Page 60 of Jason
“This isn’t just about you, Mallory.You cannot understand the pressure I’m under.How much I have riding on this.My investors are myfamily, and they are threatening to pull out if I can’t produce a quality project.I have worked just as hard as you to get where I am, and I can’t afford to lose the confidence of the studio by installing someone brand-new into the director’s chair.You have to be reasonable about this.”
“You don’t think I can make quality,” she said quietly.
“Of course I do,” he said gruffly.“It’s not that.It’s a matter of moving quickly with the best people—”
“You don’t think I’m the best people,” she said.
“I think you are the best people, Mallory.But I don’t know if you are the best director.You’ve done a couple of short films and directed three exterior scenes at a hospital.That’s not a lot to go on.Please try and understand.”
She looked up and pinned him with a look.“Actually, I think I understand really well.”Her eyes were shining with tears.“I think I’ve always understood, but I was so stupid that I…I…” She dropped her head again.
“You what?”
“Fell in love with you.”Her shoulders slumped.“I am such an idiot.”
“No.No you’re not.Jesus Christ woman, can’t you see that I love you, too?”he asked, struggling to his feet.“I can’t do anything without you.”
“Right.You need someone to find your phone and help you out of bed when you throw your back out, and oh, fly to Maine at the drop of a hat and do what Cass was supposed to do for a fraction of the cost, and what else, Jason?What else can you not do without me?”
Her words were daggers.He felt slightly nauseous with the hint of truth in it, but it was more than that.He loved her.They were cut from the same cloth.“That’s not fair.”
Mallory shrugged.She walked to the door and opened it.“I think you should go to your room.”
“Mallory, let’s talk about this.”
She wouldn’t look at him.“Please,” she said.
Jason walked to the door.He paused there and looked down at her.She was clearly fighting to maintain her composure.But when she lifted her head, she looked him square in the eye and said, “Consider this my two week notice.”
Jason was gutted.It was the death knell to him, to his show, to his life.“Don’t do this.”
“I’m doing what I should have done a long time ago.I am never going to be anything but coffee girl if I don’t stand up for myself and take the opportunities where I can get them.I’ll finish the hospital scenes tomorrow and get you some directors, but then I’m leaving, Jason.”She pulled the door open wider.
Everything was falling down around his head and screaming into the pain in his back.Jason could not remember feeling so incredibly frustrated as he did now, and did something he’d never done in his life—he took a swing at the wall.It served nothing other than to make the pain in his back almost send him to his knees.He gasped, put his hand on the doorjamb to keep from sliding to the floor.
Mallory didn’t ask him if he was all right.She said, “You ought to be more careful,” and folded her arms over her middle.
Through gritted teeth, Jason said, “I can’t fight you right now, Mallory.As much as I want to duke this out with you, I can’t.But we’re not done.”He hobbled out.The sound of her door closing behind him reverberated through his entire body.
Chapter Eighteen
Mallory emailedKelly at Morning Moonlight Films from the last private plane trip she would ever take.She couldn’t believe how many she’d taken—she was singlehandedly destroying the environment.
She received an almost-instant email response:FANTASTIC.Please come in Monday to discuss.
When Mallory dragged her bag in through the door of her apartment, Inez was lounging on the couch, in the middle of aReal Housewives of New Yorkmarathon.She sat up, surprised to see Mallory.“I thought you were going to be gone a few more days.What’s up?Wait, I know—you came to get evening wear.”She laughed.
Mallory dropped her backpack and covered her face with her hands.
“Hey!”Inez leaped from the couch, put her arms around Mallory and dragged her to the couch to sit.“What’s the matter?What happened?Wait.Let me get a couple of beers.”
Mallory hardly drank her beer at all while Inez drank two, listening with rapt attention to everything that had happened in Maine, up until the moment she’d stepped foot on the private plane.“You were right, Inez.You were so right.Again.”
“Oh Mallory.You didn’t do his laundry did you?”she asked.
“Sort of.”
Inez nodded thoughtfully.
