Chapter 52

52

S ol had asked to meet Mark at the Café at Foyles on Charing Cross Road for a cup of tea and some mandatory explanation while Divya and Luke met with Meshflixx.

When she got to the store, she breathed in the smell of books and felt the comfort of being surrounded by so many bound pages. Mark was already waiting at a table on the fifth floor. He was pouring some green fragrant brew into a cup. Sol sat across from him and thanked him for meeting with her on such short notice—she'd texted him the day before after the walk with Luke.

"Other than some reading, rose pruning, and maybe dropping by Josie's later on, it's not like I had that much to do," Mark replied.

"What I wanted to talk about is a bit delicate," said Sol, which was why she'd preferred to meet him there instead of trying to tell him about Oliver at Josie's. Too many prying ears at the studio, even if everyone tended to mind their own business.

"You have something embarrassing to tell me about Oliver." Mark gave a pained expression. "Please don't tell me he tried pursuing you romantically. He's been expressly warned not to harass any of my Pilates classmates—or Josie!"

"It's not that," said Sol, hoping to be as reassuring as possible and immensely glad that it wasn't that . "But he was involved in the theft of The Privateers script. Did you read about it?"

"I did, only because the rumors said the script had been stolen at the studio. I never believed it…"

"It was, actually, stolen there. Oliver took the script from Sara's bag and put it in mine. He was working with Bryana Daniels. But Bryana, who has confessed to everything, hasn't offered any explanation behind Oliver's involvement. And it doesn't make much sense really."

"The little dickhead!" Sol was sure it was the first time she'd heard Mark cursing. "Even if I no longer read the trades, I saw that your name was mentioned for a couple of days in connection to this. I'm sorry it was due to the shortcomings of that son of mine."

"Not your fault," Sol said, and she really believed it. Oliver was a grown-up even if he didn't act like one. "I saw Oliver chatting with a Meshflixx executive a few days ago, some senior vice president of scripted TV?—"

"Eduardo Callaghan?"

"Yes."

"We're tennis mates," explained Mark. "I complement my Pilates workouts with some tennis so that I balance strength training and cardio."

"Tennis, huh?" said Sol. "I've been doing lots of brisk walking and that 12-3-30 cardio thing that went viral a few months ago, where you walk fast on a treadmill with a steep incline. But I'm wondering if I should switch to swimming, honestly."

"Oh, it has the lowest impact," Mark conceded.

"And it's a full-body workout for sure," Sol added.

It was great to talk with a like-minded person who was equally, if not more, worried about his health and overall fitness. But the chat needed to get back to Oliver.

"Oliver has been pestering me to make an introduction with Eduardo for months. Said he had a pitch that was perfect for him," offered Mark.

"Wasn't Oliver adamant about only developing documentary-long feature content?"

"And Eduardo is a scripted TV person, yes. I asked Oliver the same, and I didn't get any sort of satisfactory answer, so I decided not to make the introduction. Please don't think I'm a terrible father."

"Oh, I'm not judgy in that way, don't worry." And she wasn't.

Mark continued, "I've introduced him to so many people over the years. He's had so many opportunities and basically done nothing. He's the ultimate nepo baby. I thought it would teach him a lesson to find his way toward a pitch meeting at Meshflixx the regular way. Then a few weeks ago he started gloating that he'd finally figured out how to get introduced to Eduardo without my help."

"Do you think Bryana put them in touch in exchange for Oliver's help getting the script from Sara?"

"I would bet my beach house in Truro on it. Bryana and Oliver have been somewhat simpatico for years. I introduced them when the sisters did their first TV show."

"Right, you almost went back to directing with the pilot of that one!" Sol had to admit, even for showbiz standards, Josie's disciples seemed to be extra connected with one another. "Are the rumors true though, are you going to be directing again soon?"

"I toyed with the idea. I've actually had meetings at both Meshflixx and Supreme Video—two of my most hated streaming services—if you can believe it." Sol did believe him among other things because she'd seen him get to one of those meetings. "And then I realized that being back in the director's chair would leave me little to no time to maintain my physical regimen and keep up with my social life. Plus, my wife wants us to travel more."

Mark told Sol, strictly off the record, that he'd called Meshflixx and Supreme Video that morning to politely decline their offers.

Family, friends, and health had taken precedence even for someone with such a successful filmography as Mark.

…

She met Luke for a drink after that but told him that she really couldn't keep up with that much alcohol intake. Between her recent trip to Barcelona and her many encounters with him, she was consuming quite above average for a worried-well like her who regularly never drank more than one or two glasses a month. Alcohol had high sugar content and inflammatory qualities.

"How did it go with Meshflixx?" she asked him after they'd adequately greeted each other.

"We told them everything. Sara had no opposition to us telling the streamer about her sister."

"Were they surprised?"

"Not really," Luke said. "They suspected it could be someone on the inside who wasn't happy because with the leak of the script—and the Twitter hack you told me about—the aim was always to reverse one of Meshflixx's decisions. That's why they didn't go to the police. They just didn't know who it was but hoped T&T's investigation would clear it out. They didn't appreciate the agency's style and decided to cut the investigation short before being charged way too much money."

"So the hack was also Bryana?"

"They think so. They may have indicated that they weren't going to hire Leonardo Pascual for The Privateers role. He was Sara and Bryana's first choice, but he wasn't very well known outside of theater at the time. The whole hack indicated there was a lot of interest and fandom around him. It's funny though."

"What?"

"They didn't want to hire him two years ago, and now they would work with him in anything he'd wanted to do. That's why they wanted us to follow him for a while, to check if he was meeting with any other studios."

"Is he leaving Meshflixx?"

"Not sure, but Divya has followed him several times to a West End theater."

"Is he going to be back on the stage?" asked Sol enthusiastically. "I need to get tickets for that!"

"You don't even know what play he'll be in!" protested Luke. "But now that I know for a fact that, even if you find him irrefutably sexy , you didn't conspire with him to steal the script, I'm not jealous."

"Good because I don't do jealousy." She really didn't. "So is Meshflixx happy with the investigation after all?"

"They're happy that we cleared Sara from all this mess. At least now they can continue working with one of the Daniels sisters."

"I'm glad that's worked out," Sol said. "What will happen to Bryana—and Oliver?"

"Professional purgatory," said Luke. "Meshflixx has banned them and will be sharing their dubious practices with the other networks, streamers, and studios so that they do the same. I'm told their showbiz careers are over."

"So fitting," she said. "Especially after they tried getting me in professional purgatory!"

"But I have bad news. It looks like The Privateers will have to be canceled after this mess because Sara can't see herself working on it without her sister." Luke frowned. "She'll be developing something new for Meshflixx, and Martha Broch is already attached as title designer. But I think Sara is going to wait until that strike you told me about gets sorted out."

"I'm a bit sad there'll be no new adventures of the captain and the quartermaster on The Privateers ," said Sol. "But I'm happy they had their happy ending together, even if it looks like they were one more victim of the Moonlighting curse."

"Look at you, Sol Novo," Luke said. "I didn't have you pinned for a romantic. Are you sure you're feeling all right?"

Sol was about to tell Luke to go to hell when she got a text message from Laia.

"Laia's new-ish babysitter just quit," she told Luke while reading her friend's message. "She's canceling our dinner plans for tonight."

"I may regret this, but why don't you tell her I can take care of demonic Paula while you two have dinner together?"

"Are you crazy? That kid is all cuteness and I love her to pieces, but she is a little demon. I've never babysat her, and I'm her mom's best friend in London!"

"Oh, I know I'll regret this," Luke said. "Deeply. But let's say I feel I need to pay my dues with Laia, or I'll never be on her good side."

"I see." Sol thought about how Laia could be. "She's been giving you the rude treatment because you lied to me."

"She has. I feel that, unless there's some kind of grand gesture coming from me, she'll stare at me with a judgmental, impassive gaze forever. And I don't like not being liked. Also, since she's your friend and all, I should find a way to make her at least tolerate me."

"Probably," Sol admitted. "I have extremely good taste in friends."

"They take care of you," Luke agreed.

"And I take care of them, lending them sexy private investigators who can pretend they know how to babysit," joked Sol.

"Minding Paula for a couple of hours shouldn't be that hard, right?"

"You wish!" Sol laughed and texted Laia with Luke's proposal.

Laia's answer came immediately.

"She says okay, be at her place promptly at 7:15. She says she doesn't like tardiness, but I can tell you that is not true." For the first time in days, Sol wasn't worried about anything. "Also, she says she won't pay you because liars don't get any money from her."