He reached forward for the abandoned script, only offering me an appreciative look in response. I had trouble reconciling his usual boisterous facade with the sullen guy across from me, and I could only imagine what he was going through. “Anytime you need to talk, come find me,” I added, wishing there was more I could do.
“Hey,” I said after a long stretch of silence had passed. Wes looked up from where he was adding notes into the margins of his script. “Have you heard anything yet about the renewal?”
“Nothing concrete, but it’s looking good. I just hope Terry can get that deal worked out. The extra money would really help set me up.”
I hummed my agreement, knowing exactly what I was going to do with the extra money. What I didn’t like, however, was that the whole thing felt out of our hands. Not that I didn’t trust Terry to have our interests in mind, but something irked me about having to sit back and just wait.
We’d already been knocked back last year when we’d asked the same; the studio came back with some line about how the show was too new, none of us were famous enough to really demand that sort of money, blah blah blah. But we had one more season under our belt now, and the predictions were that our ratings were only going to get better, so I was cautiously hopeful that we’d be successful this time.
I just wished I could do something to move it along.
A few days later,it was still on my mind as Audrey and I laid, happy and exhausted, in my bed.
She’d messaged after finishing work late, wanting to know if I was free, and since I was already home, I’d invited her over to my apartment, something I rarely did.
Damn, she looked good draped across my sheets.
I paused in my naked appreciation of her breasts to ask, “Do you often have to negotiate contracts in your job?”
“Almost always, why?”
“We’re hoping to secure a better deal if the show gets renewed, but right now, it’s all happening behind closed doors, and it’s bothering me.”
“I mean … it would be a completely different ballgame for your work, I don’t know the first thing about it.”
“I know. I guess I was hoping you might have some tips I could use to push the conversation in the right direction.”
“Hmm. Well, it’s all about context. Sometimes, you need leverage. Other times, it’s more about influence. But I always start with getting to the heart of what the other party wants and then being clear on what I can offer in exchange, even if that means making a concession. Although it’s win-win if you can find something that sounds like you’re making a compromise on something you’re actually happy to do.” She shook her head. “Sorry, that was all a bit vague, wasn’t it? I don’t even know if that will help at all.”
I considered what she’d said and the seed of an idea planted; but one I’d have to spend some time fleshing out later when I didn’t have a naked, beautiful woman in bed with me.
“Ok, enough work talk.”
“I can think of something else we can do.”
“Oh?” I liked where this was headed.
“Mmm, there’s a great show I heard about; you might know it. Apparently, I’m out of the loop.”
“You must be; it’s very popular,” I said, enjoying the laugh it pulled from her.
“You don’t mind, do you? That I haven’t seen it?” I shook my head, and she continued. “It’s not personal. I just don’t really watch television. It wasn’t something my parents liked me doing when I was growing up and it kind of stuck.”
“No TV? I can’t even imagine.” Some of my favorite memories were in front of a television. “What did you do for fun?”
She blushed. “Ok, but you can’t laugh.”
“I won’t.”
“Really, you can’t.”
I held one hand up in a promise.
“Do you remember those maths problems where you knew, like, Tim was taller than Steve but shorter than James, so how tall is Lucy? Those.”
My lips twitched around a joke before I reconsidered and settled into a fond smile. “That’s really what you did for fun?”
She ducked her head. “I liked solving them. My parents didn’t like games either, but I can play a mean round of solitaire.”
