Zee sat back in the office chair with his feet up on the production desk, finishing his tasteless yogurt in the dimly lit, post-production room. He had arrived ahead of his crew, and took a moment to wallow in self-pity.

This room had always been one of excitement for him, where his documentaries were spliced and tweaked, finishing with the sound adjustment. The digital flat screen on the wall would soon swallow his heartache with footage of people who had lost everything except their will to live and love.

Zee didn’t have much desire to love or live at the moment. When he had arrived back at that odious dining table in Park City he was emotionally destroyed by the woman he adored.

How do you pick up the pieces of two failed tries? Having to explain to Kathy that he wasn’t interested in rekindling their relationship was not well received. He had to toss the shirt she violated with her mango chutney in the waste basket on his way out of the restaurant. This is what movies are made of, folks, he’d wanted to scream, but didn’t. Instead, he had slammed the door of his rental car, driven to his hotel, and whimpered himself to sleep like an infant. He had lost his dream.

“Zee!” his normally reserved employee, Alex, yelled as he bounced into the room. “You’ve got to see this!”

“Bring it on,” Zee said. Alex’s positive attitude was infectious, and Zee desperately needed to be infected. “I could use some good footage today.”

Alex crossed his arms. “We have to wait for everyone else.”

“Why?” Zee wasn’t in good humor today to deal with this rookie’s games.

“Because over the past few weeks, ever since you got back from your cousin’s wedding and that last interview session in Utah, you’ve been a complete jerk to everyone. But I get it. She hurt you, man.”

“Be honest with me. That’s all I ask. Just say it like it is.”

“You’ve asked us to be this way with you,” Alex said, raising his eyebrows and motioning to his co-workers, Josh and Curt, who just entered the room. “Real, remember?”

“Sure,” Zee said apathetically, throwing his empty yogurt cup in the trash.

Excited chatter erupted amongst the group as they sat at and lit their laptop screens, which would soon control the flat screen monitor; the monitor which was about to show Zee something he had to see.

“Now,” Alex began, “when Josh was evaluating lighting and adjusting the wireless mics, that is where the magic happened.” He nodded his head like a nerdy character from the ‘80s, Sixteen Candles film.

“This better be good.” Zee grit his teeth in annoyance of this young kid’s monologue.

The studio lights dimmed as the wall-mounted screen brightened. The film clip began with a landscaped view that spanned the width of the gardens. It slowly locked on to two women who were bent over a recently fertilized and tilled box. They appeared to be planting seeds.

“Is that Tori?” Zee questioned. “Why was she at the gardens?”

“It gets really interesting when Josh tests a mic. He had placed it on a refugee in preparation for her interview when she first entered the garden.”

The audio clicked on, “We are better together, whole. I am better, because you, Tori.”

“That’s Anita. She’s a refugee from Sudan,” Zee explained to the group.

They nodded their heads. How absent-minded of Zee. His crew had been reviewing the interviews for the past few weeks. They knew who Anita was.

“Zee coming!” Anita continued.

“Thank you, guys. Yes, that does make me feel better that someone is glad to see me.”

“Just listen.” Josh waved his hands for silence. “I filmed this, and I didn’t even notice what comes next.”

“What? Zee?” This was now Tori’s voice, not Anita’s. “Anita, he can’t see me like this.” Tori’s face wasn’t visible.

“You like Zee?” Anita questioned.

Zee perked up, eager for her answer.

“Yes. I think I do.”

That was a kind gesture from his guys, but that didn’t change anything. Tori had liked him in the beginning, but she didn’t love him. She chose to exclude him from her life.

“I help you,” Anita continued.

Zee had to admit, this was better than any reality TV show that he’d produced. It had his undivided attention.

“What are you doing?” Tori laughed.

Her laugh seemed to travel down his veins and stab him in his gut.

“This too.” Anita wrapped Tori’s head in a multi-colored scarf, then handed her an African purse. “Keep. We now friends. Ubuntu. No. No exchange. Gift.”

“Wait!” Zee held up his hands. “What did I just miss there?”

“What you missed,” Alex said, pausing the film, “is Tori giving her new friend a purse that’s worth more than my wife’s yearling racehorse.”

Zee took a moment to remember how much Alex had paid for that horse. “Wait, wasn’t that horse like fifty grand?”

“Yeah.”

“I had no idea Tori was that generous. I assumed her to be more materialistic than that.”

“We’re almost at the next clip,” Josh said.

The film restarted.

“Gift. Ubuntu.” Tori turned just enough to allow the camera a brief glimpse of her face; what Zee could see of her face, that was. Her mouth and nose were wrapped in the colorful scarf, hiding all but a strip of her bright eyes. They smiled. Her eyes smiled directly into his soul. His deep pain pounded out of his chest onto his outer extremities.

“Not sure the point of this, guys. I respect her even more, but she still wants nothing to do with me. You trying to kill me here?”

She was turning out to be the woman that Zee had hoped she would be from the beginning, someone to finally fill that empty hole inside of him. She turned out to be someone who would build wells with him in a third world country.

“Hold on. We’ve got one more clip. This was taken the day you completed filming and flew back.”

It began with a morning shot of the mountains above the refugee gardens. It was stunning footage.

“Good job, Josh,” Zee complimented. “You nailed that.”

The camera’s lens found its way to the two people in the garden.

“You are sad to not date Zee? You love him?”

“Yes, I love him.”

Zee’s entire body lit on fire. “Rewind!” Zee yelled.

The clip rewound to Tori linking arms with Anita and saying, “Yes, I love him.”

“Yes!” Zee screamed, forming fists with his hands and throwing his arms up in the air. His shouts of joy were drowned out by his employees’ cheers. “She is such a little liar. I need your help guys.”

“Anything,” Josh said.

Zee smiled. “First, someone get Annie on the phone.”