Page 36 of Second Act
There was not a single thing wrong with the deal. Maybe there was something wrong with him, but he didn’t want to leap into their arms without being absolutely sure that he wanted the job and everything that went with it. He crossed the impressive black granite lobby and looked up at the twenty-foot bronze Z and wondered if this would be his new home for the rest of his career, and how long it would last. Would it go the distance or be short-term? It was the first time he had ever asked himself that question.
The Planet Z Rolls took him to his house in Bel-Air, where Timothy was waiting for him. It was twoa.m. in London by then, much too late to call Violet or anyone else.
He had Timothy make him a martini. All he wanted was a simple sandwich, a shower, and bed. He didn’t even have time to think about the deal or how he felt about it. He was too tired to think. He was in bed less than an hour later, and had asked Timothy to wake him at seven. It gave him two hours to make the decision once he woke up. He thought he’d be ready by then. He was too tired now to think clearly. And there was no question, the deal they were offering him was dazzling.
—
Jet-lagged, he woke up at six, and checked his emails. Barry, his lawyer, had approved the contract and said it was the best deal of its kind he’d ever seen. There was a separate package built in, with a two-year severance and two-year noncompete, which Barry thought was acceptable, given how high Andy’s annual salary would be, considerably higher than it was at Global.
There was not a single thing wrong with the deal.
Andy walked out to the pool and swam laps for a while to clear his head. There was no one around at that hour, so he swam naked, wrapped himself in a towel when he came out, and sat in a lounge chair, thinking. It was the same chair where he had fallen asleep drunk every night for two weeks after he was fired and his world disintegrated around him, and his ego, which had taken the hardest hit. Now his head was clear, and he had a woman he loved and who loved him in his life. It was a lot. More than enough. And he had found himself, which was important too. It had taken him a year of sorrow and despair and fear and shame, but he wasn’t ashamed of the past anymore, or afraid of the future.
He walked past the poster of his father on the way to his room after he swam and saluted him. “Hi, Dad.”
He shaved, showered, dressed, and wrote the most important email of his life. He thanked Planet Z for their magnificent offer and said that he didn’t feel returning to a job he’d been away from for a year now, and which had been painful to lose, fit into his current career plans. And with gratitude and appreciation for their consideration, he declined. He said that at this time, he didn’t feel he was the right man for the job. He sat and looked at it for a long quietmoment, read it several times, and then pressed Send. He was sure now. It was the right decision for him. The price of all that power was too high. He didn’t want it or need it as much as he’d thought anymore. He wanted to make movies and write screenplays, not run the world from a mountaintop wielding unlimited power. He wanted to be a man, not one of the gods.
Andy forwarded a copy of the email to Barry and asked him to keep it confidential. He called the phone number the pilot had given him to confirm his departure time. They were due to take off at tena.m. They would land in London at eightp.m. LA time, which was fivea.m. local London time the next day. He shook hands with Timothy when he left.
“I hope to see you soon, sir.”
“You will at some point,” Andy said. He took his own car to the airport, with a driver Timothy had hired, and they reached the Planet Z plane on time. The chairman called him before the flight took off and tried to convince him to reconsider.
“A year ago, I’d have grabbed it with both hands in a minute. I prayed for a job like this one. But things change in a year. I changed. It’s not the right place or the right job for me anymore. I wish it was,” and he honestly did for a moment. He wished he were still that man, but he wasn’t. The power wasn’t enough to compensate him for all he had to give up, mostly himself. He thanked the chairman again for the opportunity, and the use of the plane. They took off a few minutes later. This time, he slept for most of the flight. He had done all his thinking, and he was at peace. As crazy as it sounded, he knew he had made the right decision. The money had beenfabulous, but he would have paid with his soul and his life in exchange. It just wasn’t worth it to him anymore.
—
The plane landed in London half an hour early. Andy thanked the pilot, copilot, and flight attendants for the easy flight, and he took a cab from the airport to the mews house in Knightsbridge. He was a mere mortal now, not a god. The clock had struck midnight, and the coachmen had turned into white mice. He had an Indian driver who told him all about his family in Mumbai, and he arrived at the house at five-thirty, and let himself quietly into the house. He hadn’t spoken to Violet since he left because of the time difference, and there was too much to say. He knew she’d still be asleep. He tiptoed up the stairs to their bedroom, undressed, and got into bed next to her, and felt the silk of her skin next to his.
She stirred sleepily and half-opened one eye. “You’re back!” she said softly, and smiled at him as he took her in his arms.
“I turned it down,” he whispered to her and kissed her. Her eyes opened wide then.
“You did? Are you sure that’s what you want?”
“Completely,” he said with absolutely certainty. “We’ll talk about it later,” he said, and made love to her, happy that he was just a man, not a god.
Chapter 18
Violet and Andy’s second film started shooting right on schedule on August first in Dash’s studio outside London. The early scenes were often the hardest, but they were off to a good start, as Andy and Violet sat side by side in the directors’ chairs with copies of the script in their hands, to make sure that the actors didn’t improvise, change something, or stray from the sense of the scenes on the page. It was a sunny day, but it was nighttime on the set, as Andy glanced at Violet and she smiled, and they held hands for a minute.
It had been seventeen months since he’d been fired by Global Studios, and five since he had turned down Planet Z’s exorbitant offer to reinstate him as one of Hollywood’s most powerful men. Instead they were writing screenplays together and making movies. The only power he had was over his pen, to do a good job. And the only person who could fire him was Violet, as her writing partner. He was happy. Happier than he’d ever been, and so was she. They were creating something, and building something that would last,movies that would mean something to people and that they would remember, like his father’s films, which were classics and people still loved them.
The power Andy had wielded for so many years had turned out to be ephemeral. It meant nothing. It was smoke and mirrors. It had been an illusion. His life was real now, and his work. He could imagine making movies with Violet long into the future, indies, or with a studio one day. Or maybe they’d do a TV series together if they went back to LA after the movie they were just starting, which was on schedule to be released at Christmas.
He had lost everything for a while, himself mostly, and had found himself again, altered, changed, metamorphosed, bigger, deeper. The life he had now was real, and so was Violet. They were battle-scarred and stronger for where they had been. And the crushing losses they’d experienced had taught them a great deal, and to be grateful for what they had.
The illusion of power had been a dream. He had woken up now. The world was bigger, better, and more beautiful than he had ever imagined. There was nothing more he wanted or needed than what he had right now. This second act of his career filled every day with joy. It was worth more than anything he’d ever had before. He wouldn’t have given it up, or traded it, for anything in the world.
He leaned over and kissed Violet’s cheek as she focused on the script they had created together. There would be more in the future. She looked up when he kissed her and smiled. In losing everything for a time, they had found each other, and all that mattered most in life.
