Page 25 of Full Contact

I looked. She was right, and I should have caught it.

“Move it to the Thursday.”

“Thursday works for Priya. Does it work for the cat?”

“Afternoons are her best hours.”

“I’m putting that in the production notes like it’s a union rule.”

“It is one,” I said.

We organized the season around conditions and events. We could use the courtyard while the weather held. Peaches’s fifteenth birthday was in October. We could do a road-trip installment showing her routine with Anna.

“Holidays?” Leah asked.

“Wait on it. He hasn’t settled his family plans.”

She wrote pending and moved on.

“I want a spare in the bank before the schedule gets ugly,” she said. “One finished episode we’re not committed to. If a shoot falls through in December, we don’t have to ask a cat for a favor on short notice.”

“Agreed.”

“And an approval deadline. He can refuse anything, but I need to know when to stop holding a slot.”

“We get his approval decision seventy-two hours from delivery,” I said. “If we don’t have his approval by then, we use the spare.”

Leah would run the series through her usual review process with Priya, then send the cuts to Trier for approval. I’d handle the shoots and any requests to broaden what we’d promised him.

I sent him the proposed dates while Leah checked November against the arena calendar.

Trier: The 9th collides with a team dinner. The 16th works. Also, you’ve scheduled her birthday coverage without consulting her.

Mark: Is she taking meetings?

We finished at four. I gathered the schedules, rubbing warmth back into my fingers, and found that I knew which afternoons I’d be in Trier’s living room well into November.

***

On Tuesday, Dana pointed out a new route at the climbing gym before I’d finished putting on my shoes.

“Green holds. Under the overhang.”

I looked up. The holds were close together, but the wall angled out sharply enough that I’d be climbing with most of my body hanging over empty air.

“You picked that one for me?”

“You said you wanted to work on overhangs.”

Some days I regretted having friends who listened.

“Loser buys smoothies?” she asked.

“You could just buy your own.”

“Where’s the pleasure in that?”

I chalked my hands and clipped in. The first few moves were straightforward. Higher up, the wall tipped me back, and I had to work to keep my feet under me. Dana offered advice from below. Some of it was helpful.