Cameron and Judd had put almost as much time and effort into this project as Alex had, and that was saying a lot. The three of them had worked together on other film projects as well. They had been inseparable during their senior year of college, and that had continued for a couple of years afterward. He could never pay them enough for how much they had helped him. And now he wouldn't be able to pay them at all. He wouldn’t be able to pay anyone. The deal was off. The money was gone. His grandfather had left it at 'maybe we can revisit it in the future, after you've matured'. He was cold and immovable, and Alex had been scrambling in his mind all day, thinking about how to proceed.
He wasn't drunk. He didn't have anything to drink. He was just that tormented and drained. He had been royally let down, and now he had to turn around and royally let down a whole string of other people. Alex dreaded it. He didn't want to go back to his hotel, so he went to a restaurant and sat at the bar.
That was where he saw the girl from the restaurant that morning. He offered her some of his food, and she sat there and ate all of it like an adorable little hungry kid. She was not trying to impress him, and he was not trying to impress her, and watching her scarf that burger and fries with a side of eggrolls was a surprising little nugget of joy in his otherwise horrible day.
She never asked, but he could tell she thought he had been drinking. Alex didn't bother to clarify. It was embarrassing enough, her seeing him in this state. He instinctively wanted her to think there was something to blame besides his own humiliating circumstance. They hadn't talked much while she ate, and the bartender came over as she was finishing.
"Would you like a cup of coffee?" Patrick asked Alex, thinking he needed it. "I'm just making a fresh pot."
"Sure," Alex said. He looked at the girl. There didn't seem to be a stitch of makeup on her face, and she didn't need it. She was beautiful.
"Do you want some coffee?" he asked.
She looked at him and then at Patrick. "Sure. Half a cup."
Alex hadn't said much to her while she was eating. She seemed so content to quietly sit next to him that he just sat there. Finally, he felt compelled to start talking.
"I don't know what you heard this morning…" he said, feeling awkward about bringing it up. It was the first thing on his mind, and he couldn’t help it.
"I tried not to listen," she said diplomatically.
"A few years ago, my grandfather casually told a story at the table during a family gathering. It seemed like my dad had heard it before, but it was the first time a lot of us had ever heard it. It was about my great, great, great-grandmother. There was a human switcheroo. It was pioneer days. Her look-alike was going out West with her family, and that girl was scared to death. She met my grandmother in Missouri and realized it was her doppelganger. They literally switched places. That girl stayed in Missouri, and my grandma went out West. They took over each other's lives."
She gasped in amazement.
"Yeah. My grandpa told the story, and he said his grandma was certain of the story. She swore it happened. He told us this whole story as if it were something that was ingrained in him about his heritage. Anyway, long story short, I became obsessed. I researched and wrote. I interviewed people and had a compelling, well-written scriptbased on those events. I had help, and Cameron and Judd are both… the project's great. I honestly felt like it was my magnum opus—like I was supposed to make it. It's an amazing story, and it's about my family. My grandfather has personal ties to it. I can't believe he's refusing to…" Alex shook his head and trailed off, lost in thought.
She didn't care about his lack of conversation skills. She just ate the last bits of food off the plates as she listened without judgment.
Patrick brought over the coffee, and she added cream and sugar to hers before asking Alex if he wanted any. He shook his head and took a drink of it as it was.
"I feel like your great, great, great grandmother," she said.
He chuckled, thinking she was talking about being old. "Do you mean from working all day?" he asked, which caused her to laugh.
"No, well, that too. I feel like I'm a hundred years old in my feet and back. But, no, I mean switching places. I've been living my sister's life for the last month. That's what I'm doing here."
"What do you mean?"
"People go to that restaurant to get eggs that my sister cooks. She learned how to do it from a chef in France. She's the passionate type, a gypsy, and I'm still in Denver, going to school and mooching rent off my parents. I'm in grad school to get a job at a church where I've been going for eight years. I'm ahomebody. I'm reluctantly taking over her life, and it's short-term. She's way cooler than I am. She was way cooler. She's sort of a shell right now."
"What happened to her?"
"She met a guy in France—an American on vacation. Kai. He had family in Montana, and they had money. He was an artsy type with a stable family, and we all thought my sister had found the one. They fell in love, had a baby, and he helped her open the restaurant. They were really doing great. Up until a few months ago, I would have traded lives with my sister any day. But now her husband's not with us anymore. He ended his own life, and hers just fell off right along with it. It seems that way, anyway. There's always hope. That's why I'm here. I'm taking care of Luna, and trying to help her out. I don't know how effective I'm being. I barely keep my head above water with her breakfast place. Her husband's parents pay her mortgage. But they think she's still working at the restaurant. I told my sister that Lu's going to tell them, but she doesn't care. A lot of the customers think it's her, too. A few regulars know it's me back there, but I am basically working on behalf of my sister—taking over her identity like you said with your story."
"How long are you going to be here?"
She laughed. "That's a good question. I honestly thought I would be gone by now. I assumed I would come and help my sister for a week or two."
"But she's not getting better?"
"No, she's not."
"Where's the little girl?"
"Right now? She's with a friend—spending the night with a friend. I got this job so that my sister would be forced to hang out with her, and all she does is send her to a friend's house when I'm working."
Alex was silent for a long minute. "I'm glad you told me that," he said finally.
