Page 85 of Total Creative Control
A couple of weeks ago, one of his now-departed temps had mentioned that everyone at RPP could see everyone else’s online calendar. Normally, he’d have ignored that sort of comment, but for once, his ears had pricked up, and he’d demanded to be shown how to access them.
Now he was contemplating Aaron’s upcoming day.
A morning full of meetings was followed by “lunch Tag” at Grinder at one p.m. The afternoon looked quieter and then he seemed to be planning to go along to the Monster Mash-up. His calendar was blocked out from seven p.m. till midnight for the party but he also had a six p.m. to seven p.m. slot marked out as “tentative” with the comment “Tag pre-drinks?” Which made Lewis scowl—two Tag meetups in one day? Clearly, unlike Lewis, Aaron recorded his private appointments in his office calendar as well as his work ones. In fact, Lewis could see that he’d even included his weekend plans. He had the whole of Saturday blocked out with the description “Leeches Ff meet up - Castlegate Hotel 10am reg - panel 2pm.”
Leeches Ff…Leechesfanfic?
And was Aaron talking on a panel?
“What are you glaring at?” Toni demanded.
He looked up to find her watching him with an amused expression. “Do I need a reason for glaring now?”
Laughing, she settled into Aaron’s chair on the other side of his desk. Except it wasn’t Aaron’s chair anymore, was it? His scowl deepened.
“Do sit down,” he said sarcastically. “Make yourself at home.”
She ignored that. “I have good news.”
“Go on.” His flat tone indicated that he thought this doubtful, but Toni continued, unperturbed.
“Charlie’s happy with the latest outlines we sent through. He doesn’t seem to have noticed that Michael is actually a thinly disguised version of Faolán.” She grinned. “And everyone over there loves ‘straight Faolán’. They’re getting really excited about casting him.”
“Well, excuse me if I don’t jump up and down for joy,” Lewis said drily. “Seeing as how it’s a huge, unwanted compromise that I’m still struggling with.”
“I know it’s a bit shit,” Toni said, sighing, “and I do appreciate you making these compromises to land the deal. But you’re going to have to get on board, Lewis. This is the reality if we want to proceed.”
“Have you raised the title thing again?” Lewis replied. “I thought we agreed we were going to dig our heels in on that.”
Toni winced. “Yeah, about that. It’s on the agenda for our call on Monday, but now Charlie’s gone ahead and had his art team work on all those mock-ups…” She trailed off.
Lewis ground his teeth. “Toni, I can’t live with fuckingBrahmins!”
“Then come up with something better,” she shot back. “We can’t just say no to everything! We have to have an alternative suggestion—”
“We do have an alternative suggestion! FuckingLeeches!” Lewis rolled his chair back and stood abruptly, clutching his hair.
“Christ, you’re tetchy these days,” Toni said, eyeing him disapprovingly.
He gave an inarticulate growl and turned away, pacing to the window.
“I gather you’re not having much luck with your temps,” Toni said in a deceptively smooth tone. “Still missing Aaron?”
Lewis just grunted. The latest temp, Clare, wasn’t too bad—she’d lasted three days so far, which was better than any of the others. Maybe he was mellowing. Or maybe it was just that she was a bit older than the usual ones he was sent and had worked in TV before. Plus, she didn’t take any shit from him. He quite liked her, actually. She would never get involved in script stuff, like Aaron, but he could see her working out purely on the PA side.
But yeah, he missed Aaron, though perhaps not for the reasons Toni thought. At least, notmainlyfor those reasons. He missed talking to Aaron about the show. Missed his insights, the way they sparked off one another. But most of all, he just missedseeinghim. Talking to him about everyday stuff. Coming out of his office to find Aaron frowning at his screen or poring over a script. The way he’d look up at Lewis with that open, easy smile that Lewis would give his fucking left arm to see again.
Now when Aaron looked his way, his expression was wary. Guarded.
“How’s he getting on?” he said at last. It was the first time he’d asked about Aaron.
“Really good,” Toni replied. “He’s great at the structural stuff, isn’t he? And I love the way he gets into the bones of every character, even the minor ones.”
Lewis nodded without looking her way. “Yeah, he’s got a real thing about making sure every line a character says makes sense in their internal world.” He snorted. “It can get kind of annoying actually. He’s a real nit-picker.”
Toni chuckled. “He certainly stands his ground on stuff he feels strongly about.”
Lewis turned back to face her. “I told him I’d speak to Charlie about whether there might be a role on the US show for him, a storyliner maybe. Seeing as how this pilot’s a temp role.”