I yanked
the door open. “Jana! Mark needs you in here.”
She popped up from cleaning her station. “What? Why?” She came over and hovered in the doorway. “What’s up?”
“Come in and close the door,” Mark said.
Jana looked at me nervously. “Am I in trouble?”
“No, not at all,” I said. “I’m in trouble and I need your help. Mark wants me to have a storyline. My storyline is us plotting for me to get the girl.” I turned to Mark and explained the situation as quickly as I could. “Jana and I were talking outside one day and we danced around the topic but we could film the rest of the conversation like it happened then and edit it. We could film a couple of spots like, working backward.”
“I love everything about this,” Jana said.
“It’s not a bad idea. This only works if you get the girl though in the end.”
“Oh, I have her,” I lied. “We’re together. What if I ask my girlfriend and her baby to be on the show?” Savannah was not my girlfriend, but I could ask her to fake it. I was faking it as her boyfriend for her friend’s upcoming engagement party. This could be the same thing.
Only it was going to be on TV. She’d never agree to that.
But at the same time, she was used to filming video spots for her own career, and she’d shown Sully in videos. I’d seen them. Exposure was always good for someone who used social media as a platform. Maybe I could convince her if I asked her at the right moment.
Besides, this was a grand gesture, right? She loved that, and everything about me talking to a friend on a reality TV to plot how to win her was basically one of her movies.
In the end, maybe it would actually score points with her.
“You have a girlfriend?” Mark asked. “Why did I not know this?”
“It’s brand new,” I said. Slight exaggeration but I wasn’t hurting anyone. “We live together.” That was the truth. I pulled out my phone and showed him a picture I’d taken the week before of Savannah with Sully on the floor of the apartment. Her red hair was spilling across her face and she was laughing. Sully was staring up at her like she was a goddess.
“This isn’t your kid?”
“No.”
“There’s your angle, too. Kid of a single mom dates single mom. Bring her in. We’ll run with it and see how it plays.”
I didn’t want my life or Savannah to be an “angle.” But at the same time, I didn’t want to lose the gig.
“I’ll talk to her,” I said.
“Go back and look at the film and shoot those spots tomorrow. Make sure you wear exactly what you were wearing in the original segment.”
“I hate being an outfit repeater,” Jana said.
“So change after,” I said. “Jana, you have to do this for me.”
“Oh, I’m doing it. I never said I wasn’t. This is insane and I love everything about it.”
I didn’t love it. But I was willing to do whatever I needed to so that I wouldn’t lose my job and Savannah before I really even had her.
I knew precisely when to talk to Savannah. Two days later while we were post-sex naked on the couch, panting and satisfied.
“God, I love nap-time,” I told her. It was my favorite part of Saturdays.
She laughed and pushed on my chest. “I can’t breathe.”
I backed off and found the blanket on the back of the couch and pulled it over us. “I have an issue at work I want to talk to you about.”
She turned onto her side and faced me. “What? Is everything okay?”