Page 22 of The Grump I Loathe
I stuck my hand out. Connor stared at my palm before finally reaching out. I ignored the flutter in my gut as his hand wrapped around mine, the pads of his hand slightly calloused in the same places mine were from constantly having a game controller in my hand.
“I look forward to reading your script. At five o’clock sharp.”
“It’s going to blow your mind.”
Two hours later, after many slices of pizza and crowning Max the go-kart champion, Noah and I plopped ourselves back in front of ourcomputers. The moment we were satisfied with the reworked opening, I sent it off in an email to Connor with twenty minutes to spare.
To Lord LockMill…I typed.Please hold your applause at the epicness of the attached script.I signed off the email.Your loyal subject, Eddie.
7
CONNOR
“Six down,” Mom said, lowering her crossword to the table to grab a sip of coffee. “Fable?”
“Oh, good call. I was thinking ‘story,’ but ‘fable’ makes more sense with eight across.” I filled the letters in on my own copy of the crossword. Mom smiled softly at me. Behind her, the April sun spilled in through the large windows, turning her strawberry blonde hair gold in places and adding shine to the few strands of silver. “Fourteen across?” I said. “Sailor?”
Mom nodded, filling it in.
Doing the crossword together was a tradition for us since I was a kid. On Mom’s good days, we’d sit and laugh and fill the paper in together. On her bad days…well, puzzles were the last thing I worried about on her bad days. But it had been a long time since I’d seen her like that. Things were good now—really good.
“Grace will sleep all morning if you let her,” Mom reminded me. Yet another reason to be glad Mom was in such a strong place these days—it meant she’d been a safe harbor for Grace when the divorce got complicated. She knew my daughter’s routines nearly as well as I did.
I checked my watch. “A few more minutes won’t hurt.”
Mom hummed softly. “You won’t be saying that when she’s in bed until noon. She’s quickly hurtling toward teenagedom.”
I pretended to shiver. “Don’t remind me. Double digits are already on the horizon.”
Mom chuckled, playing with the pendant at her neck. It was a new piece of jewelry given to her by her boyfriend, X, and I hid a grimace at the sight of it. Sure, he was a world-famous director with a shit-ton of awards, but that didn’t mean I trusted him with my mom. She needed commitment and support I just wasn’t sure he could provide.
My brothers thought the two of them were good together, but after the recent mess of them surprising everyone with their relationship, then breaking up after that audio fiasco during the filming ofEvery Day Is Sunday, then getting back together, he had quite a ways to go before he proved himself to me. Just the sight of him walking into the sunroom with his own cup of coffee and a sudoku puzzle set my teeth on edge.
“Morning, morning. Beautiful day!” He walked around the table dressed in a loose magenta tracksuit that Grace had once calledslay. I didn’t understand the appeal, but Grace had quickly grown obsessed with X and his sneaker collection. I chose to believe she’d mature into better taste soon.
“Morning,” Mom said, beaming up at him. He leaned over and pecked her on the lips.
“When are you headed back to LA?” I asked casually. Mom and X split their time between LA and San Francisco, dating long distance when X had work.
“Probably in the next few days,” X admitted, reaching out and squeezing Mom’s hand.
“He’s in talks to direct a period piece set in Mussolini’s Italy,” Mom gushed, the history nerd in her jumping out.
“Not confirmed yet,” X said. “But it’s looking promising.”
“That’s great.” I crossed my fingers under the table that the movie would film on location. I could get behind the idea of six weeks of no X in our lives. His relationship with Mom was too volatile for my taste. She could use a break to recenter herself. I wanted her to be happy; I just didn’t want her to lose all the progress she’d made because of a man.
“A summer in Italy,” Mom sighed. “Doesn’t that sound romantic?”
“Seventeen across?” I asked, looking up when she didn’t answer, only to find her with her head pressed to X’s shoulder, watching him complete his sudoku with rapt interest.
Coffeewas the only thought in my head as I stepped out of my office.Coffee. Coffee. Immediate coffee. All the coffee. An IV drip of coffee.
It was just one of those days when nothing could go right, and I needed to get a caffeine boost stat, or I might start throwing things out windows.
As I made my way across the floor to secure the largest cup I could find, an explosion of laughter echoed from one of the cubicles. I craned my neck, eyes narrowing. Of course it was Eddie’s cubicle. I veered in that direction, annoyed to find half the team crowded inside. More laughter drifted from the group, and I cracked my knuckles ready to tell her to stop monopolizing everyone’s time with her antics.
She and Noah had managed to meet the deadline for the opening sequence rewrite last week, but that didn’t give her free rein to have everyone goofing off in the middle of the day. I drew closer, intent on sending them all back to work.
