Page 43 of The Rom-Commers

“Everything still good?”

“Everything’s still good. Yeah.”

“You’re following all their rules?”

Charlie nodded. “Trying to.”

“How’s the writing?”

“It might be”—Charlie glanced in my direction—“getting better.”

“You know I’m here for you. Day or night.”

“Back atcha, pal. Anytime.”

Then another bear hug, more back clapping, and a totally surreal moment when Jack Stapleton turned to me, held out a hand, and looked straight into my eyes like electroshock therapy to say, “Great to meet you. I’m Jack.”

And then there was nothing to do but sit blankly at our brunch table while Logan waved his hand in front of my face, saying “Hello?” before finally turning to the waiter and saying, “We’re going to need another minute.”

I was further—emotionally, spiritually, movie-star-wise—from my little apartment at home than I could even comprehend. Jack Stapleton justshook my hand like a colleague. Meryl Streep justwave-toasted me with a forkful of fruit tart.

It was another universe. One with too little oxygen.

Or maybe too much.

When the waiter came back, I still hadn’t glanced at the menu.

Logan just ordered for me. The Arabian buttered eggs.

Then Charlie turned to me and said, “You okay? Meeting Jack is a lot.”

I could have corrected him on feminist principle and said I was equally incapacitated bybothworld-famous actors. But I had more pressing business. “Are you friends with Jack Stapleton?” I asked. “Real friends?”

Charlie nodded. “I am real friends with Jack Stapleton.”

“But—why?”

Charlie shrugged. “I wroteThe Destroyers. Which—”

“Launched his career,” I finished. “I know. But do all screenwriters become close friends with the stars of their movies?”

Logan snorted into his brunch sangria at that.

“He wasn’t a star when I met him,” Charlie said. “He was a struggling actor trying not to fumble his big break.”

“But how did you become friends?”

“How does anybody become friends? He went through some hard times, and I showed up for him—and then I went through some hard times, and he showed up for me.” Then he added, “We both like playing Warhammer 40K.” Then, in case that wasn’t enough: “Also, he didn’t have a car for a long time, so he needed lots of rides.”

Unbelievable.

“Did that really just happen? Did we just bump casually into Jack Stapleton and Meryl Streep having brunch?”

“This is LA,” Charlie said. “You’re gonna have to get used to that.”

“They’re filming a movie together,” Logan explained. “A romance about a younger guy who falls for—and goes on an erotic journey with—an older woman.”

“I will watch the hell out of that movie,” I said.

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