“Oh my God,” Clover sighs from a room to the left. I follow in there and see an oversized standalone bathtub that’s deep enough to fully submerge one’s shoulders. It’s in front of a floor to ceiling window that overlooks the rolling hills of the vineyard attached to the hotel.
“I can’t wait to try you,” she whispers reverently to the tub. “Points to Janine for booking this.”
There’s a door from this bathroom connecting to a spacious bedroom. The king-sized bed is so inviting I have to give myself a mental pep talk not to sit down on it, otherwise, I know it’ll be impossible to peel myself off in time for our wine tasting at a vineyard this afternoon.
Clover leaves to go inspect the rest of the unit, no doubtsearching for the second bedroom. It’s peaceful for about thirty more seconds before she comes rushing back to me.
“Uh, we have a problem.”
“What?”
“There’s no other bedroom.” Her eyes are wide as saucers. Of course there isn’t. I make a mental note to give Janine a permanent spot at the top of my shit list for this. I assume that this was a strategic move on Janine’s part, or complete stupidity, and I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt and not be an asshole where I can.
“Well, do you take the left or the right side?”
“Roman!” she scolds. “You can’t possibly be okay with this?”
I shrug.
“Well, what do we do?”
“I trust you’ve had sleepovers before, Sparky?”
“Of course I have,” she sputters.
“Great. So, left or right?”
“Right.” She crosses her arms and begrudgingly walks over to the bed, pulling the decorative pillows and creating a wall in the middle of the bed.
“What are you, ten?”
“I swear to God if one of your giant feet so much as touches me in the night I’m cutting it off.”
“I think I’ll manage to keep all parts to myself, Bob the Builder,” I say as I gesture to the makeshift wall she continues to construct.
She makes a little noise of exasperation and hops off the bed. Grabbing her bag of toiletries and a garment bag, she heads toward the bathroom, muttering, “fuckin’ Janine,” under her breath.
On that, I’m inclinedto agree.
While Clover takes the time to get ready for the vineyard tour, I head into the living room space. Pulling out my phone, I send a quick email to the Starlight Legal team and wait. After a few agonizing minutes, my heart jumps when I see there’s a note from Mahdi.
Roman, Thank you for reaching out. I chatted with the rest of the team, and unfortunately, we’re unable to make any further changes to the signed contracts without approval from the studio head. If you can get Deacon to agree to the changes you requested, we’ll be able to draw up some new documentation for signing.
Let us know how you want to proceed.
- Mahdi Jafari, Lawyer, Starlight Studios
Fuck. While it’s not an outright impossibility to change the franchise plan, I’ll need to get my father on board before it happens. It’s like saying, “Good news, while the ship you’re on is sinking—you know how to swim!”
Before I lose the nerve, I send a text to my father.
Roman
We need to have a chat about the franchise casting contract for Darkness Rising.
Deacon
Why?
