll be something new for you.”
I thought she was just saying that out of frustration, but I reminded her, “I think Jack already got his fill of all things French last year. What about… I don’t know…what about Greece?”
I could tell Naya thought it was a good idea, even if she didn’t like that I’d come up with it and she wouldn’t be able to take credit for it.
“Done. Greece,” she said. “Athens or the islands?”
“Islands.”
“There he is!” Sue shouted. We all turned to see Jack on the television.
He was with Vivian, sitting on a brown sofa on a stage set to look like a regular living room.
Now and then, the camera turned to the public, which laughed at the presenter’s jokes.
He was a middle-aged man in small glasses with an energetic smile.
Images flashed on-screen of Vivian’s and her fellow actors’ promotional tour across the US, including events with fans. She was glowing, as always. Poor Jack looked nervous. He was playing with his water glass as she spoke, forcing a smile to pretend that the conversation mattered to him.
The presenter said, “I suppose you all must be tired of answering this, but I can’t help myself. What does it feel like to be in your position? Did you expect to be this successful?”
I pursed my lips. Vivian seemed to relish the fame and fortune, and especially the chance to act like she was better than everyone else.
Jack wasn’t like that, though. He hadn’t changed, and I was pretty sure he didn’t want to.
I worried the question would upset him, and Will must have, too, because I could see the tension in his shoulders.
“It’s amazing,” Vivian said, smiling her professional smile. “It’s like a dream, really, like none of this was real, like I’ll wake up tomorrow and be the same old me from before. Knowing people are so happy with the work we’ve done…is there anything more gratifying?”
The public applauded, and Sue rolled her eyes. “Aw, isn’t that just so sweet? It makes me want to go jump over a fucking rainbow. I swear, I’m glad I’m not famous, I’d probably hate people more than I already do.”