Chapter Six
Brent
“He’s got the final say on casting, but I’m not going to be able to secure the funding we need if we don’t have at least one recognizable face,” Allen said as he stirred his hot Earl Grey. “If you left it up to James, we’d just pull people off the streets of L.A. From under bridges. Out of grocery stores.”
Metal clinking against glass sounded for a few seconds before Allen looked up at Brent with a raised brow.
“Or we could shoot down some alien ships and use the crew to staff our sets…”
Allen pursed his lips and ripped off a sheet of paper from his notebook. He crumpled it into a ball and bounced it off Brent’s head.
“Hey!” Brent shot up.
“Might I remind you that we’re on a deadline here? We have three major films that need to be near completion by the end of the summer.”
“I’m aware of this. Relax, Allen. We’ll get it done.”
“It won’t get done unless we do it, and people don’t complete their shoots on time unless they’re pushed.”
Allen rose from the conference table and raked a hand through his salt and pepper hair. He was a bit older than Brent, almost like an older brother, and while Brent was not unaware of their financial situation, Allen tended to get very stressed over the details much more.
“What are you so distracted by?” Allen put his hands on his hips. “What’s more important than your company?”
To his chagrin, Jessica’s smile flashed in front of his eyes. Her vibrant eyes, the sway of her hips. He shook his head as though to knock the images from his mind.
“I’m just concerned about Cara lately,” Brent said.
“Ah. How’s Jessie doing? I never imagined her as Mary Poppins.”
Brent leaned back in his chair and laughed. “She seems to work magic anyway. She’s amazing, actually. It’s only been a few days, and Cara loves her.”
“Of course, she loves her.” Allen smirked.
“Yes, yes, everyone has to love your little girl. It’s like she has a second sense when it comes to what Cara needs. We’re all headed to the zoo on Saturday.”
Allen laughed. “Oh, of course. First things first: get that girl to the zoo. That’s so Jessie.”
Brent wrapped his fingers around his coffee cup. “It’s Cara, too, apparently. She’s really into aquatic animals lately. I had no idea. It seems like a small thing, I suppose, but it seems like just yesterday, I could’ve told you her favorite food, her favorite book, what kind of fabrics she can stand to wear and which ones she’ll try to take off in the middle of a restaurant... Anything!”
“I hate to break it to you, buddy, but she’s growing up. She’s getting to that age. Cara will always be your little girl, but she won’t want to tell her dad everything anymore.” Allen sighed. “Some things happened when Jessie was in school that she didn’t mention for years. Not to me, at least, and I know she wasn’t talking to her mother.”
Brent nodded. “It just shames me, I think, to know I haven’t done everything I could to help my daughter. I should know her better than anyone. And I should’ve known things were so rough for her at school before her teacher had to call me in to tell me.”
“I know you’re doing your best. It’s just a tough age. You have to know when to push and when to back off.” Allen picked up the short list of actors and slid it over to Brent. “The key is to be fully present. Work while you’re at work, and when you go home to her, put it away.”
“I try. God, I try.” Brent rubbed his temple and looked at the list.
“Cara will enjoy the zoo. Just start from there.”
***
Seven posters spread out over his desk, with Carl Fenderson towering above. He was a big man, though not quite as tall as Brent, and older than both him and Allen. If Allen provided the team with the harsh numbers, Carl gave them a sense of gravitas. With gray touching his temples and a network of lines along his eyes, the man had been in this business longer than any of them.
Brent stared, unseeing, at the posters. Instead, he was thinking about what Jessica would be doing right now, preparing her activities for Cara. Maybe sitting in a chair at home, wearing shorts and a tank top, with the strap sliding down her shoulder as she leaned over some game she was preparing... Or maybe her bare feet were propped on a table as she read articles on childcare on her laptop, rosy lips parted just slightly, rich brown eyes fixed in attention on her screen.
“Brent!” Carl snapped.
Brent looked up from the posters.
“Plug back in, homeboy.” Carl pointed to the poster on the left. “I told our design team that we would want to have something more like that for the initial ads. Everything needs to be luring them in. These others we’ll leave for the ‘For Your Consideration’ campaign after the movie is out. I think the more minimalist approach will draw the attention of the Academy more.”
“That sounds right. But we haven’t finished casting yet. Allen wants to get at least one big name, and if we do, I want that face on the poster,” Brent said. He really looked at the poster for the first time. “I think there’s too much going on here, anyway. Movie-goers are pretty simple. They just need to identify the genre and maybe an element of the movie itself.”
Carl bobbed his head. “How about this?”
He slid a poster to the front from the “For Your Consideration” pile. It was, simply, a beautiful painting of the desert, with two figures walking across the sand.
“We can slap the face of your big name up top. Above the title.”
“Well, people want to connect to the characters. How about four panels, with the poster here showing through in the first and third, and the male and female lead in the second and fourth?”
Carl frowned, then took the notebook from his back pocket and made a sketch. “Like this?”
“Yeah. So we can make casting move forward faster so we can get these posters out and do a few minimalist promos on the Internet.” Brent pointed to the second panel. “I think I’ll tell them to make sure our leading lady is the name. Folks are into that sort of thing right now.”
“So, like an Emma Watson or Jennifer Lawrence?”
“Or even that girl from the Supergirl show. She’s done a few movies. And I think she has that still indie cache we’re looking for.”
“Got it.” Carl nodded and put the notebook back in his pocket. “So, what girl were you thinking about a minute ago, when you were supposed to be working, huh? She cute?”
Brent felt his cheeks getting hot and waved Carl off. “It’s just been a trying week.”
“Mm-hmm.” Carl clicked his tongue. “Hope she’s cute enough to pay for all this mental space she’s renting out.”
“It’s not that bad.” Brent gathered the posters and handed them to Carl. “She’s just… on my mind. Quite a woman. But it goes no further than that.”
“It could. Maybe you scratch that itch, and she won’t be on your mind anymore.” Carl grinned.
“You dog. No, it’ll just make it worse. Trust me.”
Carl shrugged. “I can’t tell you how to do your romantic life, but you’ve been single for a long time now.”
“It isn’t that easy.” Brent stepped back and shook his head.
“I know it isn’t, man, but it’s been nine years.”
“No, it…” Brent ran a hand through his hair. He turned toward the window.
Had it really been that long? Cara had been so small when LeeAnn had died, but it didn’t seem like it had been such a long time. It felt like only yesterday when they took their little girl out to the park for her first picnic. He could see her toddling through the flowers and falling backward. Her little face had scrunched up, somewhere between laughing and crying, and LeeAnn had come up beside her and dropped down just as hard.
Laughter prevailed. LeeAnn could always do that.
“It has been a long time. But I’m not sure I can let this happen,” Brent admitted. “She’s an amazing woman, and so gorgeous and full of life. It still might not be possible.”
Carl shrugged. “Just think about it. You don’t have to be all work and all dad. I know it would probably take me just as long, or longer, if Deb passed, but that doesn’t mean you and Cara can’t still make room for another person in your lives.”
Brent shrugged. “I hope we can. But until then, I think Cara just needs more friends. She’s so internal and too damn smart.”
“Yeah, that’ll get her in trouble for sure,” Carl agreed.
***
At the end of one of the longest work weeks of his life, Brent stepped into the house with his shoulders tensed. His thoughts were a cluttered jumble of numbers and names and arguments about every project on their plate for the next couple of months. They were spread so thin, but if they could just power through, their company would have the name-recognition and economic stability it needed to launch into bigger films and take more awards.
They could do this. He knew they could.
All at once, the remnants of work were pushed out of his mind by the sounds of giggling. He headed up the stairs, following the exuberant sounds, and felt his heart give a little leap in anticipation. Cara’s voice was a lovely little chime, and Jessica’s voice, lower and so clever and sultry, carried through the hall as though seeking him out.
He forgot the office. He couldn’t wait to see them.
In the playroom, both girls knelt around the large activity table wearing large gray shirts.
“I’m getting it wrong,” Cara complained.
“No, it’s fine. Just dab the color along the wet spot and… Yeah, that’s right!”
Brent leaned in the doorway, watching his girls. Jessica guiding and Cara listening, open and unguarded. Cara had a lot of scheduled activities surrounding resume building. Not much time for trying new things, drawing pictures… Not much time to just be a kid.
Cara was such a gifted child. She studied hard and practiced hard and thought hard. She needed more time like this. Unstructured, low stakes, free time with someone there to encourage and support her.
God, what would he do without Jessica in their lives? It hadn’t even been a week, and she was already doing so much for Cara.
Brent stepped forward to peer over their shoulders. To his surprise, the table was covered with colorful drying paintings… some of them quite good. Brent couldn’t help but notice a large number of the paintings featured oceans and ponds. He smiled.
“Well, look at my little Impressionists,” he said.
Cara looked up. “Hi, Daddy.”
“What do you think?” Jessica leaned over the table and gingerly held up one of the oceans. “I think this one is the best!”
“The stripes on the blue tang aren’t right,” Cara complained.
“It’s watercolor, kiddo, not photorealism.”
Cara shrugged. “I can do it better, though, now that I figured out how to use the paint.”
Picture after picture of the oceans. Blue tangs. Clownfish. Sea anemone. Zebrafish. Angelfish.
“Well, why don’t you finish up, and I’ll check in on Cecile to see how dinner’s coming along.” Brent leaned over the table to look at Jessica’s paintings. They were much more whimsical, with lemurs driving convertibles and butterflies dancing over brightly colored flowers. “You’re welcome to join us, by the way, Jessica. And we could watch a movie after dinner?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jessica said hesitantly.
“Oh! Please, Jessica?” Cara bounced in place. “We can watch Finding Dory! I know you haven’t seen it.”
“I guess I could stay. But we don’t want to be up too late. We want to get to the zoo early tomorrow.” Jessica smirked then, her eyes looking mischievous. “Why don’t I check on dinner, and you can show your dad how to use the watercolors?”
Brent raised his brows. Suddenly, Jessica was guiding him down to kneel at the activity table.
“Paint us something good!” She waved as she headed out of the room.
Cara set a piece of paper in front of him. “You can paint anything you want. But it’s easier to get the background set up before doing anything else.”
“That sounds like solid advice all around.” Brent looked over his shoulder, wondering if Jessica had ducked out to give him a few moments with Cara on his own, or if she had done so to put some space between them.
***
“Don’t get too close, Cara,” Brent warned when she scooted up on the floor with a big pillow.
“Octopuses have nine brains, too,” Cara said. “They have three hearts and nine brains. One in each tentacle and their regular brain. So Hank is down a brain!”
“Poor Hank,” Jessica murmured. “No wonder he’s cranky.”
“And octopuses actually do that – get out of their tanks and run around and hide and stuff,” Cara rattled off. “Not this much. Like they couldn’t drive a car.”
Jessica sat beside Brent on the sofa with her legs curled up under her and her head drooping to the side. In spite of himself, Brent’s eyes kept drifting to her. He’d seen this movie before, although not nearly as often as Cara had seen it. So, his gaze kept falling to Jessica next to him. She smelled so good and even sitting there without makeup, there was a flush to her cheeks.
Her lids drooped. Brent watched, eyes widening, as she slumped over. As if in slow motion, her head came closer, and closer, and closer, until she was on him, dozing away. Brent’s heart pounded thunderously in his chest. He wanted to touch her so badly.
But he absolutely should not do that. Under no circumstances should he cup her cheek or run his hand along her thigh. Between his legs, his cock thickened just from the proximity to her.
Jessica lifted her head, then, waking up and looking at him with heavy-lidded eyes. Brent didn’t think. He just leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.
She shot up as though a spark of electricity had touched her, and after a moment of scrambling hurried for the door.
“Where are you going?” Cara paused the movie and sat up.
“I, um, I’m sorry, kiddo. I forgot about something I have to do,” Jessica said.
“You’re still coming with us to the zoo, though, right?”
Jessica’s eyes flickered uncertainly over to Brent, then back to Cara. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it. But I really have to go now.”
Cara jumped up and gave Jessica a hug before she left.
Brent sighed heavily.