Page 50 of Troublemaker: The Big Picture Edition

EMILIA: Nope! I panicked. I’m sorry. I’m going to find Franklin and Brody. I can’t be around you. It’s too much. That can’t happen again.

EMILIA: I mean, I liked it. A lot. Thank you. You’re really good at that. Like really good. But it can’t happenagain. Not until Ryder isn’t my student anymore. I’m sorry.

ME: Okay. Ryder’s getting homeschooled starting tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at eight tomorrow night.

EMILIA:

EMILIA: Enjoy the rest of your day, okay?

EMILIA: Alex?

ME: Yeah?

EMILIA: Are you mad?

ME: I’m not thrilled. But I wish you were easier to be mad at. And I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t feel ready for. It just seems to me that you’re pretty ready for it.

EMILIA:

And that’s it.

Back to the Blue Bayou I go.

A couple of very important parts of me are bluer than they were before I made the decision to talk to Emilia today.

But my heart still feels like it’s flying.

REASONS WHY I CAN’T DATE MR. V – EMILIA

9. I am clearly not ready to date him because I ran off like a spazzy dingbat of a teenager who had to get home before curfew.

10. I am clearly way too ready to bang him because if it weren’t for that safety bar that was restricting our movements, I would have straddled and dry humped the father of one of my students while flying over Never Never Land.

11. I guess on some slightly damaged level, I don’t think I deserve to be loved by a man like him.

FUCK YOU, BRENT.

ALEX VEGA INSPIRATION JOURNAL – NOVEMBER

– Current mood: workaholic.

– Every fucking Nora Ephron romantic comedy ever made. I must be suffering from PMS because I hated them when Nova made me watch them with her, but God help me, I love them now.

– Listening to The Patsy Cline Collection CDs in my office. Gorgeous and unsurpassable.

I texted Nico to tell him he needs to do a Patsy Cline cover, and he said he’ll do “You Belong to Me” at his next Hotel Café show. But only if I direct his next music video. Obviously. This is a win-win. Then he asked if I was suffering from PMS.

– After we got back from Disneyland, I called my agent and told him to send me any half-decent romantic scripts that are in development—feature or TV. He said if I want an excuse to meet with female leads, he can just set up drinks. And then he explained how little chance a feature romance script has of actually getting produced and that it wouldn’t be “on brand” for me to be attached to that kind of project.

I thanked him for giving me an excuse to set up a bunch of meetings with other agents. He sent five scripts less than half an hour later.

I really like one of them.

Met with the writer yesterday. He’s a bit green, but I’m working on notes now. It’s set in LA, so there will be a very tasteful Santa Ana winds-skirt-blow-up scene. If the next draft works out, I think it’s a good part for Shane.

The big picture story of almost every romance is “love conquers all.”

If I keep throwing myself into working on this until June, I might actually believe it.