“I mean with the relationship.”
“Oh. It’s personal. Do you think Mobius will push into scripted television?”
“Is personal so bad?”
The assistant shrugged his shoulders. His networking game face began slipping off. “We both got too busy. This town can take a lot out of you.”
“I’m starting to understand.”
“It was amicable. We bump into each other all the time. Alvin has a project in development at Fox.”
The Boldness.Cameron read the script. In his coverage, he bemoaned the underdeveloped female characters.
“Did you have a girlfriend in college?” Cameron asked.
The assistant shook his finger. “I get it. How long have you been out here?”
“A month.”
He laughed, but Cameron didn’t get the joke.
“What’s her name?”
“His name,” Cameron corrected. “Doesn’t matter.”
“We all had someone back home. Don’t worry. He’ll be a distant memory soon.”
The bell rang.
Φ
Cameron sat in his car after the mixer and let himself sober up. All these assistants had left places and people, and they were doing fine. Cameron couldn’t let himself get unglued over a picture. He was still in transition.
He stared himself down in the rearview mirror. “No,” he said.
But the urge remained. He gripped the steering wheel. “No,” he said louder.
Walker pushed you away.
He strummed his fingers on the wheel. “Once. Just once. You do this once, and you don’t do it again.”
Cameron pulled out his phone and watched a video of Walker and Hobie. The three of them played soccer in a field on campus. Walker helped Hobie work on his dribbling while Cameron cheered them on from behind the camera. Cameron’s heart wanted to surge out of his chest. Walker’s voice was like a hug. He looked over his shoulder at Cameron and winked. Cameron was there, in the field with them now. He could smell the cut grass and Walker’s cologne and feel Walker’s hand reach out for him while Hobie giggled and bounced the ball on his knee.
He watched the video to the very last second. His fingers touched Walker’s face on the screen. He could feel the prickly hairs of his beard.
Cameron deleted the video from his phone. In less than a second, it was gone.
CHAPTER thirty-Six
Walker
Walker had the shortest morning commute ever. Twenty steps to his kitchen table, which was taken over by his computer, printer, files, and design mock-ups. He could see traces of the glass surface underneath. He made himself a cup of coffee while checking his email. It wasn’t like the morning email check at his old job. There were no emails to dread here. Only opportunity. He didn’t mind the more high-maintenance clients. They were his problems to solve. No bureaucracy. No micro-managing. Walker breathed deeper. What was that in the air?
Freedom.
The fear he had about quitting his job and not having that safety net drove him, pushed him harder, spun his creative wheels.
“Clancy,” he said to his newest client, owner of a new BBQ joint. “We can work on this. Tell me what you don’t like, and I can create a new spec.”
