Page 2 of Scripted for Love and Poison
“I’m afraid you’ve assumed wrongly. As I was saying, I just landed and haven’t even had time to clear customs or get out of the airport yet.” If she hadn’t been working with Julie for a few months and had learnt to understand the woman’s way of communicating, she’d be panicking about her editor’s tone. But unlike most of the editors Sol had worked with throughout her career, Julie was all bark—that was a common editor trait—but no bite—an uncommon one.
“There was no Wi-Fi on the plane?” Julie asked.
“Gods, Julie, have you had your full caffeine intake today?”
“Sorry, hon, but a dear friend may have died, and I think I’m obviously more touched than I expected.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Sol, now feeling bad for her jab at the editor. “What happened?”
“Well, that’s why I asked you if you’d read my email. I’dput it perfectly there. Now you’ll get the not-so-polished spoken version. Simon Smith has gone missing.”
Sol’s brows knit together. She wasn’t following whatever Julie was trying to tell her. “Missing as in ...?”
“Missing as in kaput, hon. It looks like foul play to me. I’ve been telling him for years he needed to lay off on the vitriol. And he’s been getting hate mail for ages. But this!” Julie continued, without making much sense to Sol. She didn’t even know who Simon Smith was.
“Can we recap a little bit? You said someone died?”
“Yes! Probably ...” said Julie. “Simon, obviously. Do you even know who I’m talking about?”
“I feel I may be overplaying it, but do you realize I just landed from an eleven-hour flight and my luggage is lost! And no, sorry, I didn’t read your email. The name sounds familiar, but I can’t place it right now.” Sol continued pacing up and down, eyeing Luke as he was still chatting with the airline attendant. She could feel a headache coming and was massaging her temples.
“Simon Smith,The Showbiz Reporter’s main film critic and one of the most divisive people in our business.”
“Divisive because?”
“The last time he actually liked a movie was probably 1999,” said Julie.
“I mean, it was such a great year but ...”
“There’s life afterFight Club,American Beauty, andEyes Wide Shut...”
“Don’t forget aboutThe Matrix,” Sol contributed, stopping her pacing.
“Yeah, Simon didn’t likeThe Matrix, actually.”
“Seriously? What’s wrong with him?”
“See, that’s why I’m so worried about him!” Julie said. “Everybody hates him. Even his editor atThe ShowbizReporter, Jason Zit. I just called him, and he’s not worried. And he hasn’t heard from Simon for two days! He sounded relieved to be rid of him. He’s had it out for Simon for years!”
“Okay, Julie, I can see you’re clearly upset. What can I do for you?”
“Well, I need you to find Simon, of course! But I’m afraid it’s too late and he’s going to be six feet under, buried in the California desert somewhere. And that’s a dreadful way to die!”
2
Sol didn’t immediately return to Luke’s side after hanging up Julie’s call. She breathed deeply first. She was feeling all the stress from the last days catching up to her.
She knew she should have booked the flight to LA to leave a couple of days earlier so she’d have been able to get some rest before the frenzy of activities that awaited her in the Californian city, but things had been hectic—someone would argue even a bit crazy—the past few weeks. Nothing had gone back to the normal bliss she and Luke had enjoyed pre-Christmas. But how could it? The holidays had been dreadful—an absolute, utter disaster. And now she’d lost her bag and was supposed to find a missing reporter!
Just thinking about the days before the LA trip both infuriated her and made her heart sink. Her past experience dealing with the acute stress-inducing holiday season should have prepared her for this recent one. Yet, there she was: forty-three, two husbands and a couple of significant lovers down, and she still hadn’t been able to confront thelatest end of the year in the smartest, most rational way. And rationally is how you should always do Christmas.
How Sol should have proceeded was having a serious talk with Luke andtelling himhow things would go their first Christmas as a couple: She would fly back to her hometown, as she always did, and would spend the festivities in Barcelona with her family and friends. He would remain in London and do whatever he normally did during that time of the year.
Even if Sol had been living in London for almost four years, all her knowledge about British traditions for the holiday season came from watchingLove Actually,so she assumed Luke’s family would be serenaded by neighboring carolers, would buy not-necessarily-exciting-or-needed presents, and would eat panettone—Luke’s family was Italian, after all.
And the thing was, Sol had sat Luke down and had tried to tackle the Christmas issue—only not in the clearest way. Because Luke had interpreted her words in the opposite way they were meant and had assumed she wanted them to spend that time together.
In his defense, they had been spending almost all the previous time together—except for work and socializing with friends, and the four summer days she’d spent with her parents in Greece, agonizing through monuments and ruins under the scorching sun. Of course, the source of the misunderstanding with Luke could also have been that Sol was having a hard time disentangling herself from him for any extended period of time, so she hadn’t made herself clear on purpose. Even if she knew better.
