Second Act (His Chance 1)

“Sure, if you don’t think I’ll be intruding.”

“You definitely won’t be.”

When we got to my room, I turned the cat loose, finally put down the envelope with the contract, and plugged in my phone with the charger on my nightstand. Then Lorenzo and I sat side-by-side on my bed while I placed a video call to my parents. My mom answered on the second ring with, “Hey, Willie! How are you, sunshine?”

“I’m doing great. How are you and Dad?”

“Oh, you know us. Same as ever.”

“Is he around? I have some news for both of you.”

“Sure,” she said. “Hang on and let me get him.”

While she went in search of her husband, Lorenzo grinned and whispered, “Willie.”

“They used to call me Billy. When I tried to get them to call me Will in my late teens, that happened.”

“You know, you look exactly like your mom.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” My mom was beautiful, no doubt about it. Her dark, curly hair was shot through with gray, and there were laugh lines in the corners of her blue eyes, but aside from that, she still looked just like she did in her wedding picture.

My dad appeared on the screen and brought up a filter that gave them both cartoonish unicorn heads. Then he chuckled and said, “Hey there, Willie. How do we look?”

“Perfect. I want you both to meet my friend Lorenzo.”

“Just a friend?” My dad’s unicorn wiggled its eyebrows.

I ignored that and said, “I can’t talk long, because my friends are throwing me a party and I need to get back to it. I just wanted to let you know I landed a part in a movie, and I start filming on Monday in Northern California.”

Both my parents whooped with delight, and my mom said, “We’re so proud of you, Willie! What’s the part?”

“Remember that book I loved called Alex and After? I’m playing Alex.”

She exclaimed, “That’s huge!”

“It is.”

The unicorns disappeared, and my dad looked like he might cry as he said, “We’re so happy for you, kiddo.”

I tried to keep my voice steady as I said, “I’m going to try my best to make you proud.”

“You already do that every day, sweetie,” my mom said.

“Just so you know, I signed the contract today, and I was given the first installment of my salary. I made a deposit into your account, but maybe give it a day for the check to clear.”

“Thank you, Willie. That was very sweet of you,” she said. “Are you sure you don’t need that money for yourself, though?”

I shook my head and told her, “I have everything I need.”

My dad said, “I know you’ll be busy with that movie, but when do you think you might be able to come for a visit, kiddo? We miss you.”

“In a few weeks, hopefully. I’d better get back to the party, but I’ll talk to both of you soon. I love you.”

We said our goodbyes, and after we disconnected, I ran the back of my finger over my damp lower lashes and murmured, “Man, I’m so emotional lately.”

“For good reason.” Lorenzo leaned against me and said, “Your parents are adorable, by the way, and they really don’t seem old enough to have a kid who’s almost thirty.”

“They were high school sweethearts and got married right after graduation. Then they had me at nineteen. In a lot of ways, it seems like they stayed frozen at that age, which is why I’ve always felt the need to take care of them.”

“They’re lucky to have you.”

“We’re lucky to have each other. I might have grown up dirt poor, but I always knew I was loved. That’s everything, really.”

Lorenzo watched me for a few moments, and then he touched my cheek and murmured, “I’m going to miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too.”

“Do you want me to fly you to the mainland tonight, so you can catch your flight?”

“No thanks. I’ll just take the ferry and a Lyft.”

“You sure?” When I nodded, he said, “I should have offered to fly you to Mendocino, although a jet will get you there much faster.”

“It would have been a long round-trip for you, and fuel’s expensive.”

“I would have been glad to do it.” He picked up my hand and asked, “Do you think you’ll come back here between filming in Mendocino and San Francisco?”

“Actually, I was thinking that’d be a good time to visit my parents. I feel bad that I couldn’t afford to go home at Christmas.”

He nodded. “You should do that.”

“I won’t be busy every minute of the next four weeks,” I said. “Maybe we can figure out a time for you to come up.”

“You’ll probably need the weekends to learn your lines.”

“Even so, I’d love to see you.”

Lorenzo got to his feet and tried to look cheerful as he said, “We’ll play it by ear. Come on, let’s go back to the party. Beck said he was ordering sushi, which might mean you actually eat something.”