get cast for the easy, plentiful vanilla roles that had built my crumbled empire.
“Stop messing around. What did Lennon say?” I’d honestly been shocked that Maren’s agent had been willing to talk to me when I told her I specifically wanted Maren for the lead role in my project. I’d written the script a year ago when I was finally serious about my sobriety and realized I would die if I didn’t make some real changes to the way I was living. It wasn’t until I was one-hundred-percent clean and clear-headed that I realized I’d pretty much written the role for the woman from my past whom I couldn’t forget.
Maren Copeland was the only person I could see as the lead. She was the only one I wanted.
I knew she didn’t want anything to do with me. She’d gone out of her way to avoid me all these years, but if anyone could make the impossible happen, I believed it was Jeno. He got Lennon to speak with me, and he convinced the high-powered agent that Maren should at least consider looking at the project regardless of my attachment to it.
Jeno shook his head, sending his black hair swishing into his eyes. “Maren stonewalled her. She gave the idea a hard pass and told Lennon not to bring it up again. As her agent, Lennon wants her to look at the script. As her friend, she wants us to fuck right off and leave Maren alone. I know you’re set on her, but if we can’t get a foot in the door...” he trailed off and shrugged a strong shoulder, “we need a backup plan. Otherwise, all the work we’ve already put in is going to be wasted.”
I sighed and flopped back on the bed with my arms thrown to the sides. I blinked at the ceiling and tried to push the disappointment I felt to the back of my mind. I didn’t want to get discouraged, because when I got down, the urge to fall back on bad habits got the strongest.
“She still hates me.”
I kind of figured. But hearing it for a fact stung. So much time had passed. We’d both lived through so much, I’d not-so-secretly hoped she was willing to forgive and forget.
Jeno snorted and reached out and threw a pair of discarded track pants in my direction. “Can you blame her? You have three minutes left to sulk, then you need to put your ass in gear and get ready for the Zoom meeting. I don’t care if you wear pants, but you better look presentable from the waist up.”
He climbed off the bed and stood by the side with his arms crossed over his broad chest, and I wiggled into the pants.
“Do you think if I apologized to her in person and showed her I’m not a spoiled kid anymore, she might have a change of heart?” I knew I was reaching, but I was desperate. A lot was riding on the success of my first project since I’d gotten my life together. But it was hard for me to keep up the enthusiasm when I considered doing it without Maren.
“I think if you try and see her, she’s going to get a damn restraining order. You really fucked up her life when you were younger, Salinger. She struggled a lot because she tried to do right by you when no one else would. I think you tend to forget just how badly you hurt her.”
He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know, but it still sucked to hear. “Maybe I can just bump into her somewhere, so it doesn’t seem like I’m trying to corner her. That might be my best shot to get her to talk to me without having her run away or call the cops on me.”
Jeno swore under his breath and reached out to grab one of the pillows so he could swing it at my face full force. “Stop. You’re one step away from being a stalker.”
I grunted and tossed the pillow back at him. “It wouldn’t work anyway. She’s not on social media at all. I have no idea where she goes or who she spends time with. She’s been really private since she filed for divorce from her dirtbag ex.”
“That isn’t a bad thing. It’s better to keep some things to yourself. Get through the meetings we have scheduled for today, and we can look for another way to approach Maren. I know how important it