Page 31 of Now or Never

Chelsea laughed. “Hopefully. Maybe,” she said, then felt her smile falter. “One day.”

An awkward moment of silence passed. “You want to direct, right?”

Chelsea nodded.

“You know what? So did I.”

Chelsea’s brows rose. “Really? But you’ve been the best cinematographer in the business for, like, thirtysomething years.”

Vincent nodded, gave a half smile. “A teacher found that talent in me and encouraged me to pursue it. After a while, I became known as a solid DP, and now . . .” He paused, shook his head, looking in the distance. “I can’t believe how fast the years went.”

Chelsea shrugged. “I’d be happy with a fraction of your success.”

“Mm, that’s what you say now because you’ve hadnosuccess. But you should be careful about settling. I think you have the right manner to direct.”

Chelsea’s smile wavered. “My friend Jae and I, we’ve written and directed three shorts since film school. I really did love it.”

“They any good?”

Chelsea nodded. “Yeah, but they haven’t been very successful. You might like them, though. We followed all the advice we could find from you.”

Vincent let out a laugh. “Good idea,” he said with a smile. “So, is that why you abandoned your plan? Because your shorts flopped?”

Chelsea shrugged. “Not entirely. I have Ben and the house to pay for,” she said. “Sometimes there are too many demands to follow dreams. We wrote a few features. One that’s pretty good, but we’re going to see if my agent can sell it.”

“It’s going to be tough to sell a screenplay that’s only ‘pretty good.’”

Chelsea smiled. “Actually, I was being modest. It’s really great. It’s a dark romantic comedy about two coworkers who are secretly plotting to kill each other, and they fall in love.”

Vincent’s eyebrows rose at Chelsea’s carefully crafted logline, just as she’d hoped they would.

“Can I read it?”

Chelsea’s mouth fell open. “Youwant to readmyscreenplay?”

Vincent nodded.

“You’re serious?”

Vincent laughed. “Yeah. I know some people. If it’s good, I’ll pass it along.”

Chelsea stood in stunned silence for at least five Mississippis before words came. “O-of course you can read it. I’d love that!” she said with way too much enthusiasm but not really caring. “I’ll go get it right now!”

“If you’ve got your shorts handy, I’ll look at them, too. See how well my advice does in real life.”

A sound of disbelieving delight escaped Chelsea. “I’ll be right back,” she said, turning abruptly to run home. She took a single leap forward and ran into a hard wall. When she looked up, her eyes connected with Jasper’s.

His hands glided up her arms and rested on her shoulders to steady her. “Everything okay, Chelly?” he asked.

The feel of his hands, and the sound of her old nickname, had her grimacing and shaking him off.

He fisted his hands and narrowed his eyes.

“You need help with something, Jasper?” Vincent asked.

Jasper reached a hand up and raked his fingers through his thick, brown hair. A flood of memories hit Chelsea. How many times had she seen him do that exact move when he was frustrated? Too many to count. Every once in a while, she would catch Ben doing the same thing.

“Yeah, I do,” he said with enough force to grab Chelsea’s attention. “I can’t stand those hillbillies over there blaring their redneck music.”

---