Page 98 of Famous Last

Spencer slipped his arm around Marshall’s waist.

“Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

Marshall draped his arm back across Spencer’s shoulders and kissed his temple.

“Never going to happen.”

“You know, I have Muriel to thank for something,” said Spencer, after a few moments.

“Whatever could that be?”

“You. Unknowingly, she brought us together. At that charity event in her penthouse flat back in October. If it hadn’t been for that, we might never have met.”

“Was it only October?”

“I know, right?”

Right then, Spencer’s tummy rumbled, and they both laughed.

“Come on, let’s get you some breakfast. And then we need to shower and I need to have a conference call with Darcy. I knowit’s Sunday, but she’s insisting. I’d like you to join, if that’s okay? If you’re there, she might keep it short and snappy.”

“Of course. What’s it about?”

“It’s Darcy, Spence. Who the hell knows?”

Marshall and Spencer had already talked about divvying up chores around the place, with Spencer opting for the general household tasks. At the same time, Marshall confined himself to the run of the kitchen.

They had only just finished their breakfast of hot oatmeal, fresh fruit and honey—with the obligatory mugs of fresh coffee—when Darcy’s call came through. Marshall had already rigged up the large flatscreen on the kitchen wall so they could take the meeting without getting up from the kitchen island.

The moment Marshall accepted the call, a full-screen version of Darcy appeared, her hair pinned up hastily on her head, no makeup, and wearing what appeared to be a Chinese silk dressing gown in scarlet with small golden dragonflies around the mandarin collar.

“Good morning, lovebirds,” she said, grinning then sipping from a mug.

“Morning, Darcy.” They spoke in unison.

“Is this going to take long? We’ve got some urgent things needing taken care of this morning.” asked Marshall, as Spencer felt a warm hand land on his upper thigh

“Don’t worry, I won’t keep you long. Got some interesting updates for you.”

First, Darcy talked about the book, their online meeting with the publisher and what to expect. He loved the way she worked, telling Marshall she would kick off proceedings and instructing him to steer away from any hint of money topics—advances or percentage royalties. She would take care of all that.

Eventually she got onto the Kryszytonia documentary and the post-production progress. Spencer knew President Karimov hadcalled Marshall the week before, mainly as a social call. But Marshall had used the opportunity to ask him some follow-up questions about what had happened since the assassination attempt, his presidency plans, and to get permission from his advisers to use his answers in his documentary.

“They’ve come up with the working title.Kryszytonia: Rise of the Squirrel and the Phoenix. The squirrel relates to President Tobias Karimov and the phoenix represents the country, rising from the ashes of the past. As I say, it’s a working title, so if you have any other suggestions, let Kerry-Anne know.”

They went on to talk about the difficulty of getting everything into the forty-minute time slot. Colm had shot a wealth of extra material when he’d searched the rubble for Marshall, and while this was unique footage, they needed to provide a balance to add weight to the documentary.

“Now the big news. Although the producers still want a couple of tweaks made next week, the documentary will have a special screening at the end of January. There’s a lot of excited buzz in the industry, Marshall, because your team was the only one there to record the historic event as a documentary. Please don’t get your hopes up yet, but it’s likely your little gem will be picked up for a number of best documentary award nominations. We’re not sure what format each of the ceremonies will take, but they’ll expect us all to be available. Hope you’ve got a tuxedo, Spence. I want you looking your scrubbed-up best that night. And if Marshall wins anything, I expect no less than you planting a full-on kiss on his lips. Are we all on the same page?”

“We are, Darcy,” said Spencer, laughing along with Marshall. “And you don’t have to worry. If he wins anything, I’ll be all over him like a lap dancer.”

“Okay, I’ll love you and leave you,” said Darcy. “I’m sure you’ve got better things to do. It’s going to be a good year, boys. I can feel it in my blood.”

Darcy ended the call, and Spencer sighed before turning to Marshall.

“It already is a good year,” he said, moving Marshall’s hand farther up his thigh.

“Oh yeah?” said Marshall, his voice becoming deep and gruff.

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