Chapter 39 EGOT
EGOT
LEAH
Iwas contractually obligated to attend the European premiere of Sisi in November.
The timing wasn’t great, but it never was when a show was on.
Lourdes was waiting for more news on Sweet Charity , which led to constant pacing or a focus on getting me off.
I hated to part from her. We had fallen right back into the thing I missed for a decade.
But this time? New possibilities emerged.
We basically lived at my place, went to dinner together, held hands whenever we could, and shopped like old married people at the grocery store.
It was unexpectedly one of the happiest times of my life and also the busiest.
I flew to Vienna with Charlotte, my date. We landed in the morning and started our clocks with a big breakfast. It was her first time away from her son. I knew she was tired, but happy for space.
“I missed this. I always miss you when you’re working on a show,” Charlotte admitted.
“Yeah, and me only getting a day home to see the little guy isn’t great. I promise that when we wrap, I will focus on baby snuggles.”
She winced. “You might have to travel.”
“What?” I gasped.
“Uh… we’re moving back,” Charlotte said. “To London, I mean. Sean got this sweet teaching-surgery gig and I cannot stop him. They’re holding a place for me in ortho. Honestly, it’s time. I think it will be nice to raise the kids back in the UK for a bit. Please don’t hate me.”
I snickered. “Uh, there is something I need to tell you.”
“What?”
“Lou and I are dating—properly again.”
A smile erupted across my sister’s face. “Oh my God! Yes! I’m so happy for you, Leah.”
“Well, I think we will settle back in London. She’s got this chance at a show and… her dad is sick. I think it’s the place we want to be now. So, this is all lining up a bit too perfectly.”
Charlotte, a hugger, raced around to squeeze so tightly I couldn’t breathe.
“Lottie, you’re gonna have to sit,” I laughed. “You’re making a scene. Austrians will think we’re a couple with no boundaries.”
“Joke’s on them. Oh my God! You have loved her—”
“I know. Turns out, if we’d both gotten our heads out of our asses ten years ago, we might have made it. Either way, we’ll be out. Her parents know. It’s a good thing. I love her so much. This time, though, we get our happy ending.”
She held her hands to her chest. “Leah, this is such good news!”
“So, you’re not going to lecture me on a rebound or hiring a U-Haul five minutes into dating her? She practically lives in my place now. We’re doing the whole thing—fighting over what to make for dinner, picking out cheese at the frou-frou grocery, and I kept telling her I need to get a dog.”
“I love that for you. Leah, you are her best friend. There is not a single person you love more than Lou. Truly.”
“Are you crying?”
“Yes. Because this is like when Papa talks about falling for Dad all over again and I love the fact that you got a second chance. No wonder you’re so happy.”
She dabbed her tears with a napkin as mine welled.
“I need to pinch myself, really. It’s all too perfect. I worry about it falling apart. Our careers are both in beast mode. I know that can be hard.”
“Don’t. Don’t let it steal your joy. Live each day and love hard. I know what it’s like to love someone who lives far away and to try to make family work. Sean and I have seen shit and I’m about to pack up a house and move this summer while tending to a first grader and a newborn.”
“You’re insane,” I said.
“Yeah, well, if we could conceive a child while living on two different continents, you can make this work. Love her. Don’t worry about the rest.”
Charlotte’s words hit hard. It was the one thing we’d neglected to do all that time.
“I will,” I agreed.”
In the afternoon, I got to business. Sisi was living up to the Oscar-bait hypothesis.
Early screening reviews were glowing and the studio loved it, so I had to dance like no tomorrow for the line of press that came to see the premiere.
There was no time to focus on my exhaustion or feeling slightly off.
I needed to turn on the charm to ensure its success.
“You look amazing!” I cooed while hugging my partner for the day in our Viennese hotel dining room.
Matty George was the author of Sisi, the book I adapted into a successful screenplay.
While writing the screenplay, we shared a brain.
I never felt so kindred or creative apart from working with Lourdes or Brian.
She had come out for the press and premiere, too.
A literary star in her own right, Matty was in good spirits.
I hoped her cult of personality would raise my spirits a little bit, too. Romance fangirls stanned her hard.
“Ahh! I’m so excited to see you!” She threw her arms around me in a tight hug. “It’s been too long.”
“I thought for sure I’d see you before now,” I said.
“It’s been crazy between the book tours and everything. I was only in New York for one signing in Brooklyn and then—boom! Gone. Then, we went on a vacation,” Matty said. “A real getaway for once. I didn’t even bring my laptop. It was wild!”
I squeezed her hands and looked at her. “Well, you look lovely. I feel bad having to sit next to you in this junket. How is my dear cousin?”
“You’ll see him later,” Matty laughed. “He went out to sightsee and leave me alone.”
Matty and Edwin—known to us as Win—were an unlikely couple.
Ironically, Matty and I became friends before she even knew who Win was.
I loved her book when I read it and immediately fought to option it.
She believed in me as much as I did her.
I prayed we’d find a home for it as even the most perfect screenplay and partnership was far from a done deal when it came to expensive period pieces.
After inking the deal, I discovered her most recent contemporary romance release was inspired by a several-nights-fling with a mysterious man while stranded in central London in one of its worst snowstorms in 100 years.
That man happened to be my younger cousin, Edwin.
After they met at a party I threw—properly met—things got complicated.
However, thanks to the press coverage of romance-writer-meets-Prince, the media grew so hungry for the project that we got the studio and budget of our dreams. Sometimes, the press did me a solid—rarely, but sometimes.
She sipped coffee and my eyes pulled to her hand. “Oh my God! Matty! Did Win propose?”
She wore a beautiful solitaire in a platinum setting.
“Yeah,” she blushed. “We just told his mom and stepdad. Shh, though. We went to Oslo to visit them when his brothers were already back in London. So, they don’t know.”
“I won’t tell any of the Lyons boys—or my aunt. When Auntie Nat finds out, she’ll flip. She always wants more weddings and babies,” I said.
“Well, we aren’t sure how—or where—we want to do it. I’m partial to doing it back in Michigan at the family compound.”
Win’s mother met his father while planning my fathers’ wedding on Lake Michigan.
She soon met Papa’s brother, my late uncle, Paul, and went on to have four princely sons.
She still had a family house on the lake near my fathers’ compound.
Once a Midwesterner, always a Midwesterner.
Matty was a Chicagoan by birth—like me—and probably would have preferred a not-so-royal wedding.
“I second that. It’s a good excuse for me to get back.”
“I’m sorry about all of the wedding talk.” Matty grimaced.
“Thank you for sending the ‘fuck him’ flowers to my dressing room,” I giggled. “They were much appreciated.”
This week, my ex was re-elected and announced his mistress’s pregnancy, the result of which was not lost on Matty’s ride-or-die pettiness side.
“It was the least I could do. The Asian leg of the book tour for Dollar Princess was unimaginably stressful. I saw Edwin like four times. I loved meeting all the readers, but I’m exhausted. I wanted to talk to you about that, though.”
I poured myself coffee from the gilded pot. “Sure.”.
“The Dollar Princesses is more of an ensemble production,” Matty said. “I have movie offers coming in—of course.”
I smiled, “Yep. Of course you do. It’s not a surprise. The series starter sold well. And the second book blew up.”
“It did,” Matty said. “But… I don’t know. I see the plans for the movie and realize they’re going to miss all the fun from books 3-5. The first two books can be made into movies, but we will lose so much. I don’t want my girls to not get their due.”
Her Gilded Age series followed North Americans and others who knew them as they found husbands in a time of significant societal change in London and on The Continent. I saw her entire series outline because she gave it to me while we were filming.
“Don’t do a movie,” I said. “Adapt it to television. Do a prestige TV series. I’ve got contacts. They’d love to chat.”
“Leah, I don’t want contacts,” Matty said. “I want you. If you think TV is the way to go, let’s write the damn thing.”
I choked on coffee. “You’d do that?”
“Well, let’s face it,” Matty said. “After this year, you’ll have a screenplay Oscar so all that’s left is an Emmy. What can I do to help you secure funding?”
I shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’m… this will be a passion project. All I ask is that I get to play the countess’s domineering mother.”
“You’d want to play her mom?”
“I have the accent nailed down. Her mom is exactly the sort of villain I love to play. I mean, look. I did it in Sisi and I’ve been hoping that role would be offered to me again.”
“Is it hard to go from ingenue to mother? On film, I mean?”
I sighed. “It was. But agreeing to play Franz’s mother rather than Sisi was so right.
I would have completely blown it trying to play a girl twenty years my junior.
Hollywood is silly. But I’m not sixteen anymore.
I cannot play that role. In a way, I get to pick and choose.
If I’m going to act, I better have fun.”
I’d gone from playing daughters to playing mothers. The prospects for an actress over thirty weren’t great—even if she were in great shape and held in critical acclaim. I was lucky to pick and choose projects I could fund and believe in. I had a production company and threw my weight around.
“If you want to work on it, hit me up after Victoria wraps. I might be moving back to London.”
“Oh, that sounds good. Are you excited about moving back?”
“I am,” I agreed. “I’m… seeing someone and it’s going well. Springtime is so nice in London, you know?”
“So, a Brit? Please do not get cryptic,” Matty said. “Spill!”
“Lou,” I answered. “Lourdes.”
Her jaw dropped. She shrieked, “Really? Oh my God! This is too perfect!”
“Keep it down!”
“Well, I’m happy for you! You look good! And Lou is always a delight. I’ve always thought you’d make the perfect friends-to-lovers arc.”
“It was more rivals-to-friends-to-lovers.”
Matty squeezed my hand. “Whatever it is, it’s magic. The yearning in a story is the most precious bit. It’s the magic of a romance.”
I blushed. “It took us ten years to just do the thing, so you’re right, I guess.”
“Uh, I do this for a living. I know I am right. I write a slow burn like none other.”
I snickered. “You’re not wrong.”
“I will look forward to hearing you’re back in London. Win is settled there for now,” Matty said. “Let’s keep talking about it in the interim. I’m serious. You’re my girl. Now, should we blow people’s minds with our rapport?”
“I see my publicist,” I sighed. “I don’t think we have a choice.”
As much as I felt excited for the chance to work with Matty—maybe in hopes of completing an EGOT, the pressure to perform on press tours and make my Oscars debut loomed.
But then I thought about doing it with Lourdes.
I knew I needed to ask her to be my date.
I wanted her to be there with me on that red carpet. I wanted no one else.