13. Balance Of Love And Hate
BALANCE OF LOVE AND HATE
“ E mma,” Melissa French said on Monday. “I didn’t expect to hear from you. You never call me first.”
“I just got off the phone with Connor,” she said of her and her mother’s agent. “He wants me to meet the producers of the series.”
“It’s a done deal?” her mother asked.
“He made it sound that way. Like this is the last step.”
She was doing her best tap dance in her kitchen on her bare toes. It hurt like a bitch, but she didn’t care.
“I’m so happy for you,” her mother said. “I know you’re not happy about flying to California though.”
“No,” she said, pouting. “I don’t enjoy flying. All those people.” She let out a little shiver.
“You’ll be fine,” her mother said. “Do you want company?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” she said, grinning.
“Which is why you called,” her mother said.
“That and one other thing. Well, two other things. Connor told me to talk to you about something.”
“That stinker,” Melissa said. “Did he tell you what?”
“No,” she said. “You know he wouldn’t. Just because we share the same agent doesn’t mean he tells each of us anything.”
“We’ve legally signed papers so that the other could stand in if need be,” her mother said.
“I know,” she said. “But what is going on?”
“You know there is another movie in the works,” her mother said.
“I do,” she said. “I heard some big names are being considered.”
Melissa sighed. “Yes,” she said. “But the actor wants to meet the author. They want to get into my brain to better play the part.”
She laughed. “Shocker. You don’t have a penis.”
Her mother burst out laughing. “I know. Maybe it’s time.”
“Are you kidding me? You’re really going to do it?”
“You know why I haven’t,” her mother said.
Because her mother didn’t want people to think she was getting preferential treatment being a Bond. And over thirty years ago, male writers got more attention when it came to mystery and suspense.
“Times have changed,” she said. “Aunt Melanie will be the first to tell you that you’d be doing a good thing coming out now.” She burst into a fresh round of giggles. “Sorry. You’re coming out of the closet, Mom.”
“Hilarious, Emma. What do you think? It will bring a lot of light onto the family. Your father is fine with it.”
“I know you worried about him for years and his career.”
“I have,” her mother said. “But not one of my books is anything like a case he’s tried, nor your brother’s. There is never any worry of someone suing us for stealing a story.”
She grinned at that. It was a line she made sure she never crossed too closely either, but Roark had her covered there.
“We aren’t stupid,” she said.
“I was going to wait until your series was a done deal. That’s why Connor is pushing it now.”
“Oh,” she said. Her shoulders dropped. “People are going to think I only got it because of you, aren’t they?”
“It doesn’t matter what people think,” her mother said. “It’s what we know. You deserve this mini-series. Connor has been trying to sell a few of your books for years.”
“I know,” she said. “I do have to get over it. I got where I am because of me and not you. Well, that’s a lie.”
“Don’t think otherwise,” Melissa said. “You got one door opened for you. Connor wouldn’t have taken you on if he didn’t think you were exceptional. It’s a cutthroat business and no one wants to sign a dud.”
She did know that.
“The right place at the right time,” she said.
“However you want to look at it. You didn’t go to Connor, he came to you.”
She’d won several writing awards in college and had gotten a few short stories published. It was one of her professors who opened that door for her.
When her mother’s agent found out, he was offended no one had gone to him first.
The week of her college graduation, she signed her first contract for a three-book deal and hadn’t looked back since.
“I know,” Emma said. “I’m happy for you. I say go for it. Let the world know you’ve deceived them for years.”
Her mother laughed. “We’ll see. I don’t have to answer now. The producers are still trying to figure out their cast and they won’t know for a few months. Maybe they won’t go with who the rumor is.”
“Either way,” she said. “Do it. I mean it.”
“You and Roark will be the first to know,” her mother said. “Then everyone else. It’s not just my immediate family that will be under a microscope.”
“No one is going to care and everyone will love it,” she said.
“I’m sure you’re right,” her mother said. “What was the other reason you were calling?”
“Well,” she said, tongue in cheek. “Speaking of under a microscope. I have to tell you I’ve been on a few dates.”
“Do I need to sit down for this?” her mother said.
“I can’t talk long. Grace is coming over with food. She knows what is going on and wants the deets and I told her she has to pay me for them.”
Emma ran her hand over her belly and couldn’t wait to see what kind of yummy deliciousness she got this time.
“How does Grace know about this?”
“It started at The Retreat weeks ago when I was working the bar.”
Melissa laughed. “I always find it amusing when you work in a position to learn the ins and outs so well. I guess that is why I can understand why this actor wants to get in my head. Though he might find some menopause in there.”
She was roaring over her mother’s comment. “That’s awesome. I hope it comes to that and you get to make that comment.”
“You would find humor in it,” her mother said. “Tell me more about this guy.”
“His name is Warren Showers. Or better known as The War Show.”
“I know who Warren Showers is,” her mother said. “You’ve gone on a few dates with an extremely popular MVP Super Bowl quarterback? My daughter, who once didn’t leave her house for seven weeks?”
“Hey,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be in the house that long. And you came to visit twice.”
“Only because I was worried you hadn’t left and wanted to make sure you weren’t hiding something from us.”
“You all check up on me daily, you know that,” she said.
She always got a text a day. If it wasn’t from her mother, it was her father. Welfare checks they called them. Just to make sure she was alive and breathing.
Sometimes, they’d leave her alone if she noticed her mother was watching her on one of her live broadcasts with her fans.
No one was intrusive, just caring.
“We have to,” her mother said. “With the amount of caffeine you drink, I worry you’d spin around the house.”
“It’s not all coffee,” she said. “I just stock up so I don’t have to leave. My pantry could be a mini-mart.”
“Don’t remind me,” her mother said. “Go back to Warren.”
She filled her mother in on the night in the casino and how he came back to The Retreat last week looking for her.
“Wasn’t that just the sweetest thing?”
“I think so,” his mother said. “I know you do too. You’re romantic even when you’re murdering people.”
“There has to be a balance of love and hate in my stories. You know that.”
“I do,” Melissa said. “You spent a few days with him and he’s back home now?”
“He is,” she said. “I told him my rules. Well, my lifestyle. It’s completely different from his.”
Her mother snorted. “No one lives like you, Emma.”
“I know,” she said, grinning proudly. “It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”
“Only to you,” her mother said. “I hope you’re going to at least try with him. It sounds like you really like him.”
“I do like him a lot,” she said. “He makes the perfect book boyfriend and I’ve got him for real in my life.”
Emma heard the sigh loud and clear. “You can’t live in your written world. You can escape to it and you do. I worry you do it too much and miss out on what is going on around you.”
She rolled her eyes. She’d heard this lecture enough.
“Now I need to sit down and put my feet up,” she said. “Let me grab a pillow in case I fall asleep during this rerun.”
“Don’t be a little brat,” her mother said.
“I’m serious. You said he lives in Brookline.
That is about an hour from the port without traffic.
Then riding the ferry over. You’re in the middle of the island.
It could easily be a four hour round trip on a good day catching departure times if you’re lucky. ”
“As I pointed out, there is the helicopter,” she said.
“Which you hardly ever take because you can’t stand it.”
“It’s not that,” she argued. “I just never need to be in that kind of a rush.”
But she hated traffic too so this was going to be a huge inconvenience to make work.
“You always do what you want when you want,” her mother said. “We’ve long since given up trying to give advice.”
“You always give advice,” she said.
“You know what I mean. Do me a favor and go in with an open mind.”
“I have one of the biggest open minds in the family,” she said, indignant.
“When it comes to writing, of course you do. But not with your personal life. Try to apply it to that.”
“I’ll try,” she said.
“I hear some passive aggression there,” her mother said. “Emma, it’s your life, but don’t be selfish about things either. Just because you can mold your characters the way you want doesn’t mean everyone in life falls your way.”
Her shoulders dropped. She’d heard that before.
“Warren and I have to work things out. He’s back home and had some obligations this week and I want to finish this book. At least the draft. Then I’ll find out when Connor wants me in California. I’m not putting my life on hold for a man that I’ve been on a few dates with.”
And a lot of steamy kisses, but nothing else.
Though they’d talked about sex briefly, he’d made no move.
She could appreciate it on one hand, but the other hand wanted to reach out and slip it into his pants.
“Let me know your plans about California, and I’ll make sure I’m able to go.”
“Thanks, Mom, you’re the best.”
“Don’t you forget it,” her mother said.
“Gee. I wonder where I get my cockiness from.”
“Brat,” her mother said and hung up on her before she could say another word.