Page 25 of And They Had a Great Fall

If he was being honest with himself, he’d moved past casual the moment he’d picked up the phone to call her. He was anxious, confidence shaken, and he’d calledher, the one person who calmed and centered him like no one else. From the momentshe’d arrived, everything had begun to fall back into place. He wanted her in his life—that, he knew for certain. He wanted to believe he would take anything she would give, even if Kat was not able to move beyond a limited, physical relationship, but he knew that wasn’t true. He felt uncompromising in his want of her and would not settle for brief and casual.

Jake had a crushing need to tell Kat the depth of his feelings, but he could feel her hesitation. He knew it was fear—it was a risk,hewas risk. Kat didn’t like complication and bringing their lives together would bring difficulties, but those challenges were about logistics and routines. The thought of them not being together felt more difficult.

He connected into the Zoom meeting and Cindy was already waiting.

“Jake! You’re on time!” she exclaimed. She had a thick Long Island accent, and it added to her commanding demeanor. Even though technically she worked for him, she kind of scared him. She’d been his publicist since before he’d done anything that would require public relations.

Although Jake had asked for the call, Cindy ran it, walking through her current list of topics. Most were focused on the last film he had completed. It was dropping in two months, and there would be a PR junket that he would need to do the weekend prior to the drop. It was a grueling time to throw in a press junket, and he silently cursed his overwhelming schedule. He could rarely make sense of the logistics of his life. He was glad to have other people figure it out.

Cindy was working out the travel with the PAs on his current film. “We’ll figure it out. Your PA emailed us the revised schedule,” she said.

Jake raised his eyebrows “Oh, like today? The most current one?” he asked. He couldn’t keep all the schedules straight and had not seen that a new one had been released. He checked hisemail and there it was. There was also a request from Garren for a meeting tomorrow. Jake was feeling clearer on the artistic direction he wanted to take the character. He hoped it was what Garren was looking for from his performance. Jake shot off an email confirming that he would come to set tomorrow at the time requested.

Having Kat here gave him a minute to breathe, but also the discipline and connection he’d been missing. He realized he’d been completely pushing everyone away and moving himself down a spectacular path of self-destruction. Beginning to come back to himself, managing his life and rebuilding relationships—starting with Kat—had allowed him to feel safe and vulnerable enough to become someone else. He was ready to become Tom in an authentic way that would translate through the screen.

Once Cindy was done working through the logistics of the scheduled junkets, she turned to social. “So, you had fun at Tivoli yesterday, huh?” she said, typing on her computer. “The content being posted is fantastic. I couldn’t have done it better myself,” she said. “It’s real cute. We had some TikTok hits too.” This was big praise coming from Cindy.

“I’m having fun with the fans in Denmark. They’re very sweet,” he said. “I figure this will help grow my non-US fan base.” He knew Cindy would appreciate the content from Tivoli. He’d had a great day and it showed.

Cindy smiled. “Now that is what I’m talking about!” She always pushed him to be more thoughtful and calculating about his social media exposure. She characterized his social media presence by saying it was lackluster at best, and borderline damaging at its worst. “Next time let me know and we’ll schedule a pap walk.” He rolled his eyes at her suggestion.Thathe wouldn’t be doing any time soon.

Cindy seemed to be at the end of her list when Jake finallyspoke up. “Is your agenda done? Because there’s a topic I want to discuss before we hang up.”

Cindy raised her eyebrows. He knew she would be surprised since he rarely added anything on their calls. Typically, he suffered through each topic and tried to make them as short as possible. “This will be interesting. What’s up?” Cindy asked.

“It’s really nothing, but I did promise I wouldn’t surprise you.” Jake started.

“What did you do … and who saw it?” Cindy interrupted.

“No, nothing like that,” he said. “I have a friend here with me for the next week or so and I’m guessing we’ll be seen together—it feels unavoidable. I just wanted you to know, in case anything gains traction, and you’re asked.”

“Who is she?” Cindy asked. Of course, she knew that if he was telling her, it had to be a woman.

“Her name is Kat. She’s a friend of mine. Friend of my family, my parents to be exact. She’s their neighbor back in New York. She’s here on business and she’s staying with me.” Jake spit out rapidly.

“Okay,” Cindy started, “friend of the family … this is all fine,” she paused, and Jake watched her process his words. It was her job to read between the lines. “Staying with you? Like, in your place? For how long?” she asked.

“Just under two weeks,” Jake replied, ignoring the knowing look that Cindy was giving him. He could hear her fishing, but he wasn’t going to give her more than he had to.

“If you have nothing to hide, we wouldn’t be talking. And if she were only there on business, her company would put her up in a hotel. What are you not telling me, Jake?” she mused. “Is she more than a friend? Safe space … you need to be honest with me.”

Jake cleared his throat and was thoughtful before speaking. “Yes.” It was the first time he’d said it out loud. “Yes, Cindy,we are in a relationship … or, at least, I’d like to be in a relationship with Kat. We’ve been careful out in public but today we were just taking a walk, and someone photographed us. We were just hanging in a park. Not a big deal, but you know, even if there’s a picture of me touching her arm, it’ll become a thing.” He paused. “She doesn’t want to be identified publicly. Especially right now.”

Cindy put on her glasses. “You’re being smart. I need to know a little about her.” She paused. “Jake, it’s good you’re telling me. There are a lot of things we can do to keep this from going public.”

He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he started talking about Kat. “Her full name is Kat Green. We became friends during the pandemic. She’s the head of product for PathMobile, which means she’s wicked smart. She runs a team of like two thousand people. She lives in New York. Duh, I told you that already when I mentioned she was my neighbor. She has the most adorable daughter, Becca, who’s almost six.…”

“Kat, Kat Green,” she said typing into her computer. “Found her on LinkedIn. Okay. She’s thirty-three, hmm, older woman, interesting choice.” Cindy whistled. “Okay … look at that CV. That’s impressive for only thirty-three. She’s well-known in her industry. Wow. She has a lot of press hits on her own.” She took her eyes off her second screen and looked back at the Zoom call. “Jake, she’s a heavy hitter in her own right. Okay. We need to talk about her child. Is there an ex-husband we need to manage?”

He shook his head. “No, he’s not in the picture.”

Cindy fixed him with a disbelieving look. “Oh, believe me, honey,” she started, “they suddenly come out of the woodwork when their ex starts dating a movie star.”

“Cindy, he died, he’s dead,” Jake said curtly.

“That’s great news,” Cindy said cheerfully. “Lucky for us.”

Jake was speechless and glanced at the bedroom where Kat was still sleeping.

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