Page 76 of The Love Rematch
“Six-two,” he mutters.
“And would you say the two of you have similar builds?”
“I guess.”
He shifts his weight, glancing to where Trish and Fred are still whispering quietly, pointing at various parts of the ravine. The camera angles, he can’t help but notice, are all zoomed out, distance shots. Nothing close up.
“But he has black hair,” Jake says, all too aware where this is leading.
Nina slaps him on the back. “And we have makeup artists.”
“You want me to jump?” he finally blurts, cutting to the chase. “What happened? Did he chicken out? Why not use it? I’ve never known you to shy away from a good story.”
“It is a good story,” Trish intercedes, “but it’s not the story we need.”
“What—”
Nina cuts him off. “Ethan won’t jump because of his nose. You’re the one who broke his nose. So, you’re jumping. This way he can save face with the viewers, and we can hold up our end of the so-called bargain helping him get to the finals.”
“And Emily?” Jake asks, fighting for one last chance.
“Mad at us for even bringing Ethan on this date. She said we were being irresponsible and reckless. She’s in deep, I guess. Which is good for us, but bad for you, because she already agreed to the swap.”
His thoughts jump back to his hotel room the day before, to Emily’s promise.I’ll keep him.
He sneers.
She’s doing this for him, not for Ethan, as if his job is some wonderful thing worth saving and not the epitome of manipulative Hollywood bullshit. He almost wishes he did get fired to save them both the trouble, but when Nick heard about his antics he laughed and actually offered a pay raise. The network execs shot that down pretty quickly, giving Jake a stern warning. All in all, the meeting in Trish’s room lasted no more than half an hour. Then they returned to set to finish filming the puzzle ceremony. Off camera, Ethan fawned over Emily and she forgave him. On camera, she gave a speech denouncing Frank’s actions and explaining that violence was never, ever the answer. No one else went home. Then television glamor took over as champagne magically appeared and they toasted to the new adventures waiting in Italy. It was all smiles and laughter and cheer. The fight was forgotten—for everyone except Jake.
It took everything he had to make it through the night.
Then he retreated to his room. But instead of a reprieve, Emily was right there with him. The muffled thump of her footsteps filtered through the thin wall, as did the musical sound of her laughter. Her words from earlier replayed torturously in his mind.
I know you, Jake. And you’re not him.
You’re a good person.
You were ready to drop everything for me.
He was. God, she didn’t even know how ready. Seven years later, he still had the file on his computer, titledEmily. It was full of all the movie clips he made that year. Shots of her. Shots of them. Mock interviews. Goofing around. The happiest ten months of his life were documented as if in mockery of what his world then became. And then there was the short film he still couldn’t bring himself to open after all these years. He’d finished it that night before crawling into Emily’s room. He was going to play it for her before getting down on one knee, with a Ring Pop in his pocket and a thousand promises in his heart.
She had no idea how ready he was to drop everything for her, how much he wanted to, how lucky he felt that her world was falling apart so he could selfishly keep her.
Then she told him the news.
And everything changed.
Jake wanted to believe what Emily said yesterday in his room. He wanted to believe it with everything in him. But he couldn’t. And then she put the final nail in the coffin.
He knew you weren’t your father, Jake. He trusted you.
And look what I did, Jake thinks again, his answer still the same as it was twenty-four hours before.Look what I did with that trust.
Almost the exact thing his father had, as if he were the man reincarnated.
“You afraid of heights, Jake?” Nina asks, bringing him back to the production tent, and the bridge, and the unavoidable present.
“No.”
