“Your story deserves this, even if you hadn’t written it and we’d never met.” When Juno didn’t reply, he got even more uncomfortable.
“At least tell me you’ll think about it,” Felipe tried.
Juno
Juno slowly nodded to herself before thanking Carter Amos for having her over that morning and ending the call. She opened up her story on her laptop and read it to herself, trying to discern whether it really was a good enough piece of writing to become a film of all things.
The thought preoccupied her so deeply that she stepped into the GTA Life offices the next morning, caught totally off guard by the gaggle of her coworkers gathered around her desk. Including Lucy.
“Tell us everything,” her boss demanded. “No detail is too small or insignificant.” Suddenly, Juno was hearing questions thrown at her in surround sound about what Carter Amos had been wearing, how tall he was, whether she’d seen his abs, and how he smelled.
“Okay, okay, stop,” she said, pointing at her colleagues one by one. “Jeans and a raglan baseball shirt; about six feet; no; and like an ashtray. Are we done here? I have to work on a 4000-word sleeping pill about this guy now.”
The other women grumbled at her lack of enthusiasm but dispersed. Only Lucy saw that her friend was a different type of dour than she usually was. She motioned Juno into her office and shut the door behind them.
“Is everything okay?” she asked with concern. “Did anything make you uncomfortable yesterday?”
“No, no, don’t worry Luce, you were right,” Juno waved away her friend’s concerns over her safety. “Carter Amos is an amazing human being and I even found myself getting kind of hot for him.” Lucy’s eyebrows shot up.
“But you’re a little more crotchety than normal,” she pointed out. “Can I chalk this up to having to write the story, or just good old-fashioned sexual frustration?”
“Nah, you know me. I can slam out 4,000 words between today and tomorrow,” Juno responded. Then she told Lucy in detail of the day she’d had, culminating in Carter offering her the chance to write a movie script. Lucy’s eyes grew wider and wider, but Juno stopped her before she burst.
“I’m hesitant because I don’t know what this guy’s play is,” she said.
“Uhhh, he wants to make both of you a lot of money with an original film because you’re a stellar creative writer?” Lucy answered. “Girl, do not overthink this. This is the big break everyone is after. Then we can just be friends without you grousing about every assignment you think is stupid because you won’t have to work here anymore!”
“So that’s your angle,” Juno narrowed her eyes and grinned at her friend.
“You’re goddamn right it is,” Lucy laughed. “Look, if you have any regard for me at all, you will call him back and accept the contract. Even if it doesn’t pan out, I don’t want that to be because you didn’t try.” She looked through the business card holder on her desk and pulled three of them out. “These people are entertainment lawyers. Call one of them too.”
That night, Juno got in bed and took a deep breath before reaching for her phone and pulling up Carter Amos’s contact. Texting through this one would be a lot less painful than calling him, she decided.
Hey, she typed. I’m sorry about my reaction yesterday. If the offer’s still on the table, I accept. It only took a few seconds for her phone to light up.
It’s not, Carter replied. Juno scrunched her brow in confusion. Not without an additional condition.
“Oh, fucking hell, these Hollywood types are all the same,” Juno muttered to herself as she waited for the boom to drop.
I want to oversee and contribute to the direction you take with the script, so I ask that you work on it at my place, Carter wrote. Juno’s mouth dropped open. You won’t be inconvenienced; I’ll send a car to pick you up from work and drop you back home each day.
You want to micro-manage me? Juno typed angrily.
Have you ever adapted a screenplay before? Carter shot back. It’s very different from writing a short story. But you don’t have to come here so we can work together. I’ll just have you do copious rewrites every day if that’s better for you.
Juno was now more convinced he wasn’t now–nor had he ever been–doing her a favour because he was attracted to her.
Jesus F. Christ, she simply replied.
He’s not going to help you get through this script the way I am, Carter retorted, making Juno laugh in spite of herself. Let me know when and where I can have you picked up tomorrow afternoon.
***********
“You’re the driver?” Juno asked Jakub when she saw the farm’s pickup truck swerve toward the curb in front of her downtown office building.
“Stretch limos are only for the Oscars,” Jakub grinned while leaning over to unlock the door. “Not that Carter’s ever been.”
“Right,” Juno said as she got in the truck and they sped away. “I don’t expect movies where the main character is liberating space aliens from their human captors to do too well with the Academy.”
“Oh, no, I don’t mean he’s never been invited,” Jakub clarified. “He’s a voting Academy member; he just never goes to the ceremony. Says it’s not his thing. Bad luck for him that it was totally his ex-wife’s thing.”
“Have you ever met her?” Juno wondered aloud as they got onto the 401 East on-ramp headed toward Pickering.
“Yeah, she and Nico have been to the farm plenty of times,” Jakub replied. He chatted about what Chelsea and Nico were like, all the way until they were off the highway again and headed north on Brock Road.
“It’s weird because they’ve visited here, but it’s not like they’ve lived here, if that makes sense,” Jakub went on, as they drove toward the 407 Express near where the farm was located. “But Carter’s hoping to change that at least with Nico this time. The little guy just landed this morning.”
Sure enough, he had, Juno saw as the truck pulled up to the farmhouse. A little boy sat on the front steps, pouting.
“Hey, little man,” Juno said, noting how Nico had gotten his dad’s black-brown hair and eyes. “I’m Juno. You bored?” Nico looked up, a little guarded, but seeming like he was pleased at being seen.
“Everything’s boring here,” he said. “And it’s cold.”
“It was 21 today!” Juno said. “Oh, but right… that would be maybe around 70 degrees where you’re from?” Nico went back to looking unimpressed so Juno sat down beside him and pulled her phone out. “Okay, don’t believe me,” she said, checking a YouTube video to make sure it was age-appropriate. “Believe these guys.”
Nico leaned over to see what she was playing on her phone, which was a cartoony video outlining fun facts about Canada. He frowned at it, then looked up at Juno when it was done.
“The US is warmer,” he said.
“Yeah, but warm weather comes with all that other stuff like hurricanes and tornados,” Juno countered. “And you live in LA, right where a bunch of earthquakes happen. That stuff isn’t that bad up here.
“Plus, you can’t build a snowman in LA the way we can in Toronto,” she added tantalizingly. “If you stay long enough, we can use the plow attachment for Jakub’s truck and push a bunch of snow in a pile to build a fort. Then, we’ll hide behind the walls of the fort and throw snowballs at your dad.” Nico cracked a smile.