Page 102 of March

“I’m going to turn down the second interview, assuming I get it.”

“With Atlanta? Was it that bad?”

“No, it was thatgood.”

Bryce stared at her in confusion.

“I liked the woman who would be my manager, and the role sounds like what I want, but I don’t want to waste their time. I don’t want to move to Atlanta, and it wouldn’t be fair of me to go through the rest of the process. I feel bad enough about wasting Laura’s time.”

“Are you sure? You were worried before.”

“I’m sure. I’ll take the tour guide offer if I need to. I’ll just have to brush up on my New Orleans history.”

“You’ll hear back from Arnette soon,” Bryce said as she wrapped her arms around Sophie’s waist.

“I hope so,” she replied.

“Do you want me to pull up a chair for the producer meeting? I’d like you in it with me, but if you’d prefer not to, I can talk to her and report back.”

“You really want this, don’t you?”

“What?”

“Bry, you really want someone to make a movie about our story, don’t you?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s kind of cool, but I’d want it to be done right. I’m pretty close to the whole thing, obviously.” Bryce smiled. “I’d hate for them to make some awful movie about us. I also want to be aware of asking too much of you. There was already an interview withWomen Loving Womenand the possibility of two more, and now, there’s maybe a movie being made about us. You didn’t ask for this when you met me. And I like food blogging. I can go back to that no problem with my new subscribers and hope some of them stick around for the food stuff. I don’t have to ever write another word about us, Soph. I don’t want to put any kind of pressure onthis, either. A movie isn’t something that they can post online tomorrow. It would take months, maybe even a couple of years, and I hope we’re still together, but I don’t want any pressure on us to stay that way just because there’s a movie coming out telling the story of how we met.”

Sophie nodded and said, “I don’t know how I feel about it, honestly. I guess I’d need to believe it was actually going to happen before I form real feelings about it, but I don’t mind talking to the producer with you today. What’s her name?”

“Eloise,” Bryce replied. “And are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Sophie said. “I’ll tell you if there are things I don’t want to do, okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Bryce replied.

Sophie kissed her slowly, wanting the comfort of her arms around her body and Bryce’s lips against her own. This was thefirst morning they had woken up without having sex since they started doing that a few days ago. They had lain in bed, sipping coffee and talking about what they wanted to do that day. Bryce had scrolled through her social media notifications and emails pertaining to her business, and Sophie did a crossword puzzle on her app, asking Bryce to help her with one of the clues. It was quite possibly the most content she’d ever felt in the morning.

It had gotten interrupted by the change in the interview schedule, which had really pissed her off at first. It hadn’t beenherfault that they’d not scheduled things correctly on their end, causing her to have to scramble to shower and get dressed for her interview. Still, she was glad that she’d done it. Laura was nice, and Sophie felt like knowing that she would likely enjoy the company and the job but knew for a fact that she didn’t want to move was important, and the interview had helped her figure that out.

An hour later, Sophie received an email asking her for a second interview, and she politely declined, explaining that it wasn’t them; it was her. She didn’t mention the thing about not wanting to relocate. She explained that she’d changed her mind about interviewing altogether. It wasn’t exactly honest, but she still felt good about not wasting any more of their time. Getting a second interview boosted her confidence as well, which made her want to get her computer out and start looking for other jobs in case Arnette didn’t work out. She’d have to do that later, though, because she and Bryce were sitting in front of Bryce’s computer, waiting for the producer to show up to their meeting.

“You must be Sophie,” Eloise said the second she appeared on the screen.

“I am. Nice to meet you,” Sophie replied.

“Bryce, nice to see you in person,” the woman added, putting air quotes around the words‘in person.’

“You too,” Bryce said.

“So, did you both read over the contracts?”

“We did, yes. We haven’t had a lawyer read them yet, though. This came out of the blue for us, and we’re trying to enjoy my visit by not getting lawyers involved,” Bryce joked.

Eloise laughed and said, “I try not to get lawyers involved in my relationships, too, so that makes perfect sense to me. Are there any questionsIcan answer for you, though?”

“I wanted to make sure that the wording ‘life rights’ only refers to our story,” Sophie chimed in. “Meaning, the period of time when Bryce and I met up until our reconnection recently.”

“You have someone wanting to make a movie about your childhood?” Eloise asked.