Page 75 of At the Heart of It
“Sam, why don’t you tell Elena how you feel?”
Kate watched as Vivienne clasped her hands together atop her thighs and looked back and forth between the husband and wife who’d agreed to broadcast their marital woes on national television.
The husband cleared his throat and looked down at his feet. “When you nag me like that, you make me feel?—”
“Sam, remember what we talked about,” Viv interrupted gently. “No one makes you feel something. Using judgment words is only going to start the spiral of defensiveness.”
“Trust me on this, man,” Jonah added, crossing his arms over a green flannel shirt that brought out the color in his eyes. Not that Kate noticed.
“That shit goes on for a long damn time,” Jonah continued. “And you’ve got better things to do. Like watching reruns of The Man Show on YouTube.”
Vivienne nodded sagely. “What Jonah is saying is that you need to let her know how you feel, but do that independent of any judgment of her actions.”
“What Jonah is saying,” Jonah interjected with a look of irritation at his ex-wife, “is that criticizing, blaming, or processing someone else’s actions through your own fucked-up filter is a surefire ticket to heartache. Is that what you want?”
Sam frowned. “But she’s wrong about?—”
“Buddy.” Jonah shook his head, and the compassion in his eyes made Kate’s chest ache. “You can be right or you can be married. What’s it gonna be?”
Next to Sam, Elena sat with tears shimmering in her eyes. From across the room, Kate thought she saw a glint of emotion in Viv’s eyes, too. Kate signaled Pete to zoom in, wanting that shot. This was so important. For viewers to see how much the doctor really cared, to know these couples weren’t just names on a chart to her.
“I know you’re hurting.” Viv reached out and took one of Sam’s hands in her own. “And you have a right to your feelings. You and Elena have both done things to wound each other, whether you did it on purpose or not. But wouldn’t it feel good right now to stop fighting? To put down your sword and build a bridge instead?”
Perfect, Kate thought. Insert a dramatic pause, maybe a close-up of Elena’s face, then of Sam’s, then cut to a commercial before we?—
A movement in the corner of her eye caught Kate’s attention, and she glanced at the doorway to see Amy waving to her. She cast a quick look at the center of the room, where Viv was putting an arm around Elena and offering her a tissue. Jonah had his head bent low, talking close with Sam in a low tone she knew would be picked up by the gazillion mics they’d placed all over the room.
They had things covered. She’d see later how this ended.
Kate tiptoed out of the room and met Amy in the hallway. She pulled the door closed behind her.
“Is everything okay?” she whispered.
“Yeah,” Amy said. “I just talked with Chase. He reviewed our mock-ups of the promotional videos and went nuts. I wanted to give you some notes about a couple tweaks at the midpoint, but that’s not the most important thing.”
“What’s the most important thing?”
“He said this is almost certainly in the bag for us. Like unless one of the cast members dies or something, we’ve got it nailed.”
“That’s amazing!” Kate’s heart did a tap-dance on her ribs, and this time it had nothing to do with Jonah.
Reading her thoughts, Amy glanced back toward the door. “You doing okay in there?”
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine. The couple is endearing, Vivienne is intelligent and compassionate, and Jonah is?—”
She stopped, fumbling for an adjective that sounded professional and indifferent instead of like the words of a woman who’d spent the whole day remembering how his mouth moved over her breasts.
“You think you’ve got it bad for Jonah,” Amy muttered. “I swear Chase has a big, fat man crush on him.”
“How do you mean?”
“Chase won’t stop congratulating himself over coming up with the idea to pull Jonah into the show. He’s seriously going to dislocate his shoulder with all the time he spends patting himself on the back.”
“I’m glad he’s pleased with the decision.”
Amy looked at her for a few beats, then leaned closer. “I wasn’t asking you about Jonah as he relates to the show,” Amy added. “I just wondered how you’re doing. If you’re feeling weird about things.”
“I’m a professional,” Kate said. “I’m here to do a job, and it doesn’t matter if?—”
