Page 20 of Mister Mom

His hands wrap around his mug and he glances over to Payne, who is making the claw fall into the bin of stuffies over and over again. I know my child—he won’t relent until he gets whatever he has his eye on. “I’ve never been a believer in that phrase about not making a bad first impression.”

“No?”

He shakes his head. “As you get to know people, that’s the impression that matters. People tend to be fake when you first meet them. Even more so in L.A. Like you, for instance.”

“Me?” My eyes bulge out of my head and I wait for him to continue. I’ve never been the fake person who is nice when cameras are around and a demanding bitch when they aren’t.

“I’m sure people are sweet as pie to you when they first meet you. You’re a celebrity, but as time goes by, you see what they’re really after.”

“Psychology one-on-one from Vance Rose?” I sip my coffee and he chuckles.

“More like ramblings from Vance Rose. Most of them don’t even make sense.”

“Well, that one did. I tend to pull back in relationships. Being as young as I was when my career started… I have a limited list of people I’d consider true friends.”

Even with the words out of my mouth, I can’t help but feel like a loser. I have one good girlfriend and she lives back home in Kentucky.

“Quality more than quantity. I like it.” He runs his fingers through his hair and the waves settle in a messy look that’s good on him.

“Well.” I pull out the script. “I love the part. I was up all night reading it. I know you said an investor wanted me, but since you wrote this, I want to know if you see me in this role.”

He shifts in his seat, stares over to Payne once more and then to the counter. Wow. His non-verbal cues are screaming his answer as if it were plastered in flashing, neon lights around the restaurant.

“Is that a no?” I ask, suddenly feeling as insecure as I did when I went for my first audition as a child.

“No, I’m not sure I ever thought about an actress for it. I figured when we did auditions, I’d see it, but the investor wants you. So here we are.” He shrugs.

“Not exactly a ringing endorsement. You’re familiar with my work?”

“I am.” He lifts his hand to flag down the waitress, obviously wanting to escape this conversation. “We should order. I’m sure your son is hungry.”

The waitress listens and takes out her pad and pen. Although she looks to Vance first, he gestures for me to order first.

“He’ll have a milk and the blueberry pancakes. I’ll have an egg white omelet with spinach.”

The waitress nods.

“That’s it? No toast or pancakes?”

Even though I was going to order pancakes at Pancake Express, and I’ve already promised myself I’d run on the treadmill tonight after the kids went to bed, this man holds my future in his hands with this role and I want him to know I have excellent willpower and won’t gain weight.

“No.” I shake my head.

He waits for a second and then looks up to the waitress. “I’ll have the multigrain pancakes with strawberries, and can you bring her a German oven pancake?”

The waitress stuffs her pad and pen back in her apron. “Be right back.”

“I’m not going to eat the pancake,” I say.

A small smirk plays on his lips. “One bite?”

I shake my head. “We’ll see.” I roll my eyes. We both know I’ll be eating it. “So, you really need me to do the film?”

He swallows down his sip of coffee. “Yeah, I don’t think I’ve hidden the fact that if I don’t have you, my script doesn’t sell. No Layla, no money to make the film.”

“So we can bargain?” I thought long and hard about this conversation on the ride over. How am I going to do this?

“Well, I don’t have a ton to offer you. The film won’t have a huge budget, but I’ll make sure it’s fair and if it does well we can probably negotiate more on the back end.”

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