Page 53 of Just for December

‘No,’ Marnie says. ‘Financially, we just can’t do that. The investors are insistent. But, so close to Christmas, right now, finding somebody else …’

‘We’ll do it,’ says Daphne. Duke looks at her. She doesn’t meet his eye. ‘We’ll self-direct.’

Marnie nods. ‘I was going to suggest as much.’

‘We’ll do it,’ Daphne reiterates. ‘Won’t we, Duke?’

Before Duke can answer – direct? A movie? Between them? – Marnie interjects.

‘I need to make something very clear though,’ she says. ‘We can’t credit you. We can work something out – a first-look pass for future roles, a development deal or something. Daphne, I know you’re interested in producing too, so maybe there’s something we can do there. But for the good of the movie – the press, all of that – this needs to be you scratching our backs for now, and later we’ll scratch yours.’

Daphne nods. ‘Butyou’dknow what we did, wouldn’t you?’ she clarifies.

‘And I wouldn’t forget it in a hurry,’ Marnie replies. ‘I can assure you.’

‘Duke?’ Daphne asks.

Duke nods, slightly.

‘Is that a yes?’ Marnie asks.

Duke nods again, clearer this time. Daphne gasps.

‘Yes,’ Duke says. ‘But we’re not doing a thing until we’ve got what you’ve just said in writing. Daphne gets a credited directorial debut, somehow, and I get a first-look pass or development deal.’

‘I’ll get legal on it now,’ Marnie says. ‘Hold that thought …’

She leaves, and for a moment Daphne and Duke simply stare at each other. Eventually Duke says, ‘Crikey.’

And then they burst out laughing.

27

Duke

Duke and Daphne don’t pause for breath until breakfast, working through the night. They’ve got some catching up to do, and so, despite the fact Duke is desperate to be alone with Evie again, now is not the time.

‘I’ve never felt this alive in my life,’ Daphne says, leaning back from Duke’s MacBook Pro. ‘My blood is pumping faster, I swear. I’m like, energised by being energised. Does that make sense?’

Duke laughs, because he knows exactly what she means. They’ve been looking over the rough edits that have already been done to the internal scenes, figuring out what’s left to shoot and how to do it, agreeing on some rules and boundaries for working together. There’s three more locations left – Pfaffenwinkel, Schwangau, and Füssen, all happening in very quick succession – and so they need tobe razor-sharp and clear as day with their intentions and scheduling.

‘I’m not worried,’ Duke says. ‘I think we’re going to be totally fine. Like, this is going to be fun. It’s an amazing opportunity.’

‘I’ll say,’ Daphne hoots, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She lifts up an arm and smells her pit. ‘Urgh,’ she says. ‘Okay. I’m going to go shower. Meet in my trailer in an hour?’

‘Done and done,’ Duke says. ‘And, Daphne? Well done.’

‘You too,’ she says, smiling, and when she’s gone Duke considers calling down to Evie’s room, but it’s still early and he doesn’t want to wake her. It’s the first time he’s thought of anything other than the movie all night. And this needs his focus: he can’t blow it. Not for his sake, nor for Daphne’s. Between the directing, now, which will carry on into the new year with post-production, even after they’ve done filming, with edits and sound engineering and everything it entails, and then his mother, who is still here …

Ah.

She texted him, and he hasn’t replied.

He doesn’t know what he wants to say. Evie gave clever, sound advice, but he knows that to explain everything he wants to explain to his mum, he needs emotional bandwidth – not to get all ‘therapy speak’. But he’s going to cry, at the end of the day, because that’s what he does. He’s a crier. And then he’s going to have to pick a coping mechanism, and since working with Phoebe he’s been able to manage his undereating and overexercising, and luckily precisely because of his mother he’s seldom had more than two drinks a night and doesn’t ever do drugs.

After a shower and a change of clothes, Duke calls his mother at her hotel.

‘Mum,’ he says, when she answers. ‘I’m so sorry. I’ve been working all night. I didn’t mean to leave you hanging.’

---