Once she’d pressed the button, I could hear Hudson clearing his throat.
“Hey, Hudson,” I said so he knew I was there.
“Lake, hi. What’s up?” His tone was worried, but luckily not too much.
“We’re worried about Theo.” I started, then recapped the situation and ended it with, “And I will ask Maria to send you any contract stuff if we decide to do that.”
“Of course you should do it, Lake,” Hudson stated firmly. “It’s an excellent chance and a good thing to do for all her fans.”
“I’m thinking that all the remaining rights and especially that Netflix thing will be more than enough for me. So if there’s a book deal for this one, then I’m going to put that money into the rescue,” I spoke calmly. I hadn’t told that to Sierra yet, but her eyes widened.
“Then I’ll make sure Maria knows that she should negotiate a proper deal. In Ruth’s honor. There’s no need not to push that button when going into negotiations.” Hudson chuckled, and Sierra and I smiled at each other.
“I agree.”
“Me, too,” Sierra piped up.
“So, can you recap how Theo is acting?”
We did that, filling in for each other with things we’d seen.
Hudson hummed. “You know, I think Ruth once told me about something like this happening before. It might’ve been around the time Theo’s dad passed away.”
“So it could be…a depressive episode of sorts?” Sierra asked, her eyebrows gathering together in thought.
“I suppose so. She said it passed eventually, but took time, and that all her attempts to cheer him up only made things worse. In the end, the work they did pulled him out of it or something, I guess.”
I exhaled long and slow. “I guess we’ll have to try and not take it personally and leave him to it, then.”
“Keep an eye on him. I’ll come by when I can, but I have a few clients that need immediate help, so—”
“No, it’s fine. We’ll let you know if we need you to come over for an intervention,” Sierra cut him off, making a face at me. “We’ll handle it.”
“Okay. Just…make sure he eats. He’s not necessarily good at that when he has a lot on his mind.”
“Okay, I’ll make sure. Do we have Cook’s number somewhere?” I asked them both.
“Yeah, I have it here.” Sierra pointed at an ancient, or maybe it was now retro, Rolodex.
We said bye to Hudson and Sierra wrote Cook’s number on a Post-It.
“If he doesn’t answer, he might be out of range or busy. I don’t know where exactly he is, but I’ll put his email here, too. Either text him or email if you can’t get hold of him otherwise.”
I took the note and my mug I’d emptied while we talked, and Sierra quickly made sure hers was empty before handing it to me.
“Thanks so much!”
“No problem. Is there anything I need to look at?”
“Not at the moment. I’m sure I can come up with someone by tomorrow, though!” she said brightly.
“Aye-aye, Captain!” I saluted her and left her to her job.
* * * *
I didn’t manage to get Cook on the phone, but he replied to my email the next day.
Hey, Lake,
