by Naomi Niles
“They look like it? Yeah, that’s because they are just a ball of energy. That’s it. I wish I could bottle what they had and sell it. I’d make a killing in the energy drink market. No question about it. But, I was thinking of taking them bowling or something later today. Are you down for that?”
“Yeah. Yeah, bowling is cool.” I looked to the right, hesitant to ask the question that was bubbling in my mind. I was afraid that he would say something I didn’t want to hear, but I was dying to know what happened. Ever since I saw the pictures she sent to his phone, I was worried about their initial interaction after that happened. “So, um, Tanya stopped by?”
“Yeah. She dropped the boys off almost two hours ago. Why?” I looked at him, hoping he would get the idea and I wouldn’t have to ask him about it. “Oh, that. Yeah,” he laughed. “Yeah, Tanya is just… I don’t know, she is weird. Sometimes, she hates me, and other times, she wants to jump my bones. What can I say? I’m irresistible.” I was unamused by his narcissism and his smile quickly faded when he saw my straight face. He cleared his throat, “So um, yeah, she did try something, but I shut it down.”
“Ezra!”
“What? She tried, but I told her no. I let her know that I was happy and in a committed relationship. I mean, times before, she would call me, and we would have sex, but things are different now. I’m in love with you, and I don’t want to do anything to mess that up. I can’t lose you, not for her or anybody else. So, I told her to leave, and she got upset and stormed out of the house. That’s all that happened.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah. I mean, we can call her if you want and you can hear her snap about it for yourself. I mean, she was upset! Cursed me out and everything, but it was worth it. I am happy with who I am with.”
He started to dial a number on his phone, but I put my hand on his and took his phone out of his hand. “No.” I pressed my lips against his. “There is no need to call her. I believe you. Thank you.” I kissed him again, but I quickly moved my lips away from his when I heard the pitter-patter of little feet running down the hallway.
“All right boys, get your shoes on. We are getting ready to go bowling.”
“Yeah!” they yelled together as the scurried to grab their shoes.
We arrived at the bowling alley 20 minutes away from Ezra’s home. He wanted to take the boys later in the evening so they could participate in the glow in the dark bowling at 7 pm. One of the pins glowed in the dark, and if somebody got a strike when one of the pins glowed, then they got little prizes to celebrate their victory. “All right boys,” Ezra said. “We are going to split up into two teams. Whoever wins gets ice cream, and the loser has to pay for it.”
“But Dad, I don’t have any money,” Tanner said as he slipped on his shoes.
“Well, that just means that whoever has money on your team has to buy it. Nolan? You and Tanner get to pick who you want on your team, OK?”
I tied my shoes, knowing that one of his boys would pick him first. To my surprise, Tanner chose me. My eyes widened as he said my name. Ezra looked at me and shrugged his shoulders with a smile on his face. “Oh,” I said, “all right. I wasn’t expecting that, but OK. Let’s kick some butt, Tanner.”
“Ooooh, Tanner, you’re going down! How dare you pick her over your old man?”
“That’s just it, Dad. You’re an old man. She looks younger than you, so I’m going with the younger person. That’s it.”
“Yeah, your father is almost 50, so you made a good choice with me.”
Tanner smiled as he picked up one of the bowling balls from the center. “Wait, Tanner,” Ezra said, approaching him from the side. “Let me show you how to hold that thing before you go throwing it down the lane.”
Nolan sat beside me, struggling to slide his foot into his shoe. He stood up and stomped his foot into the ground, but it still wouldn’t slide in. He hadn’t spoken much at all since we were introduced to each other and his big brother said he was shy, so I figured that he just needed a little time before he came around. “Do you need some help?” I asked softly. He ignored me and kept stomping his foot into the ground. I looked at Ezra as he held the bowling ball in his hand in front of the lane, showing Tanner how to bowl right. “Here,” I said, reaching down to Nolan’s foot, “let me help you, sweetie.”
He sat down and let me remove his shoe from his foot. I loosened his shoe strings, then held my thumb at the back of his shoe to help his heel slide into place better. “OK, now try it.” When he stood up, his foot easily slid into the shoe; then a wide smile jetted across his face. “You see? That wasn’t that bad, was it?” He shook his head no, then ran away from me to find a ball. Before he got too far, he came back to me. “Thank you,” he said bashfully before he turned and sprinted away to find a ball.
“What was that all about?” Ezra asked while he took a seat next to me.
“Nothing. That was just me stealing your other son away from you.”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t be surprised. I guess I’ve got a bunch of traitors on my hands. A bunch of small backstabbers! But, looking at you? I think I would have done the same thing if I were them. Hell, they might have a crush on you. I wouldn’t be surprised.” Just then, Nolan came back with his bowling ball. It was a small ball that would easily bounce off the bumpers that we had set up on our lane. “All right, is everybody ready? Let’s go, Nolan! We’ve got some ice cream to win!”
I sat back and watched Ezra’s interaction with his boys. The way they were drawn to him made me want to have kids of our own. I wanted to be around him and see how he built that kind of connection with his children. I could tell they loved their father and it hurt me to think that Tanya would want to come between that bond. Even though she said it was a joke, I still believed that she would make good on the threat if the opportunity came. “All right, Hannah, you’re up!”
Ezra called me to the lane. I grabbed my bowling ball and ordered him to step to the side. I threw the ball down the lane, and it ricocheted off each bumper until it made its way down the lane and knocked all of the pins onto the floor. “Strike! In yo face, Ezra!” I slapped hands with Tanner as he cheered for me.
“Those bumpers saved you, Hannah, and you know it!”
“So! A strike is a strike and um, I want sprinkles and caramel on mine. Thank you.”
It was only the first frame, but I was a shit talker when it came to competitions. As they bowled next frame, my phone rang. “Hello?”
“Hey, Hannah? It’s your agent. Listen, I need you to come to the office when you get a chance. It is urgent.”
The boys cheered in the background as I covered my ear to hear her better. “What is it about?”
“The movie. If you can come today, that’d be great, but if not, then Monday will work.”
“Um, OK. Monday. Monday it is.”
“All right. See you then.”
I hung up the phone as an uneasy feeling sank to the pit of my stomach. I didn’t know what the meeting was about, but I was scared that it was going to be bad news. Maybe I stopped performing to the expectations that were set, and they wanted to replace me? I didn’t have much time to think about it, because a few minutes later, Ezra called my name. “Hannah, you’re up! Try not to use the bumper this time. You’re a grown woman!”
“Well,” I said, standing up with sassiness, “if the bumpers are there, I am going to use the bumpers. Now, if you will excuse me, Tanner and I have some ice cream to win later on. Right, Tanner!”
“Yup!”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ezra
“Ezra. Babe. How’s life?”
Marc called me bright and early on Monday morning. The boys had just left my house yesterday, and I didn’t even allow Tanya into the house. I told Tanner and Nolan not to let their mother know about Hannah. I figured that I had to treat that situation delicately because Tanya was liable to fly off the deep end at a moment’s notice and I wasn’t ready to handle her theatrics just yet. �
��Marc? It’s fucking 7:30 am. I'm sleeping. What the hell do you want this early?”
“I know it is 7:30, but you’re the busy, big-time actor now, so I figured you’d be up working on your script or something of that nature.”
“My script was memorized months ago. What’s going on?”
“Well, hey, I’ve got some news. Shouldn’t be anything big, but I got a call from the director. Says that we need to have an urgent meeting with you today around 2 pm.”
I sat up in my bed. “Today? Shit, Marc, I couldn’t get an advance notice? I’ve already got shit planned for the day.”
“That is the nature of the beast, babe. You gotta stay flexible.”
“Bullshit, Marc. How long have you known about this meeting?”
He paused. “For about a few days now.”
“Goddamnit!”
“Hey, hey, calm down babe. The meeting should be no longer than 15, 20 minutes. In and out, you know? Just like you like it. In and out. I promise you that.” He put the phone down and yelled at someone in the background. “Hey, get the fuck off that, buddy! You’re going to break it!” He slid his mouth back to the phone and continued speaking as if he never stopped. “So, meet me at 85th and Boulevard at 2 pm.”
“85th? That’s not where your office is.”
“Yeah, I know. We are meeting somewhere else. I have to–” he yelled again, “Shit! You know what, I’ll do it! I’ll fucking do it myself!”
“Marc?”
“I’m sorry, babe, I’ve got to go. This mechanic is supposedly fixing my hoverboard, and he has no clue what the fuck he is doing. None! I will see you today at 2 pm. Don’t be late, Ezra, this is serious business.”
He hung up before I could ask him anything else about the meeting. I had plans to go work out with Jeff today and get our routine up and going again, but now, I was going to have to cancel. I wondered what the meeting could be about. Things seemed to be going well as far as I could see, so I didn’t know what to expect. I sent a good morning text to Hannah, thanking her again for the time she spent with my boys. Things got off to a shaky start between them, but once I saw Nolan open up to her, I knew she would be fine. Nolan was the hardest cookie to crack, and if he didn’t like you, there wasn’t a thing you could do to change his mind. He was a shy kid, and on top of that, he was very selective with whom he wanted to connect with.
She responded a few minutes later. “Good morning, handsome. I’ve been up for a while. I have a meeting today with my agent, and I am nervous about it. I couldn’t sleep one bit.”
“A meeting? My agent just called me a few minutes ago about a meeting that he was supposed to tell me about a few days ago. It is odd that we are both meeting about the movie today. Do you think it is bad?”
“I hope not. I thought things were going well. I’ve heard about times when production companies had to stop shooting the movie because of budget issues, but we just flew to New Zealand, so I don’t think that can be it.”
“I hope it’s not. I am looking forward to the release of this movie.”
“Yeah, me and about a thousand other people I told about it. It will be a complete embarrassment if the movie I was so excited to be in can’t even make it to the big screen. It would feel like everything I did was a waste.”
“Not completely. I mean, we did get to meet each other.”
“Yeah, that is something I can take away from it.”
“Yeah, but don’t jump to conclusions. We will find out what is going on soon enough.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’m going to get ready. I’ll see you later?”
“Of course.”
I put the phone on my desk and laid on my bed for a few more minutes. I knew Jeff was going to be pissed that I had to skip another workout day, but business is business and I had to take care of that first. I shut my eyes to get a little more rest, but the next time I opened them, it was 12:53 pm. “Shit!” I threw the covers off and quickly hopped into the shower. I didn’t want to be late for the meeting, so I had to hurry.
I arrived at the location with 10 minutes to spare. The large, red brick building had various suite numbers positioned on the windows. Fuck. He didn’t give me a suite number. Just as I pulled out my phone to call Marc, Hannah’s car drove up into a parking spot just to the left of mine. I squinted my eyes to make sure it was her, then I got out of the car and knocked on her passenger side window. She unlocked the door for me to climb inside. “Ezra? What are you doing here?”
I leaned in for a kiss. “This is where my agent told me that the meeting was. I had no idea you would be here, too.”
“This is my agent’s building. Suite 257, right there,” she pointed to the door right in front of her car.
“Well, I guess they wanted to meet with both of us.”
She exhaled. “God, I am so nervous. I know what you told me this morning, but I don’t know, I’m still nervous. I got a feeling they are going to say something bad. I don’t know what I will do if something happens to this movie. Months of filming, studying the script, and everything all gone down the drain.”
I grabbed hold of her hand to comfort her, “You don’t know what it is about. It could be a good thing. Maybe they are adding another character to the movie, and now, we have to reshoot some scenes. Maybe it is just some small housekeeping stuff like that.”
“I hope so, but then, they could’ve just told us that on the set. They wouldn’t have had to call a meeting for the both of us, you know? It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
“We will find out soon enough, but until then, let’s just wait and see what happens. No point in stressing over it, especially when we are just feet away from the news.”
“I hear you, Ezra. I hear you.”
She was worried, and I could tell that there was nothing I could say to get her to feel otherwise. Just then, another car drove into a parking spot in front of the building. I saw Marc in the driver’s seat as the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. Marc jumped out of the car as I looked at the time. It was 1:58 pm. I opened my door and yelled his name as he stopped and spun around. Suddenly, a smile flashed onto his face, “Ezra, babe! I was running late, and I figured you were already inside.”
I stepped out of the car, “Yeah, I would have been if you told me the suite number.”
“I did. I said 257.”
“No, you told me the location, not the suite number.”
“Ah, semantics,” he said with a smile as he stood in front of me. “Anywho, it is good to see you! New Zealand, huh? How was that?” He looked towards Hannah as she stepped out of the car. He removed his shades as she became the center of his attention for a second. “Wow, Hannah! Darling, you look simply ravishing! This celebrity movie life fits you well!”
“Hey, Marc,” she said, forcing a smile on her face as he leaned in for a hug. “Thank you for the compliment.”
“My pleasure! We, shall we go inside? I believe they are waiting and it has just turned 2 pm.”
Leonard sat inside the building with the two women I auditioned for, as well as one extra person that I hadn’t seen before. She looked to be Hannah’s agent, because when we got inside, Hannah went straight to her. “Hello, my movie stars!” Leonard said, greeting us both with the customary double kiss that I had become accustomed to. “Thank you for meeting with us here today. I supposed we could have discussed this on set, but I wanted you all to be the first we told about this. Have a seat, please.”
I took a seat next to Hannah as she nervously tapped her foot against the floor. The subtle thuds coincided with the anxious heartbeat inside my chest as we waited to hear the news. “So, we are right on schedule for everything, and you two are doing a fabulous job,” Leonard said, “but, we have hit a bit of a snag.” The air was immediately sucked out of the room, and for that moment, my heart seemed to stop beating inside my chest. “Budget. We’ve um, what’s the word?”
A woman to his right assisted him. “Hit a roadblock.”
He gla
red at her with pursed lips. “No, that wasn’t the word I wanted, but I’ll take it. It seems we have exhausted much of our funds for this movie and we are only halfway through the shoot. Now, I have proposed another budget to the company, but we are yet to hear back from them, so for right now, we have to put everything on hold. I know I told you guys to have a few days off when we got back from New Zealand, but that is the reason behind it. We spent far more money out there than we expected, so it put us in this position. We will pick up eventually, but right now, things are in limbo.”
I dropped my head. Hannah looked away from Leonard as if to hide the tears that were forming in her eyes. Leonard spoke up again, “No, no, no! We will not have any of that sadness here! This is simply a part of the business. Things like this happen more often than you think. What’s the big movie? Short Stop? Yeah, that budget was adjusted twice, and the film took much longer to record because of it, but it got done. The production companies will not hesitate to up the budget if they know the movie will be a success, and this movie here? This will be a success! So, don’t you worry about anything. Ezra? Hannah? I am sure this production will be up and running again soon.”
As the meeting continued, I faded his voice out of my mind. No matter what he said, it felt like things were coming to an end for my dream. It was funny how things that felt so close to me could seem so far, and right now, my dream was one of them.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Hannah
I buried my head in my pillow and cried out loud as soon as I got home. Ezra wanted to take me out to get a bite to eat after the meeting, but I didn’t want to go out anywhere. It felt like I was slipping into a state of depression, falling down a dark pit with no way to stop myself from hitting bottom. After all the hard work, I knew that this dream was coming to an end. I’ve heard of budgets getting cut before, and then the movie never gets produced. I felt like this was one of those situations. There was a knock at my bedroom door, but I didn’t respond.
