“Okay, kid. Lead me.” Andy gave Jim an expectant look. Jim made an
‘oh my God’ face, gave a slight and trepidatious nod, and headed toward the steps.
“You’re too tall for me,” Jim said about two songs in.
“Height is irrelevant, as I’m sure Tomás has told you. Victor dances with me when I’ve got high heels on.” Jim snorted. “You’re doing fine, you know, considering.”
“Considering I have two left feet.”
“Considering you only started taking lessons a month ago, you moron.
Loretta seems to like you a lot.”
“I was so surprised she even remembered me.” Jim glanced at Andy, who was apparently busy watching the entire space around them. “How many eyes do you have, anyway?” Andy laughed under his breath, but didn’t say anything else. “She wants me to write to her after she goes back to Miami.”
“You going to?”
“Well, yeah. I’m crazy about her. She’s incredible.” After a moment, he added, “I can’t quite believe this is happening. She’s so out of my league.”
“That’s what I thought when I met Victor. It was very Notting Hill for a minute there.” Jim got the reference; he nodded. “The funny thing is, he felt the same way about me.” They were into a third song now, and Jim hadn’t crashed yet. Andy said, “You’re doing awfully well. Dance with her next.
She’s insecure, you know.”
“Why?”
“A lot of bad men. A lot of disrespect. A lot of not being valued as a person.” Andy gave that a few seconds. “As soon as they get done writing that first draft, she’s going home. Give her a reason to come back.”
“I’m sure going to try.”
“I did the whole in loco parentis thing with Jim,” Andy told Victor later, when they were up in their bedroom stretching.
“Were you like, what are your intentions?” Andy snorted. Victor was smiling, leaning over a leg. As always, Andy had better extension. “I’m gonna catch up with you one day.”
“Don’t you challenge me, sonny.” Andy shifted, going into a full split, and Victor made an annoyed sound. Andy laughed.
“You’re such a dick.”
“I have such a dick.” Victor cracked up. Andy was trying not to.
“Anyway not exactly. He said she asked him to write to her, I said are you going to, he said yes. Then I told him she’s planning to go back to Miami when you guys finish the first draft, and to give her a reason to come back.”
“You think she will? God, I hope so. It would be so great to have her out here with us.” After a second Victor added, “I mean, not literally with us. I’m ready to start fucking you in the kitchen again.” They both started giggling.
“And in the living room. Over the dining table. On the stairs.”
Andy fell out of his position, laughing. He folded his legs and scooted back against the wall. “All of that, yeah. Maybe she’ll move in with him.”
“She wants a baby.”
“Oh, really? Huh.” Andy hadn’t thought about that. Enough of their friends had kids that it wasn’t a totally out-there concept. “Maybe the kid would get his eyes. Jim has pretty eyes.” Dark blue, with dark lashes. “She said her mother has blue eyes.”
“What if he doesn’t want kids?” They stared at each other for a moment.
Victor changed position, sitting cross-legged in front of Andy. “Well. All we can do is wait and see, I guess.”
“And let them both know we’re behind them either way.” Andy leaned forward for a kiss. “Let’s get ready for bed.”
Victor got to his feet. “Molly’s way ahead of us.”
“She’s been looking at her watch for the last half hour, going will you turn off the light please.” Andy accepted a hand up from Victor. They both petted their dog on the way to the bathroom.
Chapter 12
October 2019
The writing team called it at the end of September. The screenplay wasn’t polished, but it was complete. They met up one more time to read it through. “I can’t believe we did this so fast,” Jonathan said.
Loretta made a pfft sound. “I can’t believe we did it at all! That first time, it felt like a game.”
“Well.” Victor regarded them both. “I think we make a great team. Do you want to send it to the producer now, or wait till we hear about the rough cut on number three? Or maybe we could have Tanith take a look at it.”
“Oh yes,” Loretta said immediately. “Would she look at it? She could tell us if we are out of our minds.” Jonathan laughed. “God in heaven, I never typed so much in my life.”
“We owe you,” said Victor. “Doing this by hand on legal pads would have been a pain in the ass.” Loretta’s phone buzzed. She glanced at it and grimaced. “Aren’t you going to answer that?”
“It’s my mother,” she said. “She will say when are you coming home, why are you wasting your time in L.A., don’t you know there is work for you here. She is my manager,” she told Jonathan. “I think I have to fire her. There will be such a fight. She wants me to do local things, little things, so she can keep me close.”
Victor had already heard about this. “You know if you want the big roles, you’re going to need to be out here,” he said softly. “You have friends here. She doesn’t need to worry about you.”
“Gracias, Victor. You and Andy and Jonathan are the best friends. All your friends are wonderful. I don’t know if I want the big roles. But I can do better than being a spokesmodel.” She sighed. “I do need to go home. I have things to finish there.”
“And I actually need to go home.” Jonathan stood up, stretched, offered a hand to Victor. “This has been great. I never would have thought I’d be co-authoring an actual screenplay. I barely graduated from high school.”
“You
