Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Upper Montclair Nina
N ina was rummaging through her basket of bits of paper, business cards, and receipts. Winston, her big Bernese mountain dog, sat with his snout on top of his big puffy paws, his eyes following every move Nina made. Every so often he would let out a doggie sigh. “What’s up, Win?” Nina looked down at him. “Yeah, I know. I should go through the basket at least once a month.” She pulled out a grocery receipt from the year before. “Geez. At least once a year!” Winston agreed with another groaning sigh. “No comment from the peanut gallery.” Nina stroked the soft fur on the top of his head.
At that point, she decided to get a large trash bag and clean out the basket once and for all. “I know Jordan’s info is somewhere in here.” She dumped the year-old scraps of paper on the floor, sat down next to Winston, and began combing through the mess, separating cards from receipts and various miscellaneous notes, unsure what most of them were. There was a cocktail napkin with the name James and a phone number. “Who do you suppose James is?” she asked her pooch. “Someone I met in a bar?” Winston yapped in response. “Must not have been very impressive, huh?” Another short yap from her pal.
She was almost finished separating the scraps when she found the business card she had been searching for. “Ta-da!” Nina gave Winston another pat. The card read:
Jordan Pleasance Producer Mobile: 39-02-555-100 Email: [email protected] Milano, Italy
She checked the time. It was almost four in the morning in Milan. She got up from the floor, opened her laptop, and fired up her email.
Ten years ago, Nina worked with Jordan on an indie film called A Distant Memory . It was the story about a woman who had been in a coma for a decade. Much to everyone’s surprise, the woman woke out of her deep sleep but had no memory of who she was. Part of the woman’s treatment was hypnotherapy and regression therapy. Nina played the younger version of the woman, seen during a series of flashbacks. The movie was critically acclaimed but not a box office smash. Jordan appreciated Nina’s notes during the filming and made her promise to keep in touch. They exchanged holiday cards every year and occasional emails, but Jordan had moved to Italy, and Nina moved back to the New York Metro area. Even though they hadn’t seen each other in years, Jordan always ended his correspondence with “When are you coming to Italy?”
Nina scrolled through her deleted emails, looking for one of Jordan’s previous invitations asking her that same question. The file folder was brimming with over two thousand discarded emails. “Remind me to clear this out regularly, as well,” she said, looking down at the pooch. “At least I use a basket. From what Amy told me, she just throws everything into a brown paper bag. No wonder we get along so well. But don’t you dare tell anyone I’m disorganized when it comes to personal stuff.”
Winston yapped a response.
Nina got up and went into the kitchen to fetch him a treat. “Will this help keep my secret?” She tossed it at him, and he caught it in his mouth. She returned to her voluminous email folder and sorted the messages by From . Several from Jordan popped up. She opened the most recent one that begged the question again. It was from six months prior. “I really need to stay on top of these things,” she muttered to herself. She hit Reply :
Hey Jordan! I am going to take you up on your offer if you’re around December 26th. LMK. XOXO Nina
She hit Send and crossed her fingers that she’d get a positive response. Her next move was to tell Richard in a way that made it sound like she was asking him if he wanted to go. Like Amy, she was heading to Italy with or without him. Over the past three years, Nina understood what the meaning of friendship was, and she was resolute in maintaining her relationships with her gal-pals. Granted, they were different in many ways, but they were glued together when it came to generosity, integrity, loyalty, kindness, and talking to their pets as if they were people, because as far as these women are concerned, pets are people, too! The wacky fun was just a bonus.
It was almost ten o’clock when her phone rang. It was Richard. They usually checked in with each other around the same time, unless one of them was out and about.
“Good evening, Mr. Cooper.” Nina smiled into the phone.
“Good evening to you, Ms. Hunter. What trouble have you managed to avoid today?”
“Now that you mention it, I have some trouble lined up.”
“Uh-oh. Will you need bail money?” he joked.
“I’m not sure yet, but if I do, it will have to be in euros.”
“Euros?” Richard asked curiously.
“Yep! If you recall, we all agreed to get together again for New Year’s, correct?”
“Correct. Let me guess. It’s Europe,” Richard chuckled.
“Wow. I can’t get anything past you, can I?” Nina said playfully.
“I’m afraid not,” Richard replied. “So, tell me. What have you fine women devised to levy on us unsuspecting men?”
“Well, since you asked, it was actually Giovanni’s suggestion. He and Marco are going to close the restaurant for ten days and spend it with their mother in Italy.”
“Christmas in Italy must be quite festive,” Richard acknowledged.
“Especially if Marco and Giovanni have anything to do with it,” Nina laughed. “But this is what I would like to propose: I would like to meet up with Jordan Pleasance, a producer I worked with years ago. He lives in Milan and keeps asking me to visit. I thought I’d go there first and then meet up with everyone in Salerno.”
“Am I included in the ‘everyone’ part?” Richard asked.
“Of course you are!” Nina exclaimed. “You can come with me to Milan if you want to, if Jordan is available.”
“Are you sure I wouldn’t be horning in on any business, monkey or otherwise?” Richard joked.
“Ha! No monkey business, but I think the podcast thing is getting a little stale. At least for me.”
“Really?” Richard was surprised. “I thought you enjoyed it. Plus, it’s incredibly popular.”
“I do enjoy it, but my creative soul is wanting something more. Hashing out topics is stimulating, but I’d like to create something new.”
“So, is this a job interview?” Richard asked.
“No, but Jordan always has something on the back burner. Maybe we can collaborate. I dunno. I just want to see how far I can stretch my imagination should there be another opportunity.”
“You miss writing, don’t you?” Richard was referring to the sitcom she and her colleague Owen Masters wrote together for two years. The network cancelled it due to a turnover in executive management, which led to Nina developing a podcast.
“Well . . . it’s been a while since I got the juices flowing. I’m beginning to feel like I may be falling into a rut.”
“You? Hardly.” Richard knew Nina to be a person who pushed and pulled every ounce of inspiration from her fertile mind. “If I recall, you and Frankie talked about writing a book about the scenes beyond the camera.”
“There is nothing I can say that hasn’t been said before. Plus, I don’t want to come off as an out-of-work, bitter actress.”
“I am certain you wouldn’t come off that way,” Richard reassured her.
“Let me tell you, it would be very hard for me not to sound that way.”
“I never thought you were bitter,” Richard remarked.
“I’m not. Really. I had a great run. But the truth can be ugly.”
“Perhaps you could be an inspiration to other actors?”
“My advice would be: Go to law school and become an entertainment lawyer.”
Richard hooted. “That happens to be a very good idea. Law school isn’t fun, or easy by any means, and there is no guarantee that you’ll be successful. However, there are a lot of opportunities in the field of entertainment, and a lot of money to be made.”
“Exactly!” Nina whooped. “I wish I had done it when it was a fleeting thought in my head.”
“Was it really?” Richard sounded surprised again.
“Actually, yes. After being bounced around, I began looking into law schools in L.A. Then I had a chat with my lawyer about it, and he told me I’d hate law school and should find a rich husband instead.”
“That’s a little narrow-minded,” Richard said.
“Ya think? Not to mention a few other adjectives,” Nina huffed.
“I hope you fired him after that,” Richard stated.
“No. I started dating him,” Nina chortled.
“You’re not serious, are you?”
“No, but I responded with ‘Oh, you mean someone like you?’ I think I shocked him. I was being facetious, but he was too dense to get the joke. He was short, fat, and bald, and I wouldn’t have gone out with him if he held a gun to my head.”
“A dense lawyer?” Richard mused.
“You must know a few,” Nina volleyed.
“Dense? More like uptight.”
“Same thing.”
“What do you mean, ‘same thing’?”
“People who are uptight have difficulty hearing what other people are saying. They shut down.”
“Ah. I think I get where you’re coming from. But let’s get back to the trip. When do you want to go?” Richard asked.
“I sent Jordan an email, so I hope to hear from him in a day or so. If he’s good with it, I’ll fly over on the twenty-sixth, spend two days, maybe three, and then take the train to Naples.”
“You mentioned this was Giovanni’s idea?” Richard asked.
“Yes, and he has a house for us to stay in for free. As in F.R.E.E. He’s arranging for a swap with two professors at the Baronissi campus of the University of Salerno. It’s a few kilometers from his family’s house, and it’s a great location for day trips to Amalfi, Sorrento, Positano, and Capri.”
“It’s not far from Pompeii, if I’m recalling my geography correctly,” Richard mused.
“Funny. I thought you might be interested in going there.”
“Hmmm. You know me too well,” Richard said.
“A lucky guess,” Nina added.
“I think this sounds like a superb way to spend part of the holidays,” Richard said in agreement.
“Oh, goodie! I was hoping you’d want to go. You know I had to commit to the girls.”
“Of course you did. It’s become a tradition.” Richard cleared his throat. “We won’t have to do any kind of cooking?”
Nina laughed. “I’m sure Giovanni’s family will be doing most of that. Plus, we’ll want to go on a few tours. Olive farms. Mozzarella factories. Pizza.”
“Let’s not forget the wine,” Richard added.
“Never!” Nina shouted, startling Winston. He jerked his head and then realized it was Nina being enthusiastic.
“Alright, Nina Hunter. I expect to hear from you as soon as you know what the plan is.”
“You shall,” Nina cooed. “Thanks for being such a good boyfriend.”
Richard laughed. “Boyfriend? Do people still refer to their significant other in such a way?”
“Now you’re sounding like a lawyer and not my boyfriend,” Nina chuckled. “I gotta go let Winston out. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow. Love you!”
“Love you, too!” Richard signed off.