“You can’t tell Mom,” I said. “If she knew, we’d have to bail her out of jail, and Brandon might do a runner. It’s been all I can do to not confront him, but Fritz and Bev have convinced me that putting him in jail is the better option.”
Everyone agreed. I actually felt a lot better with everyone knowing. Now I could go to them and talk if I needed to.
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The baby-shopping group arrived after I’d gone up to my apartment to study. They all came up to show me what they’d bought, as well as pictures of the furniture that would be delivered. Thank goodness I didn’t have to put it together. Pam had also bought more maternity clothes. She was starting to get bigger.
I admit I nodded and smiled a lot. That seemed to me to be the appropriate response when four women went into baby mode, and all talked at once. I mean, surely they didn’t expect me to follow the conversation. All I knew was that I’d just spent a chunk of money, but they seemed happy about it, so I was too.
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Chapter 14 – I Wonder If He Would Foresee Wednesday February 24
Saul had sent the movie numbers for the week. We’d been pounded by
Both Saul and Caryn were happy.
I’d been given the information for the next audition in London. Mom had gone with me the last time I traveled to the UK. I was surprised when Dad stood his ground and said he was going with me this time. For some reason, Caryn claimed that since she was my manager, she would go instead of Kendal. Saul and his wife also planned to join us.
The James Bond movie was in limbo. I’d been signed, but there was a power play going on. EON (an acronym for Everything or Nothing) Productions had done 24 James Bond movies that altogether grossed over $7 billion. Columbia Pictures, a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, and MGM had co-distributed the film series since 2006. MGM filed for bankruptcy in 2010; following MGM’s emergence from insolvency, Columbia had been its co-production partner of the series with Danjaq. That was until Sony’s distribution rights to the franchise came to an end with the release of
Since the Sony deal ended, there’d been a fight to see who’d take over, or whether Sony could hang on. Daniel Craig, the lead, decided to play hardball. He had a small child at home and didn’t want to be away for eight months, as he’d been for the filming of
Saul was about to do a happy dance when he told me that. He said that he’d begin to lay the groundwork for future Bond films. If we got the first one done with me as the son of James Bond, he planned to push to have the old James Bond retire. Then his son would take over the family business. I personally thought they might just replace Daniel Craig like they had so many other James Bond leading men. With the success of
Secretly, I would love to be the next Bond. It was the type of part you would be typecast in and never look back. I might do ten films in the next eighteen years and retire a happy man at the ripe old age of 35. I’d then be old enough to run for president. Sometimes my fantasies ran away with me.
◊◊◊
At lunch, I did something I hadn’t done in a long time: I asked someone out on a date. This was the first phase of my plan to get a girlfriend. I needed to know my potential honey better. The girl I hadn’t spent enough time with was Zoe, so she was my selected victim.
Halle cornered me in our Principles of Business class.
“I need some info on your date with Zoe. Where do you plan to take her?”
I cocked my head.
“Look, I was sent because I told them you wouldn’t shoot me. Tracy told us how you reacted to some girl last year who wanted information on her date with you. Zoe needs to know what to wear and the rest,” Halle said.
She seemed to enjoy teasing me way too much.
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I admitted. “I guess I’d take her out for dinner and a movie.”
“You realize our movie isn’t in theaters anymore.”
I gave her credit for keeping a straight face.
