“Carter, I already told you that starting something with you was a mistake,” Juno answered, dreading how fast word would now spread around the condo that she was involved with a household name.
“Will you at least open the door so I don’t have to have this conversation with you in the hallway?” he appealed. Frowning, she opened the door and glared at him.
“Fine,” she said. “Come in.”
“You know, I have to be an absolute idiot to be here right now,” he bit off to her surprise as he strode in past her, then took off his jacket and dropped it on a chair. “I told myself I’d never again be interested in women who’d go hot and cold on me, yet here I am.” He willed himself to not be distracted by the tank top and cute PJ pants she wore under her oversized cardigan.
“Well, you weren’t invited,” Juno shot back after she shut the door and locked it. “I sent back the advance and told my lawyer to sell you the rights to the story and whatever work I’ve already done on it, so I thought that was that. Why are you here?”
“Because I think I at least deserve to know why you never want to see me again!” Carter exclaimed. “You climbed on to my lap in the limo, remember?” Juno clenched her jaw and looked down at the floor. “You told me you couldn’t help but be attracted to me because you thought I was a good guy. How in the hell did I suddenly become a bad guy in the span of an hour?”
“You didn’t do anything wrong!” Juno shouted, trying to blink back her tears. “It’s just that nobody–not even me–will take me seriously if they think I’m nothing but a starfucker!” Carter seemed taken aback.
“What?”
“Evan is Thai, in case you didn’t know,” she said somewhat quieter. “So was the other guy he was hanging out with at the after-party. They were sitting in the booth behind us so I could hear everything they were saying but they didn’t think I was also Thai.”
“Oh shit, what did they say, Juno?” Carter asked her seriously. She quickly wiped the tear that slid down her face, unable to look at him.
“They said…” Juno’s voice trembled. “They said it must be easy to shoot straight up to screenwriter from working at a mediocre magazine when you spread your legs for your interview subject.”
“Jesus Christ,” Carter shut his eyes.
“And there was more, including whether I’d put out for them if there was a career incentive, and… comments about how I looked in my blue dress.”
“I am never going to work with those fucking assholes ever again,” Carter fumed.
“He’s not wrong, is he, though?” Juno asked pointedly. Carter looked at her like she grew another head. “I didn’t work my way up in the film industry like he’s been trying to do. I didn’t pay my dues. I was just in a position where I was able to send a famous actor-producer my work and he thought I was cute so–”
“No,” Carter vehemently shook his finger at her. “No. Don’t you dare demean both of us by making it sound like I was only after some tail and you’re a talentless hack.
“You know what, scratch that,” he reconsidered. “You can say whatever you want about me. But don’t you dare insult the incredible story you sent me, the likes of which I haven’t even read from seasoned writers in the industry–including Evan.” Now Juno was taken aback.
“He’s pitched scripts to me before,” Carter explained. “I’m not going to say they were awful, but they were average. Formulaic rom-coms and the like. They were full of clichés and the same tired old tropes, and so I turned him down. But he had no right to disrespect you like that.”
“Nevertheless,” Juno said, “he’s not wrong. I haven’t been able to cut it on my own in traditional publishing, so what does it say about me when I get this unexpected hand-up out of nowhere?”
Felipe/Carter
Felipe’s head snapped back to look at Juno’s face as soon as she uttered those words. There was a full 30 seconds of silence between them while he contemplated how to respond. But there was only one way.
“I wouldn’t be here if I hadn’t gotten an unexpected hand-up out of nowhere once,” he said pensively, running one hand through his hair. “Everyone knows I was homeless at one point, but I never talked publicly about how I was able to escape the cycle. I’ve never even told Chelsea this.
“A beautiful, kind girl was the one who helped me. She bought me lunch and some extra food, and talked to me like I was a real person. It was the first time in over a year I’d felt like one.” Juno was leaning near the wall outside her kitchen, and Felipe made sure to watch her face as he prepared to tell her the next part.
“Then she took me to her gym where I was able to clean up,” he said. Juno’s eyes got wider. “And then,” Felipe continued as he pulled his wallet out of his jacket pocket, “she gave me this.” He held out the faded sticky, noting that Juno’s fingers shook as she looked at her own printing.
At last, she put the post-it note on the table, then stepped toward the movie star in her living room, gazing at him like she was seeing him for the first time. She raised her hands to either side of his face, searching his eyes.
“Felipe?”
Felipe couldn’t stop himself when he heard his name on her lips for the first time in 12 years. He scooped her up in his arms and held her to his chest as tightly as he could without hurting her. Juno’s arms flew up and around his waist as she buried her face in his chest.