Page 50 of Sing For Me

“What did Jacques do?” I asked, grimacing, even as I felt the laughter bubbling up my chest picturing how it went down.

“He told her to quote ‘thank his Parisian ass’ for allowing her to stay on the show until episode two.”

I bite my cheek.

“She said thank you, of course.”

This time, I laugh, hard.

“Jacques lost it of course,” Reese says. I can hear her trying to keep it together. “But Eli, hang on, calm down.”

I catch my breath.

“They’re going to do her exit interview in a few minutes and…well, she’s asking for you.”

I sober. “She’s what?”

“She said please can I speak with Mr. Eli Dunham.”

“Why?”

“Why do you think?”

I run my hand over my face. She wants to thank me. “No.”

“I guess she got wind that the show is here because of you.”

“Christ.”

“Yeah she thanked Him, too.”

I crack up again. I can’t keep it down. “God, poor Cindy.”

“Okay, so…can you come down please?”

The last thing I want to do is come down and be awkwardly thanked by Cindy. But going down there means I get to see Reese. And I haven’t seen her in days. I feel like a fucking dying man without her. “I’ll be right there.”

It’s only when I get downstairs and I’m immediately accosted by a pretty, bubbly woman wearing hairspray on a holster that I realize I might have wanted to stick with the spreadsheet. “Sit down,” she says in a more commanding voice than I would have expected from her.

“What? No, I’m just here to talk to someone.”

“Yeah, and I’m here to make you look good doing it.”

“Sit down, Mr. Kelly,” Nancy the director says, breezing by and not even looking my way.

It’s then that it dawns on me. Cindy doesn’t just want to thank me. She wants to do it on air.

“It’s Dunham,” I say. “Do I have any say in this?”

“Nope,” Nancy says, her back already to me.

I know I do, I’m the fucking boss. But then I spot Reese, standing at the prep table next to Rufus, her eyes on me, dancing with a smile.

God she looks fucking beautiful.

I sit down, helpless.

The makeup person smiles and snaps her gum. “Turn this way.”

---