Page 25 of Second Act
“Good luck to both of you,” she said, looking emotional, and she hugged Violet. “You both deserve it. You’re good people.” She too had been heartbroken when Liam died, having babysat for him several times. She stood and waved as the van pulled away, and Brigid joined her. Mrs. MacInnes was going to live with her sister in Hampshire when the house sold. She was already packing. The auction was in six weeks. It had been a bad luck house for Violet, and she would be happy to know that it was gone forever. It had been a fluke that she had come back to work there, when the bank sent her to Andy, which had turned her whole life around, but she didn’t credit the house for that.
“I have an idea for a new story,” she said to him insistently on the drive to London.
“I keep telling you, you have to finish one project before you start another one. That’s how it works,” he said, amused at her enthusiasm.
“Why? I have a good idea.” Violet looked like a young girl to him sometimes, and he loved her innocence. Given all she’d been through in her life, she was surprisingly trusting and naïve, and he loved that about her. There was no anger or bitterness in her. She wasn’t vengeful. She was just a survivor and her own strength and dogged determination had gotten her through the hard times. Her quiet perseverance gave him strength for his own life. It was really because of her that he was about to make his first independent movie. He wasn’t sure if it would prove to be a blessing or a curse, but he was about to find out.
—
They settled into the flat in Notting Hill that night, and Andy commented that their belongings seemed to have grown while they were in the van. The flat had a large, airy bedroom, a small guest room, an office, and a big living room with well-worn, comfortable couches and big inviting chairs and a fireplace. It looked like a good spot to gather and there was adequate space for both of them, though far less than the house they had just vacated.
Andy found Violet in the study they would use as an office, later that evening, with a cup of tea, writing frantically in a spiral notebook.
“What’s that?” he asked her, and she grinned guiltily.
“Our next movie,” she said, and he laughed.
“You’re incurable.”
“I don’t want to forget my ideas while they’re fresh in my mind.”
“Something tells me that won’t happen.” He loved how full of ideas she was, how creative and enterprising. She inspired him to work harder.
“Will you do the screenplay again?” she asked him.
“Call my agent,” he said, and sat down on the arm of her chair and leaned down to kiss her. “Have I told you today that I’m crazy in love with you?”
“You might have.” She smiled at him. “But I like hearing it again.”
“Come on,” he said, pulling her out of her chair, “I think we should check out the bedroom.”
“Why? Is there something wrong with it?”
“You tell me, after we try it out,” he said, and she laughed, understanding what he had in mind. She raced him to the bed then, andhe fell onto it next to her, laughing. She was so small and delicate that he worried about crushing her sometimes, but she was sturdier than she looked, and not as fragile as she seemed.
He made love to her with sensitivity and passion, and they were both out of breath afterward. He kissed her again and smiled at her.
“I think the bed is okay.” He grinned.
“So are you.” She laughed. “Maybe we should check it again.”
“Only if you want to kill me. I’m not a kid, you know.”
“You are to me.” She put her arms around him and kissed him, and he was startled to realize that he wanted to make love to her again, and was able to. She was good for him in every possible way. She made him feel like a man again, and not just a bank. She loved him for who he was, not the job he had. She loved him even though he had been fired and reduced to rubble five months ago. His power meant nothing to her. It was his heart she cared about, his soul, his kindness to her, and his talent, that he was only just rediscovering. She made him a better person than he was on his own. She was everything he had ever hoped for in a woman and never found, even when he was young. She was what his mother had been to his father. She was the life force and the energy that fueled him now. He made love to her again, and then he gently pulled her out of bed and told her he was starving.
“If you expect me to make love to you three times a day, you’d better feed me. I saw a chippy down the street. I need food immediately.” They took a shower together, threw clothes on hastily, and went to the fish-and-chips restaurant down the street, and agreed that it was a good one.
—
Violet and Andy slept like happy children in each other’s arms that night, and were at Dash’s studio the next morning for the cast readings. It was a chance for each of the actors to comment on the script, and request any changes they felt worked better for them. The director would be there, and Andy had to be, to approve any changes they wanted to make. There were already a few ridiculous ones. He hadn’t been to a cast reading in years, and Violet said it sounded like fun. Everything she did with him was fun to her. He didn’t make up for what she had lost, and he couldn’t replace the little boy she’d lost three years before, but he filled her heart as no one else ever had, and she was happy and at peace with him, just as he was with her. He still missed his job as studio head at times, but being with her was a whole new path in life for him, and going back to screenwriting again, with more maturity and freshly honed skills. He was happy. They parked the car he’d rented in the parking lot, and walked into the building where they’d be working together. Andy gave Violet a quick kiss before they walked into the conference room where they’d be meeting with the cast, and he smiled at her.
“Thank you for putting me back to work,” he whispered to her.
“Thank you for giving me my life back,” she whispered. “A new life,” she said more precisely.
“For both of us,” he said, and followed her into the conference room where the cast was waiting, with Dash and the director. They took their seats and Dash introduced them all around. Many of the actors were well known and didn’t need an introduction, but Dash introduced them anyway. They were all equal here, and for the nextthree months, they’d be a family. Violet smiled as she looked around the room. They were the people who were going to bring her story to life, and when Dash introduced her, she thanked them, and they all gave her a round of applause, as Andy looked at her proudly.
The filming of their movie was about to begin. They had called itTightrope. He was now the coproducer of a little indie movie. If anyone had told him that six months ago, he’d never have believed them.
