Page 49 of Jason
They walked up together—very slowly, as Jason was having trouble—and when they got to the top, he said, “Six?”He gave her a ghost of a smile and hobbled down the hall, disappearing around a corner.
Mallory went into her room and sat on the bed.For a moment.She fell on her back and stared up at the plastered medallion ceiling, her thoughts all over the place.One minute, she was thinking of texting him to tell him she had to get back to L.A.The next minute she was wondering if she should call Morning Moonlight and decline.
She rolled over onto her stomach with a moan, found her phone, and called the casting agent to get Trent on board.
At six, she found Jason already in the lobby, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sneakers, with a light jacket.He smiled when he saw her, the light filling his hazel eyes.She had a fleeting thought how lovely it would be to see that smile every day of her life.“How are you?”
“Much better.Nothing a few ibuprofen and an ice pack won’t fix.It’s just a muscle pull.Come on, you’re going to love this place.”
It turns out that he wasn’t kidding about the dive part of that.The place looked so seedy that Mallory was almost afraid to go in.“It’s fine,” he said, reading her expression, and with his hand firmly on the small of her back, he ushered her inside.
“Hey, Jason!I didn’t expect to see you again so soon!”A heavyset woman with a large beehive of hair on top of her head, from which a pencil protruded, grabbed Jason’s arm and yanked him forward for a kiss to his cheek.Mallory heard his hiss of pain.
“Hello to you, too, Lorene,” he said.“I was telling Mallory here that you can’t get better lobster anywhere in Maine.”
“Of course not.I know how to pick them.Take a seat and we’ll get you hooked up.The works?”
“The works.”
She handed them both a bib, and Jason pointed to a table next to four men who looked as if they’d just come in from the water.
They ordered gin and tonics—Jason’s idea—and some hush puppies—Mallory’s idea—while they waited.Mallory reported the casting agency would have an answer for them tonight.Nick Tarelli had been out to the warehouse and said it was doable.They discussed the cove and whether or not they should try and secure it, but Mallory made some good points about what the costs were going to be trying to move equipment and people in boats.
Their discussion turned to Cass, and in spite of themselves, they were giggling at his performance earlier in the day.“Why might YOU be here?”Mallory said, mimicking his style of delivery.
“It is the quarry or nothing at all!”Jason declared with a dramatic finger jab in the air.He laughed.Then sobered.“I would love to know where he swanned of to.”
“Did you call him?”Mallory asked.
Jason shook his head.“I’ll get hold of him tomorrow,” he said with a flick of his wrist.“He can’t have gone far.I have never known someone in this industry who could get their feelings so hurt so fast.”
Mallory agreed—Cass was a thin-skinned bully.Weren’t they all?
When the lobsters came, and Jason had tutored her in how to get one apart, Mallory finally found the courage to say what she didn’t want to say, but had to say.She’d been having too much fun.“I need to go back to L.A.tomorrow.”
Jason looked up from his lobster.He had the bib tucked up under his chin, almost like an Elizabethan collar.“So soon?”he asked as he dunked a piece of lobster meat into a small vat of butter.
“I don’t have enough clothes.And there is so much that has to be done at the office.”
Jason shifted slightly in his seat and grimaced.She wondered if it was his back or the fact that she was leaving.“Why don’t you stay two or three days—”
“You promised me, Jason.You said a couple of days.And you know what I am saying is right.We have so much going on.It’s not good that we are both out of the office.”
He sighed.He leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers against the table.“You’re right,” he said reluctantly.“I’ll get you a plane in the morning.”He was looking at her.Studying her.
“What?”
“You amaze me, Mallory.You know more than I do half the time.”
She smiled.“That’s my job.”
He sat up and leaned forward a little and pushed his plate away, smiling.“I remember the day you came to interview.Do you?”
“Of course I do.”
Jason grinned.“You sat on the edge of your seat.You had a binder.”
She grinned.“In case you wanted proof of my experience.”
