Love at the Electric

by Hughes, Jenn

  The camera pans back to Movie Sam, his haunted eyes filled with fear. Suddenly, a look of determination chases away any panic. He presses his lips together and gives a hero stare.

  “I’m through with dating! I love Lillian, and whether she wants me or not, I want her and no one else.”

  Movie Sam turns and flees down the corridor. The scene cuts to a back door leading out of the Origin offices and into the delivery and service area, a desolate place of concrete and pavement and a couple of rough-looking dumpsters filled with pieces of wood and empty cardboard boxes. Movie Sam bursts through the doorway, looks both ways, and then takes off running. But he suddenly skids to a stop.

  “Sam comes face to face with his past, a creeping nightmare of one-night stands and bad business decisions bent on revenge.”

  From around the corner of the building, a group of zombie women approaches—all three wearing T-shirts with the Origin logo on the front. Maria from Logistics lost an arm and only a bloody stump remains. Hazel from Marketing has a floppy bit of scalp dangling in front of her eyes. Naomi from Development has blood oozing from a massive wound on her neck.

  Sam had to hand it to Ravi. It all looked gruesomely good.

  The women gesture at him, clawing and swinging their arms wildly. Movie Sam backs up to the building. He fumbles around behind him, trying to find the door handle to retreat inside for safety. His fingers finally grasp it, but . . . it’s locked.

  “With nowhere to go, Sam prepares to meet his fate.”

  The women draw closer. Movie Sam turns his head, scrunching his eyes shut. A zombie arm reaches out for him, fingers wiggling. As they reach out for his neck, a flash of light appears. The arm drops to the ground, twitching and writhing and gushing red. Movie Sam opens his eyes and looks over to find Movie Lillian . . . played by Ravi Ganesh.

  Long, chestnut-colored wig blowing in the wind. Armed with a glowing blue plasma-blade as she prepares to rescue Movie Sam. Close-up on the plasma-blade, the Origin logo emblazoned on the gleaming silver hilt and a bloody, jerking arm in the background.

  God, that bothers me. A plasma-blade would have cauterized the wound. But Ravi likes his flowing blood . . .

  “Our heroine Lillian arrives to save the day.”

  Movie Lillian appearing on screen turned out to be a dramatic moment in more ways than one. Sam couldn’t help but laugh. And pray. He hoped Lillian wouldn’t be offended by her representation in the film, and held his breath.

  No woman fit the role. Sam admittedly made the casting process impossible by finding flaws with every woman they’d bribed into trying out. With no Lillian for their film, Sam and Ravi had made a difficult decision—no woman could play Lillian.

  After midnight and hyped up on energy drinks, they’d come up with a fantastic solution—they cast Ravi in the role of Lillian. Mainly because the plasma-blade belonged to him and he refused to let anyone else hold it. Sam agreed, looking at it from the standpoint of pure exhaustion mixed with desperation. The next day, they had a white T-shirt printed up with Lillian in bold black letters across the front. And Ravi chose the wig. He’d thought it really brought out his eyes.

  Suddenly, Sam heard Lillian laugh. Loud, beautiful, and a sound for sore ears, her laughter echoed through the auditorium. Sam gasped. He peeked through the window again to get another look at her and, from the light of the screen, saw her shaking with laughter, her hand covering her mouth. Thank God. He’d hit a home run in the comedy department.

  Sam returned to the projector to focus on the rest of the movie, sporting a grin so wide his face ached.

  Ravi-Lillian had, by that point, managed to remove a few more appendages from Movie Sam’s zombie exes. But as each arm or leg or finger falls to the ground, they simply crawl their way back to their owner and reattach themselves with ease. Ravi-Lillian steps closer to Sam, holding the plasma-blade in front of them as they prepare to accept their fate.

  “Sam and Lillian are trapped, but would rather die together than apart.”

  The zombies creep toward them again, but as they prepare to strike, Movie Sam holds up his hands and stops the battle. He steps between Ravi-Lillian and the attacking horde, prepared to surrender.

  “I deserve whatever you have in store for me, but let Lillian go. I love her, and she deserves the best, just like the three of you. I’m sorry I mistreated each of you. No matter what you do to me, I hope you find someone who loves you the way I love her.”

  A bright white flash fills the screen, followed by billowing smoke.

  A good portion of the budget went to dry ice and smoke machines.

  Through the haze, the zombies come back into view, but have been returned to their human selves. Plain T-shirts with no logo. Each woman smiles at Movie Sam and Ravi-Lillian.

  “We were trapped in zombie form by Sam’s cocky behavior, but Lillian’s love for him and his apology have set us free. Thank you, and we hope you both live happily ever after.”

  The three women walk away, leaving Movie Sam and Ravi-Lillian alone. As her long brown hair blows dramatically in the wind, Ravi-Lillian turns and smiles. Movie Sam drops to his knees.

  “Lillian, my heroine. Please forgive my past, as these women have done. I am salvageable and willing to do whatever it takes to make you happy. Please give me a chance . . . ”

  The scene fades to black, and a cheesy “Fin?” appears on the screen.

  Sam turned off the projector. He sprinted out of the room and then back down the stairs. But when he arrived at the auditorium doors, he came to a halt. He dragged his fingers through his hair. Fixed the collar of his shirt. Checked his breath. Then he pushed the door open and walked into the room—and almost straight into Lillian.

  She took a step back, and Sam saw her face in the low light bleeding in from the lobby. The strange look, a sort of pained expression verging on tears, tightened Sam’s heart like a tourniquet.

  “Don’t leave. Let me explain. Ravi wouldn’t let anyone else use the plasma-blade, and it was integral to my vision—”

  But Lillian didn’t let him finish. She walked over, reached up, and grabbed the back of his head. Then she brought his lips down to hers and kissed him. Deeply. He settled into the feeling with ease, pulling her closer and resting his hands on the small of her back.

  The kiss, slow and warm like coming home late on a cold night, had a hunger like their lives depended on it. And to Sam, his life certainly did.

  Lillian pulled back. Sam opened his eyes and stared at her, at the tears streaming down and the smile he planned to make a permanent fixture.

  “I love you,” she said, kissing him again. As their lips softly met she whispered, “You crazy, amazing man. I love you.”

  He pulled back, and then gently wiped away her tears. “I love you, too, Lillian. Only you. I thought you might never believe me.”

  “I know. I’m sorry I’m so . . . me. It’s my turn to explain. I have to . . . to debug this. And set more specific search parameters,” she said, wiping more tears from her cheeks.

  “Oh, boy. You’ve been talking to Ravi.”

  “Yes, but he made a lot of sense . . . Well, not really. But some of it stuck so, here goes.” Lillian took a deep breath. “I love you and I trust you and I want to be with you and I understand Origin is part of the package. But I do not want your company to dictate the terms of our relationship. I do not want you to be ashamed of who you are now or who you were in the past. And . . . I know there will be bumps in the road. They do not scare me. I will not run.”

  Sam took a second to let it all sink in, and then gave her a squeeze. “Do you know what you’re going to get with that kind of input?”

  “What?”

  “Exactly what you want.”

  She smiled that smile of hers, the infectious one he never tired of seeing. “I like
the sound of that. And you do believe me, don’t you? When I say I’ll stop looking for reasons to run?”

  He grinned back at her. “Of course. But if you find one, I’ll just buy another theater and make another crazy movie to convince you to stick with me.”

  Her eyes widened. “I wondered when I got here but . . . You bought The Electric?”

  “Yeah. In the interest of time, I gave the owner what he wanted, in cash, and closed on it this morning. This place is important, and maybe not only for us.” Sam looked around the room, at the old worn screen at the back of the auditorium and the dusty red velvet curtains lining the walls. “I think with a little spit and polish this place could shine again. So now I have a theater on my hands that’s in the red, hemorrhaging money, and could use the skills of someone who has great taste in movies and some business savvy . . . Interested?”

  “Are you asking me to run The Electric?” she asked, her eyebrow raised.

  Sam nodded. “Well, if you have time outside of being Ravi’s consulting lieutenant commander, yeah. And I guess you saw my recent worldwide dork debut, right?”

  “Oh, yes. On TV. Online. Even on the sides of a few city buses. But not by accident, I assume.”

  “I gave my LifeLink password to Preston, right after I apologized to him.”

  Her jaw dropped. “Seriously? Why did you apologize to him?”

  “Because of what you said about my using Origin as a weapon. You were right. I don’t want to waste all the amazing things we create and have access to by using them to fight a war against Preston Lavery. I let go of the past to have a future with you, and I want Port Bristol to be a part of this new beginning. I’m all for progress, but not at the expense of history. So it’s time you suit up and save the day, Hellion Walker.”

  “And what exactly is my superpower?” she said, laughing.

  “For starters, historic renovation. This place has so much potential, but it needs someone like you to whip it into shape. Someone good at knowing when to hold back and when to take a risk. Someone tenacious who can fend off all the developers looking to bulldoze this area and build mini-malls.”

  “But I would be working for you—”

  “No. With me. Anyway, I’d be a mostly silent partner. Let me screen a movie or two every once in a while, and I’m good. So, is it a deal?”

  Lillian smiled and kissed him again. “Absolutely. I was ready for a change in my life, and you’ve essentially turned it upside down. Thank you.” She shook her head and gave him a look like she’d woken up from a dream. “I cannot believe you made a movie for me!”

  “Yeah, well, it won’t win any awards, but it got your attention.”

  “It wins all my awards, and you already had my attention. And what happened to your phone? I tried calling earlier, but it wouldn’t go through. Ravi said you upgraded.”

  “Oh, right,” he sighed. “Got rid of my old number, and got a new one on the prototype Origin Eight. Leased the apartment on Charlotte Street to Ravi, who claims he’ll use it as a bachelor pad but it will most likely end up as action figure storage or cosplay headquarters. I’ve cleaned house. No more double life. I’m a brand new man. Your man.”

  “I like the sound of that,” she purred. Then she leaned in and whispered in his ear, “Now I want to get to know the new you more intimately.”

  “It’s nearly Christmas Eve. We’ll have all day and all night and all Christmas Day to get more intimately acquainted,” Sam said, kissing her again.

  But Lillian pulled away, then rubbed her forehead and frowned. “Uggghhhh . . . ”

  “What?”

  “I’m supposed to go to my parents’ house in Connecticut on Christmas Eve. Spend the night and then Christmas morning together. It’s tradition, and I’ve missed out on seeing them for far too long. As much as I’d prefer to spend the next several days in bed with you, I can’t cancel. It’s important.”

  Sam smiled. “No problem. Christmas with family sounds nearly as perfect as waking up to you on Christmas morning . . . So would they mind having an extra guest?”

  Jenn Hughes writes romance with a heavy dose of humor. A lifelong love of all things sci-fi, combined with her day job in marketing, IT, and graphic design, infuses her writing with tech-centric and geeky references.

  When not reading and writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and gardening at her home in North Carolina. You might also find her gaming, repairing computers and electronics, experimenting with mixed media art, or finishing furniture.