Page 156 of The Homewreckers
“But not on Wednesday night. Tony got an early look at Byron’s new show,Haunted Hideaways,and honestly, Mo, it just hits all the sweet spots for the new direction the network is headed in. It’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s going to bring us that elusive eighteen- to thirty-year-old male demographic, and it’s a new kind of storytelling. We’re incredibly excited about it.”
Mo closed his eyes and leaned his head back for a moment as he digested Rebecca’s bombshell. Finally, he leaned forward, his jaw muscle so tight it twitched.
“Haunted Hideaways? Isn’t your network called Home Place TV? Give me a fucking break, Rebecca. You think a show from the guy who dreamed upBulldozing Bayonneis going to win you Wednesday nights? What have you people been smoking?”
Rebecca stood up and smoothed the fabric of her very tight pencil skirt. She dumped the plate of food in a plastic trash barrel. “I knew you weren’t going to take this very well, but Tony was insistent that I be the one to tell you, and in person. As I said, we’ll honor our commitment. Right now, the plan is to do test screenings as soon as you’re done with postproduction. Barring any major surprises, we’re holding a slot forThe Homewreckerson the Sunday afternoon lineup.”
“What? Following reruns ofMobile Home Makeovers? Or as a lead-in forGarage Sale Mayhem?”
Rebecca’s large black crocodile handbag began emitting a series of insistent beeps. She reached inside and glanced at her phone. Moments later, a black town car came bumping down the driveway toward the house. “There’s my ride. Mo, we can discuss this later. Hattie, Cass? Wonderful job. Our marketing people have ideas for some promotional events you two could do in support ofHomewreckersthisfall. Trade shows, county fairs, like that. We’ll be in touch. Trae—see you next week. Right?”
Trae smiled. “I’ll just walk you to your car and see you off.”
Hattie watched the two of them stroll toward the waiting car. “County fairs?” Hattie said, peeling off her fake eyelashes. “That’s a hard pass.”
Cass reached up and began unfastening the extensions Lisa had so laboriously pinned into her hair earlier that morning. “Trade shows? Hell, no.”
Mo took another sip of beer, then tossed the bottle into the recycling bin. “I’m sorry about this, you two. We all put our heart and soul into this show. And we’ve just been officially shafted. Guess I should have known better.”
“But she saidHomewreckerswill still air. So that’s good news, right?” Hattie asked.
“Yeah, but the time slot they’re giving us is a graveyard,” Mo said. “Realistically, unless we work some kind of miracle, it looks likeHomewreckersis gonna be one and done.”
“There goes my show-biz career,” Cass said, unbuttoning the lacy scoop-neck top wardrobe had outfitted her in, to reveal a black tank top with the wordsMAMA TRIEDprinted across the front. She tossed the blouse over the back of one of the front porch rockers. “Who wants more banana pudding?”
72Bye-Bye, Love
Hattie and Mo sat on Zenobia’s borrowed wicker rocking chairs on the screened porch. They were alone in the house. The last van full of rented film equipment had pulled away hours earlier. Crew members hugged and exchanged contact information and promised to keep in touch. Cass and Trae had given each other chilly, cursory nods of farewell before parting ways.
They’d snagged half a bottle of wine from the party leftovers and climbed the stairs to the second-floor porch.
The sun was setting over the Back River, staining the sky in gentle swaths of cobalt, violet, copper, and yellow, leaving the treetops of Little Tybee in stark silhouette.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“You mean with us?” He reached for her hand but she linked only her pinkie with his.
“I meant with the show.”
“Oh. We start postproduction in L.A. next week. And then, I’ve got some irons in the fire… HPTV ain’t the only network doing my kind of programming. In fact…”
“I’ve got to sell this house,” Hattie interrupted. “I wake up in the middle of the night, panicking about it.”
“You will. I bet it’ll be sold before the first episode ofHomewreckersairs in the fall. So. You still haven’t answered my question. What about us?”
Hattie stalled by sipping her wine. Here was the moment she’dbeen dreading since filming had ended hours ago. Why hadn’t she left along with the others? Why stay behind and subject herself to uncomfortable questions and impossible scenarios? She mustered a diversionary response. “You’ll be in L.A. dreaming up a new project, and I’ll be back here in Savannah, demo-ing another stinky old bathroom and crawling around under rotten kitchen floors.”
Mo looped his fingers through hers. She didn’t pull away. “Maybe I’ll drop in and see you.”
It took a moment for her to get the reference to his chance meeting with her at the Tattnall Street house. She gave a rueful laugh. “That seems like a lifetime ago.”
“But it’s only been two months. A lot has happened,” Mo reminded her. “Let’s see where this thing takes us. Okay? The lease on my Airbnb isn’t up yet, which gives me a few days of downtime. I was thinking we could…”
“No,” Hattie said.
“Let me finish,” he protested. “We could spend some time together. Just the two of us. Maybe get out of this blast furnace you call summer in Savannah. I did some research. We could go to the North Carolina mountains. To Cashiers. I hear it’s a lot cooler. There’s an inn, with a spa, and terrific food. Do you like to hike? It’s pet-friendly, so we could take Ribsy.”
She dropped his hand, and was staring out at the darkening sky, her arms crossed over her chest, a defensive mechanism, as though she had to shield her heart from the potential of losing it to this stranger who’d literally come crashing into her life.
