If You Were Here

“Fight. You movie, you write, you fight. You go back, go over head. Talk to person write you check. Fight.”

“It’s not that simple, Babcia.”

She pulls herself up to her full (almost) five feet. “Wrong. Is simple. You fight. You go plane tomorrow. Fight. Win. Kevin Spacey say greatest trick ever pull, devil world not exist. You make movie. Yes.”

I glance around the room and everyone seems to be behind Babcia, even if they are a little confused by her mangled Usual Suspects quote.

“Is it crazy? Do I go back?” I ask the group.

“What, you need sign? I give sign. Sign say go. Be not stupid girl. Be smart girl. Go.”

“I don’t know. . ”

Babcia looks over both of her shoulders and leans forward to say something sotto voce, which somehow makes her all the more menacing. “Is deal — you get on plane? Babcia find Vlad. Then he pay.”

She’s no Mafia don, and yet I’m pretty sure she just made me an offer I can’t refuse. Mac blanches in sympathy for whatever bad, bad thing is about to befall Vlad.

“I’ll do it.”

“Good. But first, get Babcia drink.”

Chapter Twenty-two. JUST VISITING

“Take me to Persiflage Films, please.”

This time around, I’m not arriving at the studio in a chauffeurdriven Town Car.

This time I’m in a regular cab I caught at LAX. I didn’t even pack anything more than an extra pair of underwear and a toothbrush, because I’m not planning on staying. I’m finished in this town.

Whether that’s literal or figurative, I’m not yet sure.

The cab drops me off in front of Persiflage, and I’m able to get on the lot because I still have my pass. But instead of heading to the offices, where — at least according to my old itinerary — I’m supposed to be meeting with costume designers,¹⁷¹ I make my way to the office of the studio’s twin presidents, Will and Phil Bernstein.

I’m not at all sure what my plan is, having chosen to remain in denial the entire flight out here.¹⁷² But I’m here, and now I’m basically ready to throw up from anxiety.

Although my game plan is hazy, my mission is clear. I need to wrest control of this movie out of the hands of that overly veneered jackass. I don’t have to (or want to) be in charge, but I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t at least plead my case.

When I arrive on the executive floor, I stop at the Bernstein brothers’ second assistant’s desk. The girl behind it looks friendly and seems like she might, just maybe, not call security on me before I finish making my plea for five minutes of a Bernstein’s time.

The second assistant is cute and fresh-scrubbed Midwestern, not all plastic, like every other woman I’ve seen out here. I think she’s sporting her real hair color, and the only makeup she wears comes in the form of the tube of cherry ChapStick on her desk. She’s speaking into her headset while I approach, which gives me a couple of seconds to determine what I want to say.

And that’s when I see it — my lifeline, my ticket in, my sign.

When she disconnects, I point to her desk and say,“You’re reading my book.”

Instead of getting the typical blase oh-yeah-well-Brad-Pitt-and-I-share-a-pool-boy response, the girl actually squeals and leaps out of her seat. “Oh, my God, are you Mia MacNamara? I love you! My little sister turned me on to your books and I can’t stop reading them! I’m so excited to meet you! Hello! I’m Jasmine!”

“Hold on,” I say.“You’re excited to meet me? Don’t you get, like, A-list movie stars in here every five minutes?”

“Oh, yeah,” she says. “You just missed Will Smith. Although he’s actually really cool, because he acknowledges us out here. But most of them are just empty suits. Actors, they just say the lines. I’m more impressed with people who write the stuff that makes them sound good. That might seem weird, but I just graduated from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, and I did a ton of writing, so that’s what I’m into. Trust me, I’m an anomaly around here. Everyone else is a total star fucker.” Jasmine claps her hand over her mouth. “Didn’t mean to swear. Sorry! Terrible habit. So, anyway, did you have an appointment? I don’t remember seeing you on the schedule. I’d have noticed.”

I give Jasmine the condensed version of my situation, and I tell her that if there’s any way I could get five minutes of a twin’s time without getting her fired, that she could potentially save my film from, if not obscurity, then at least a solid panning on Pajiba.com.

“They cast Vienna Hyatt? As Miriam? Is that a fucking joke?” She slaps her hand over her mouth again. “Shit, I’ve got to stop swearing at work. Goddamn it, I did it again!” She pulls up the twins’ schedules and tells me, “I can get you ten minutes with Phil in about an hour.”

“And that won’t get you in trouble?” I already love this kid, and I don’t want to jeopardize her job.

“Oh, please.” She waves me off. “If anything goes wrong, I’ll blame it on Brittany, the first assistant. She’s a Bernstein niece, and she’s a total space cadet. She screws stuff up every day and everyone lets her coast. She just scheduled Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie in back-to-back meetings with the twins. I mean, are you kidding me? Who does that? But she’s Teflon and everything slides off her. She’ll probably run this place someday. Trust me, Mia, I’m all over this.”

Jasmine puts me in the schedule and directs me to the waiting room down the hall after setting me up with a latte and a stack of magazines.

An hour later, she comes to get me, and just as I get ready to walk into Phil Bernstein’s office, she whispers to me, “Do it for Miriam.”

And then I prepare myself for the fight of my — no, our — lives.

I don’t want to say I went Swayze all over the Bernstein brother.

But I went Swayze all over the Bernstein brother.

In my ten minutes, I managed to not only convince him to dump Vienna, but also to assign a totally new producer and start the whole casting process from scratch. He even promised to call in a favor from Kevin Spacey to do a cameo as Amos’s father.

I’d like to say my powers of persuasion were top-notch and that I unleashed a little bit of my inner Ann Marie.¹⁷³

But the truth is, Mr. Bernstein’s daughters are huge fans, and they stopped talking to their dad the minute they found out Vienna had been cast.

You know what? A victory’s a victory, even if it comes from a forfeit.

The best part is, I get to do my own rewrites, and I don’t have to be on-site for the whole process. Mr. Bernstein is pulling a couple of producers who worked on the Harry Potter and Twilight films to head up Buggies, and I’m confident they’ll make it great.

Did I mention I got Vienna fired?

Yeah, that’s worth noting twice.

I finally feel like my baby’s in good hands. And now I can go home to begin the rest of my life.

Mac and I are picking up the last of the garbage from our housewarming party. Tonight was even more fun than our wedding reception, and that went on all night and well into brunch the next day.

Everyone was here — all of our friends, my whole family, and even Ann Marie was able to make it out,