“That’s a lot of hardware on your hand, though,” he replied, trying to keep his voice neutral.
“I like deterring strange men from talking to me,” Juno smiled. “It works wonders; you should try it sometime.” Felipe laughed, feeling a noticeable lightness in his chest just as they climbed the last incline and saw his farmhouse come into view.
“Strange men talking to me is how I staffed this place,” he told her, receiving an arched eyebrow in return. “Every one of these guys was homeless and we ran into each other when I was on movie sets. I have a clause in my rider that requires a large percentage of the crew on my sets to be local homeless folks. Sometimes that bit of pay is the extra boost they need.”
He toyed with the idea of telling her at this point that his real name wasn’t Carter Amos. It wouldn’t be too awkward if he did it right now, he thought. Maybe just say something like ‘You know, we’ve actually met before, a long time ago before I was in the movies…’?
Felipe was trying so hard to craft the right sentence that he didn’t notice Juno looking at her feet while walking beside him.
Juno
Oh, goddammit, Juno thought, feeling the stirrings of her initial attraction to this man grow stronger. She let her hair shield her face as she scrunched her eyes shut in frustration. Luckily, he also seemed a touch distracted.
“But what I really want to know more about,” Carter finally said after a minute of silent strolling, “is your short stories.”
“Oh, no, I am still way too shy to talk about those,” Juno responded after a moment. “You’d have to be one of my two best girlfriends or among a bunch of strangers on Internet writers’ forums.”
“Well, you don’t have to talk about them,” Carter pressed, clearly amused. “Just e-mail me one or send me a link.”
They reached the farmhouse and walked around the corner, at which point Juno said she was going to wander around and take some pictures of the crops.
Felipe/Carter
As Felipe watched her stroll into the fields, he spotted Jakub getting into his truck.
“Hey,” Felipe called out, “going into town to get lunch?”
“Yeah, got any requests?” Felipe held his hand up, then disappeared into the house for a moment. He emerged with a slip of paper and what looked like a few small boxes in a plastic bag.
“If you’re going to that panini and pasta place, this is for me and Juno,” he said, handing him the paper along with a $100 bill. He ignored Jakub’s smirk. “Keep the change or buy something for the guys with it. And this,” Felipe added, handing him the bag, “is for anyone on the streets who wants them.” Jakub peered inside to see every cigarette Felipe had on him.
“This carton is only missing one pack,” he said, perplexed. “And the second one isn’t even open.”
“Yeah, don’t remind me,” Felipe grimaced. “I’m done with them. Take ’em and go before I change my mind.” Jakub looked out in the direction he’d seen Juno heading a minute earlier.
“That must’ve been one helluva walk.”
***********
That night, Felipe tried to think about anything except smoking, already feeling the urge for just one more drag. He regretted forgetting to ask Jakub to bring him back nicotine patches earlier that day.
You went through this when you were training to bench your own body weight, he thought. It’s just mind over matter. He was running out of ways to distract himself. He’d already had dinner, video-called Nico, and stayed outside until the sun went down. He was sitting in the living room and staring at the walls when his phone lit up.
Fine, you win, Juno had texted him. Here’s one of them. Never mention it again. Felipe raced to open the attached document, partially in disbelief that Juno actually sent him a short story of hers, and partially thankful he had something to take his mind off cigarettes. If he hadn’t just quit smoking, he’d have been riding the high of learning she was single.
Why the hell didn’t you just tell her in the field, you jackass? he scolded himself as he put down his phone for a second, unable to figure out why he’d froze earlier that day instead of simply re-introducing himself as Felipe.
No, he winced, looking at the far wall at a smiling picture of his late mother when she was about his age, shortly before she got sick. He asked himself how he could be so open in interviews about being homeless at one point, but still feel shame at reminding Juno that that was the state he was in when they’d first met.
It’s just so much easier to be Carter Amos than your Felipe, isn’t it, Mama? No past and a shitload of money and power, he thought, walking across the room and wistfully touching the frame.
Maybe there’s no point in dredging this up anyway, he rationalised, wondering if he’d ever run into Juno again. She’s made her disinterest in me pretty damn clear. Now she’s done her feature and all I have is…
He looked down at his phone and opened the downloaded document Juno had just sent him. Felipe read her story, then read it again slower, imagining the characters and appreciating the nuances. Then he sat down in his easy chair as an idea dawned on him.
How are you having trouble getting published? he texted her after his third read. You’re a fantastic writer and this is an amazing plot.
It’s not about that in publishing, Juno replied a minute later. It’s about what’s hot right now. Ever wonder why one person came out with a vampire romance series and then 10,000 vampire series happened in the few years after that? Felipe smiled to himself at how she was funny even on text. He hit the call button.
“Look, I know you said to never mention it again…” he started.
“Way too late for that at this junction, don’t you think?” Juno interrupted. Felipe could hear her smiling through the phone.
“…but I have a proposition for you,” he finished.
“This better not be like that Robert Redford movie where he offers Demi Moore a million dollars for a night with her.”
“Will you be serious for a minute?” Felipe smiled, trying not to be distracted at the thought of spending a night with the woman he’d quietly been in love with for over a decade. “I want to turn your story into a movie.” There was a long enough pin-drop silence that Felipe looked at his phone to make sure the call hadn’t been cut off.
“What?” Juno finally replied, her voice just a touch above a whisper.
“I just bought out Chelsea in the production company we started together, Hibiscus Films. I want you to get yourself a lawyer because I’m going to have my lawyer send you a standard screenwriter’s contract to turn your story into a script.” Another silence ensued and Felipe wasn’t sure what was going on.
“Mr. Amos…”
“I said earlier today you could call me Carter,” he reminded her, inwardly torn that he’d again chickened out at asking her to call him Felipe.
“No, that’s alright.” Juno had gone from playful to cordial with whiplash speed. “Mr. Amos, I know that helping people out is kind of your thing, but I’m not interested. I write because I love it; not because I’m desperate to find a way out of the life I have right now.”
“That’s… that’s not how I meant to come across,” Felipe said, trying to balance his thoughts with his panic in that moment. “I’m not trying to help you. I just read the most original thing I’ve read in a long time, and that includes the scripts of every movie I’ve made.