But Alice was right. Nothing as monumental as this would ever happen to me again.
‘Just listen to me and listen good, Nina. I am your friend and I am begging you to not be an idiot and blow it all away.’ She squeezed my shoulder. ‘Are you with me?’
I sighed. More out of terror than doubt. You might think I didn’t deserve something so great happening to me. And I’d say you were probably right. Maybe that was half the problem. I didn’t believe in myself enough. Luckily, Alice did.
I dried my eyes and huffed. ‘Okay. I’m sorry. I’m with you.’
‘And you’ll agree to Luke’s terms?’
‘Have I got a choice?’
‘Sure. You can go home and watch Ben Stein do whatever he wants with your story. And the opening credits will read “An adaptation from the novel by…”, when it could instead read “Screenplay by Nina Conte and Luke O’Hara”. You choose. And besides, Luke wasn’t laughing at you! He was laughing about you. It’s different; can’t you see that? He loves your sense of humour!’
‘It’s true, Nina…’ said Luke, closing the conference room door behind him and coming to stand before me, his face contrite.
But then, that was what actors did very well. Look something they weren’t.
‘I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. What I meant was that you are funny. Refreshingly so…’
His face was solemn, like a little boy’s, his voice low, just like in the scenes where he apologised to his female lead for being a jerk and gave his heart-felt rendition of sorrow. It was his trademark: his voice failing at the end of each sentence, like it was too hard for him to speak after all the pain he’d caused. It worked like a charm on screen. In real life, not so much.
I could’ve said something like: Save your talent for your movies, but it would’ve been too cheesy. Besides, he was right. Look at me. I was a barrel of laughs. For someone else, at least.
Alice stepped forward. ‘Nina, come on. The man’s got everyone against him because of you. He’s ready to risk a lot of money.’
Oh, so that was his beef.
‘Tell you what,’ he said. ‘Let’s not go back in there. Let’s go to your hotel and hash it out over lunch, just you and me. Let me talk you through it all.’
‘You mean persuade me,’ I corrected him and Alice and Luke grinned at each other as he put his hand on my shoulder in a gesture of close friendship. God, he was so American.
‘Great. Now I’m going back in there to tell Ben he’s out on his arse because I don’t need his money. I’m going solo.’
‘What?’ Alice almost shrieked. ‘Do you have any idea of how much money this is going to cost you? You can’t do that! You need him on board. What if it tanks?’
Ah, so not even she was all that optimistic after all. Good to know.
‘It won’t. Nina’s book is brilliant.’
‘I know it is and you know it is. But you shouldn’t take such risks without the Stein Safety Net. You need Ben. Try to convince him at least!’
Without turning to look at her, he said, ‘Risks are there to be taken.’
She shook her head miserably as she understood he was determined. Me, I had no idea what was going to happen, but I as sure as hell was not going home without my contract after all that.
‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ she warned him.
‘I know exactly what I’m doing, Alice,’ he promised, still smiling at me. ‘And you, Nina – if I can convince you to have joint custody of the point of view, you’ll get much more than you bargained for.’
I very much doubted that, but kept my gob shut for once.
10
Alice In Wonderland
You can imagine the state I was in by the time I sat down with him at a restaurant table. On my own, without Alice as my backup – and our foil – I felt totally, completely vulnerable. You think I’d be over the moon lunching with a Hollywood actor. Trouble was, I felt so spaced out by it all. This was truly surreal, discussing my book that was to be turned into a script, writing shoulder to shoulder with a celebrity, for who knew how many months? Not to mention the financial benefits.
Because, if truth be told, the money was already mentally spent, no joke. I’d already mended the roof, paid the tuition fees for both Ben and Chloe up until their final years and even paid off the mortgage. If you’re going to dream, dream big, correct?
Besides, whatever sum I’d get out of it once Alice had her cut – and her advance back – was always way better than what I had now. Nada. Zilcho. So seriously, whatever the studio’s advance on the script would be, it would finally go on the kids. Chloe would soon need braces, and she had been pestering me to send her on that school trip to France, while I knew Ben could do with a new bed.
He was growing at the speed of light, which made me fear all the more for his leg. Would he continue to grow while his leg didn’t? I’d heard so many different opinions from a gazillion different doctors, and no one seemed to agree. Some said he’d grow out of it, others said if he grew any taller he’d end up with a crooked spine on top of everything else and others predicted all sorts of horrifying ends.
I couldn’t let anything bad happen to my baby.
