She leaned back on the porch step behind her and kept chatting with the little boy, unaware his father was watching them through the screen door with a quiet curiosity.
“And guess what else we do here?” Juno continued. “When it’s super cold, we pour blazing hot maple syrup on the snow, put a stick on it, and then roll it in the snow and eat it.”
“Eww!” Nico exclaimed.
“Yeah, you’re right, maybe I should have shown you before I told you. That’s on the to-do list for this winter. But for now, do you have any idea where your dad is?” She turned around just as Carter stepped out the door.
Geez, Carter Amos, can you wear something that doesn’t make your arms look photoshopped? Juno thought, noticing how the striped polo shirt he had on clung to his biceps. Maybe a bunch of brown paper bags glued together?
She was annoyed at herself for having bouts of attraction toward him when she prided herself on not being interested in the typical beefcake most of her friends and coworkers were drawn to.
He smokes, she reminded herself. It doesn’t matter if he’s single-handedly pulling people out of poverty while looking like he’s chiseled from granite–smoking is a goddamn chastity belt.
“Your secretary isn’t very good at small talk,” Juno said aloud. “How much do you pay this guy per hour anyway?” Damn that half-smile Carter did where one corner of his mouth arched sideways to push out the dimple in his cheek.
“He works for hugs, toys, and food,” Carter replied, “which is now. Time for dinner, papito.” Seeing the question mark on Juno’s face, he pre-empted what he knew she’d ask. “We’ll eat later, after my man here goes to bed.” He put up his hand just as she opened her mouth to object. “No–no. I’m bringing you out here on my request. You’ll join us for the family meal.”
Before Juno could ask what the family meal was, he motioned to her to come into the house. After Carter set up Nico at the kitchen table, he entered the living room where Juno had opened up her laptop on the coffee table.
“I’ve gotta tell you, this is not what I expected a movie star’s house to look like,” she said, surveying the cozy, rustic décor and wishing that Carter wasn’t so close she could smell his cologne. “It’s more like a fancy log cabin than LA chic.”
“It’s not much different from what it was when I moved in,” Carter answered. “But several steps up from where I grew up.” He sat down beside her on the couch, trying to keep his eyes averted from her thighs in her tight jeans. “You’re pretty good with kids,” he fished. “Do you have any of your own?”
“Well if I did, it’d mean my surgeon messed up big time,” Juno murmured while opening up the folder with her short stories. She turned toward Carter, knowing full well he’d be puzzled. “I got my tubes tied a while ago,” she elaborated, expecting his eyes to widen exactly as they did.
“That’s what split us up,” she went on, turning back to her laptop screen. “My ex and I had agreed not to have kids but he changed his mind somewhere along the way. When he kept pressuring me I booked an appointment to get sterilized, and then he filed for divorce.”
Felipe/Carter
“That’s pretty extreme, don’t you think?” Felipe blurted out, immediately wishing he’d kept his mouth shut.
“I’m going to assume you mean what I did as opposed to his reaction,” Juno casually replied. “People fall in so many places around this issue. There are folks who want to be childfree forever, never raising a kid in their lives, not even a teenager.
“I just didn’t want to have kids, ie, bring more lives into this already-shitty world,” she explained while searching for other files, oblivious to Felipe’s gazing at her face.
“We’d agreed to foster to adopt older children out of the system, but I guess the need to pass on his genes was just too strong. I have no idea why since he was already complaining about losing his hair.” Felipe snorted without meaning to, then got up again to check on Nico.
Still the smart-ass do-gooder, he admired, looking back from the kitchen door. She hasn’t changed at all.
After Felipe put Nico to bed, they worked uninterrupted and talked about how to adjust Juno’s original story to incorporate dialogue and physical action in the screenplay. When they had finished jotting down a skeleton outline, Jakub popped his head into the room.
“Family meal, boss,” he said, barely breaking his stride toward the back door. “Juno, bring your hoodie, it’s already a bit breezy.”
“One of the guys used to help cook large meals at his temple growing up,” Felipe said as he led Juno toward the back field. “He wraps up working outside around two in the afternoon each day, then does this every evening.” Felipe opened the back door to a solid oak picnic table large enough for 20 people, set up with a variety of dishes beneath a canopy.
“Oh my gosh,” Juno breathed as she took in the incredible spread.
“We’ll have to take it indoors tomorrow, boss,” a South Asian man in his 20s said to Felipe. “It’s gonna cool off in a hurry.” Felipe nodded.
“Yup, summer’s over, Ritesh,” he agreed. “We’ll set up the dining room tomorrow.”
Juno
As Juno looked around the table at the smiling men who were relishing their meal, she wished she’d had this information to include in the magazine feature she’d submitted to Lucy. She was amused at seeing her host heap more food on his plate for the third time. Ritesh had noticed too.
“Haven’t you been in the maintenance phase for like, eight years now?” the young man asked, referring to his boss’s workout and nutrition regiment. “If I’d known you were going to pack it away like you were bulking up, I’d have cooked more.”
“You always make too much anyway,” Carter countered. “I hate myself, man, but I can’t help it right now. I’ve had headaches all day and I’m starving all the time. Just be glad I haven’t picked a fight with any of you.”
A collective laugh rose from the table and that’s when Juno spotted it–the nicotine patch on Carter’s arm. Oh, fuck me, she inwardly swore as she realized why he smelled like cologne today instead of cigarette smoke.
She knew it was silly to lament the fact he was quitting smoking, but she really did not want to fangirl all over this guy and he was making it increasingly difficult. The team cleaned up together and Carter’s staff started to leave the farm one by one. Just as Jakub was getting the truck ready to drop Juno off on his way home, she was startled to feel Carter grab her forearm from behind.
“I have one more favour to ask you,” he said to her on his front porch, his voice low. “If you don’t want to, it’s fine.”
Yes, I will sleep with you for a million dollars, she thought. Or free. Free’s good.
“You were assigned to interview me to promote my movie, End Code. Well, the Toronto premier is in two weeks and I’d like you to come with me. These events are kind of boring and you always manage to liven things up.”
Close enough, Juno considered.
Jakub obviously didn’t pick her up two Fridays later to work on the screenplay, but she was looking out her apartment’s front window every 30 seconds expecting Carter’s limo.
Pages:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16