Page 84 of One Night With You

JP does an enthusiastic thumbs up once he’s gone again, signalling his enthusiasm about what he’s just revealed, and I stifle a laugh. It’s nice to see him as his old self. It’s comforting to know that for both of us, life will go on.

The module Harry and I were asked to assist with is an undergraduate module calledIntro to Documentary Film-making.There’s a small payment involved, but more than that it proves that the head of department really does believe in our potential and our value. It’s an honour to be asked. We don’t have to do too much – sit in on the class, be available for three office hours a week to help out anyone who has questions or needs guidance on what’s been asked, and at Easter we’ll have to mark some essays that make up fifty per cent of their grade. There’s a set syllabus to go off, with notes from previous graduate students who’ve done it before us, and so it’s really less about what information we deliver and more about how we do it – namely, with enthusiasm and kindness, was Janet’s instruction.

‘That was pretty cool, wasn’t it?’ Harry says afterwards, as we watch the hundred or so students file out of the seminar hall and the lecturer thanks us and says she’ll see us next week.

‘Yeah,’ I say. ‘It’s bonus learning, too – I didn’t know that stuff about late-nineteenth-century film and cinema inspiring a new diversity of writing.’

‘My favourite geek.’ Harry smiles.

‘Always and forever.’ I smile back. ‘So …’ I say, glancing at the lecture hall clock. ‘It’s half five. Should we do the student union and have this chat over a drink, or risk a coffee and sit in the atrium?’

‘Atrium,’ Harry says. ‘I want your head clear.’

It takes thirty seconds after we sit down with our decaf lattes to understand why.

‘That’s me,’ I say. ‘That’s footage of me,’ I say, looking at his laptop where he’s pulled up two months’ worth of rough footage. ‘There’s so much footage of me,’ I add, using myright hand to move the mouse to check what I’m saying is right, ‘that you’ve given me my own folder.’

‘Correct,’ Harry says. ‘And I’m telling you: this is the solution.’

‘I mean …’ I start. ‘I could act like I need some big persuasion, but honestly, whatever makes the doc sing. I’ll do whatever it takes.’

‘Okay great,’ Harry says. ‘You feeling up to being on camera now? For a formal sit-down?’

‘Now?’

‘You look great, before you start.’

‘I mean, okay. Let’s do this before I change my mind then.’

‘Superb news. I’ve booked a filming room, just in case.’

We film for about an hour, on and off, with Harry turning the tables to ask me questions, with me just off centre of the shot, looking at him left of the middle like we had JP do too.

‘And so that’s the long and short of it,’ I say, wrapping up a summary of my own love life. ‘I got out of a really crappy non-relationship with a man I never should have been with in the first place and decided to take myself seriously. I had a one-night stand who I kept bumping into, and it was JP who taught me that no matter how much I think I need to protect my heart, what I actually need to do is play faster and looser with it. Almost like building up heart loving strength. If we act like our love, and our attention, is some rare, must-be-hard-won thing that’s finite, we end up more miserable than if we just take a chance and give it away freely. I did that. But then his situation has changed with the baby. It’s okay. I’m okay. Well, I mean … I will be. I kind of get a kick out of JP being proud of me for it too.Almost Doesn’t Count? I don’t know. I think it all counts. I’m learning all the time.’

‘Okay, cut,’ Harry says, when I’ve finished.

‘Have you ever seenWhen Harry Met Sally?’ I ask. As I’ve been talking, I’ve formulated my own idea about what could really make the documentary perfect. Harry issues me with a look. ‘Okay, yes, of course you have. My apologies,’ I say. ‘Your film education is spotless.’ Harry nods, but doesn’t interrupt me. He’s all action, now – he’s excited about how we’re wrapping up JP’s story in a comment about my own love life, but I want to go one better.

‘You know how they intersperse the story with snippets of other people’s love stories? Maybe we need something like that.’ Harry narrows his eyes. ‘Or other people’s reservations about love?’ I add. ‘That gives what we’re trying to do context. Get a bunch of talking heads. People could even send little videos of themselves through Instagram – don’t forget we have that ready-built audience of people invested in what we’re doing – or they could send in their stories written and we can put them on screen or voice-over. That might be easier in terms of how much time we have left. But if we set the narrative arc up as: so many of us guard our hearts thinking it will stop us from getting hurt. Enter, me, whose wider story we can tell if you really think it’s interesting enough, which … well … Let’s see how that shakes out in an edit. We’re getting down to the wire now. Juxtapose my reticence to let Nic into my life – or anybody for that matter because now I’m saying all this, I have to ask myself why I chose to fall in love with a man with a girlfriend? Did I pick Abe precisely because I wouldn’t have to open myself up to him? Oh my God.’ My words are crashing into each other now. ‘This is like therapy! Shit! Okay. Where was I?’

‘Juxtaposition.’

‘Okay, right, yes, so a bunch of people saying they guardtheir heart, me exploring guarding my heart and how my thoughts on that change as I meet JP. We show JP’s journey: telling us about Amelie, the search for her, and the heart-breaking dénouement of what happened in Paris. Then the footage of me and JP chatting about life, love, the meaning of it, something uplifting about JP choosing to live his life as open as ever, despite being robbed of the one thing he’s wanted for almost his whole life …’

‘And bam, by homing in on the smaller stories of you both, we speak to a wider, more universal audience, exactly as we hoped, like this is crazy how it’s all come together, imploring them, through our powerful, authentic, uplifting documentary …’ Harry says.

‘To be brave in love themselves. Humans are supposed to get battered and bloody and bruised in their pursuit of happiness,’ I say. ‘End scene.’

‘I think that’s it,’ Harry says. ‘We’ve got everything we need. We don’t need to film anything else.’

36

Nic

‘Right,’ says Jackson. ‘Follow my instructions to a tee, all right? There’s an art to this.’

‘Yes, boss,’ I say, deseeding the pile of peppers he’s given me as he sweats onion in a pan to make his self-proclaimed ‘famous chilli’.

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