Page 42 of Love's a Script
Ruben gave her a sidelong glance and smiled. “You mean after my matchmaker abandoned me? Great.”
“I didn’t abandon?—”
“Hey, I don’t blame you. I get it, I would’ve been too big of a distraction.”
With his flippancy and charm, Ruben did what Mary had failed to do in the past weeks. All at once, the kiss was one silly joke. Nothing to hand-wring over and definitely nothing to feel embarrassed about.
“Oh, please,” she said, adopting his casual tone. “In that case, I did you a favor as well.”
“Yeah?” he asked.
“Yes, you were right there with me. You enjoyed that kiss.”
“So by sacking me as a client, you were sparing me…”
She hesitated with a brazen reply on the tip of her tongue, and it might’ve stayed there if it weren’t for the growing smile on Ruben’s face. “I spared you hours upon hours lost to lustful thought,” she said.
The sound of Ruben’s laughter diffused in the open air. “Shall I build an altar and thank you for every productive day since?” he asked.
“Yes. I take offerings of gold and flowers.”
They’d drawn closer at some point, and in the sunlight, she could see the various browns that made up his beautiful eyes. She thought they’d kiss. She hoped they’d kiss. All the reasons not to were irrelevant. And just as she thought she’d get her wish, Ruben took a step away from her.
“I’ll talk to you later, Mary.”
He was already walking toward his car when she processed his words and called out, “There’s no reason for us to see each other later.”
“Then I guess this is goodbye forever,” he said, turning back briefly to smile at her.
Despite the cold, Mary’s face felt hot.
Chapter Twenty-Three
File no. 09 – Interview with Ellen Calhoun, founder of Laugh Out Loud Acting Troupe
[Hearty, growing laugher]
ELLEN CALHOUN: Don’t you feel better?
RUBEN BYERS: I suppose I do [laughs]. Is this what your students are chasing?
EC: Definitely. Laughter is the best medicine.
RB: Have you had a therapist direct clients to your classes?
EC: I don’t know. But I know we see a lot of couples coming because they were looking for some levity in their relationships. Child-rearing, money, work, and family drama can put stress on a relationship. It makes sense that you search for a sort of release.
RB: So a spoonful of sugar makes life’s medicines go down.
EC: Precisely.
It was the middle of the week—the first back in the studio since the blizzard—and Ruben and Chesa were pulled away from their work for a quick meeting in the conference room with their production director.
“Where are you guys with the feature?” Hugh asked. He sat with his legs propped up on top of the conference table, tossing a glass paperweight between his hands.
“Interviews are ongoing,” Chesa said. “The narration script is starting to take shape, and we’re meeting with Novak next week to go through the sound DX collection.”
“Okay, perfect,” Hugh said, then turned to Ruben. “How about matchmaking? Catch me up.”
