“No.” Natasha blew her nose. “My mother. Donna.”
“Tash—”
Her phone rang, cutting him off. She frowned at the screen. “Hold on. It’s my super.”
She picked up and held the phone to her ear.“Hola, Manny. ¿Qué tal?”
He said something, but it was so outrageous, she cut him off. “Esperate, Manny. No entiendo. Por favor, dímelo despacio.”
“Sí, señorita.”
She put the phone on speaker and set it on the dash.
“Su apartamento está listo. Debido a los problemas con la habitación, no tienes que pagar la renta por dos meses.”
“Gracías, Manny. Un momentito.”Natasha tapped the mute button and stared at Kevin. “Did you understand any of that?”
He scrunched up his face in thought. “Your apartment is . . .”
“Ready.” She punched a fist in the air. “My apartment is motherfuckin’ readyandtwo months free rent!”
She picked up the phone again, taking it off mute and speaker, and made arrangements with Manny. When she hung up, relief flooded through her, and she heaved a huge sigh. Finally, things were starting to look up.
“Where to?” Kevin asked, starting the car.
“Home.Myhome.”
“What about Dimitri and your car?”
Good question. “I’ll figure it out later.”
Hollywood, get ready. Natasha was coming home.
41
Dimitri chewed on his fingers while Alex pored over the pages in the Idea Book, focusing onDom Navsegda.He made notes on his laptop occasionally and didn’t speak much. Even though they’d pitchedDom Navsegdabefore, Dimitri had completely reworked it, and Alex hadn’t seen the new version.
The tension was driving Dimitri crazy. In his mind, he got up and paced, smacking the walls. It was something he’d done as a kid when he was anxious, or impatient. Walking up and down the hallway, running his hands along the walls, smacking his palms on the doorjambs, until his mother handed him a soapy sponge and told him to wash his dirty fingerprints off her walls.
Dance and sports had been perfect outlets for a kid who hated sitting still. And when he did have to sit still, he resorted to other nervous ticks, like chewing on his fingers and nails. It was a nasty habit, one he’d finally broken years before. He’d managed to refrain last night only by keeping his hands full of Natasha’s lean body, but she wasn’t here now, and there was no stopping him.
Finally, Alex closed the binder. “Get your hands out of your mouth,” he said in a mild voice.
Caught. Dimitri slammed his hand on the table. “That’s really all you have to say?”
Alex stared at him a moment longer. He had the best poker face of everyone in the Kovalenko family. No one else could hide their feelings very long. But then Alex’s face broke into a smile, and he reached across the table to slap Dimitri on the arm.
“This isgreat,” he said. “Really fucking great.”
“Yeah? You think so?”
Alex flipped open the book again, made a note of something on his laptop, then nodded. “I do. You’ve always had good ideas, and the one we did back in New York all those years ago was really good. But this one goes way beyond that. It’s way better than when we tried it the first time. This is going to be a hit.”
“If we can get the funding.” It was the thing that had hung over him for years. Back then, he’d begged and borrowed from everyone he knew, sinking all of his own savings and earnings fromAliens Don’t Danceinto the project. No one had recouped their money on the investment, but over time, Dimitri had paid back every single one of his family members who’d believed in him, thanks to Alex’s meticulous financial records. But when they’d approached backers in LA a few years ago, they’d turned him down. He’d be damned if he let that happen again.
So he hadn’t tried. Natasha had cut right to the heart of it. He hadn’t even put himself in the position of having anyone say no to him.
“We’ll get funding.” Alex was typing again. “This is too good. Only an idiot would turn this down. It has that ‘same but different’ quality the execs are always looking for, and it’s the kind of show only you could do. It has your stamp all over it. If we get the pitch together immediately, we can line up some meetings before I go back to Jersey. Where’s your assistant?”
