His Last Chance

Chapter 32

"Right," I clap my hands together as I glance at the manuscripts on the table. "Run me through the options one more time."

Martin sighs but grins as he hands me pages one by one, each with a contract for a different film.

"Ok, first up we have Little Women. A classic drama and romance, one of my favourite choices I've got to say."

"Do we get to cast or is it set?"

"It is already decided for this one, but guess who we'd get to work with."

"I don't know."

"Go on, guess."

"Martin-"

"Emma Watson. And Timothee Chalamet. Timothee. Fucking. Chalamet."

I shrug, then laugh at his horrified face.

"I'm joking Martini Man. I know, that's a big deal and you're very excited."

"That doesn't even cut it," he grins as he drifts off into his own world, probably imagining a world where his name is Martin Chalamet.

"Okay, please remember you have a husband."

Martin shrugs, "He can join."

"Moving on! What's next?"

"Alright, next one is called Marriage Story. Written by Noah Baumbach, he already has a cast list in mind, but he's said we can tweak it if we want. But at the top of his list is Scarlett Johansson so...... Don't want to mess with perfection you know?"

"Next?"

"Well, there's this short musical thing called Anima, but it's only like a quarter of an hour."

"Pass," I pick up a chunky manuscript off of the table. "What's this for?"

"A documentary about wild habitats called Our Planet."

"Let me guess. David Attenborough?"

"The one and only."

"What do you think about that one?"

"Traipsing around the world, living in a van and having deadly encounters with rare species? Pass."

Well I thought it sounded cool, but he clearly doesn't agree.

There's one more script on the table that we haven't looked at yet.

"What's that one?" I ask as I point at it.

"I don't know, something about Gloria and American money."

"You what?" I laugh as I pick up the script. "Dolor y gloria. Pain and Glory. Martin this is Spanish."

"Yeah I know. But it's with some other guy, Pedro something."

"Pedro Almodovar?"

"Yeah that's it."

"Martin..... this is huge. Genuinely. Pedro Almodovar is one of the top rated Latin American directors, his work is incredible."

"Maybe, but it's all in Spanish. And my knowledge of Spanish is passable."

"Well how much do you know?"

"Hola. Gracias. Hijo de puta. I can string some sentences together but nothing too fancy. Why, how much do you know?"

"Pues, claro que yo domino la lengua, Senor. Mi tatarabuela es de España así que aprendí la lengua cuando tenia 9 anos."

He stares at me for a second.

"I don't know what you just said but it sounded cool."

"My great-grandmother was Spanish."

"Wait, why the fuck am I only just finding this out?"

I laugh a bit, "I don't know, I guess it's never come up before."

"Well, you know, it's a cool opportunity....."

"But?"

"We'd have to relocate."

"Relocate? As in move studios?"

"Not just studios y/n, we'd have to move countries. You don't expect this Almodovar guy to travel here with his whole cast, do you? No, we'd have to go to them."

Move countries.

Move to Spain.

Could I leave my life behind? My home, my studio, Jamie?

I can't believe I'm even considering this, it's not going to happen.

I mean, it's appealing, sure.

It's not practical.

Live there for a year, or however long it would take, and then come back?

To what?

No more home, no car, no studio.

No Jamie.

There's no way he'd come with me and I couldn't ask him to wait for me for a year.

Or longer.

"Y/n?" Martin's hand waves in front of my face, and I jump slightly. "You good? You spaced out."

I give him a weak smile and rub my hand over my face. "Yeah, I'm good. Just drifted off into my own little world for a moment."

"....... Is it a Spanish world?"

I shake my head quickly. "You can put that script to one side, we're not doing it."

"Y/n..... If this is something you're really interested in, then we can look into it?"

"No no, it's ok. It's not a big deal."

"Are you sure?"

I hesitate for a second, but then I decide in my head that that's that.

"I'm sure. We're not moving. This our studio, our home. We're not giving it up."

He looks a bit wary but also relieved that we're not leaving.

"Ok, so it's between Marriage Story and Little Women," I say as I hold the two remaining contracts in my hand. "I think I know which one you want to do."

Martin mutters under his breath, "I'll do Chalamet any day."

"Martin. If we do this, I'm gonna need you to keep it in your pants."

"Y/n, please! I'm a married man!"

I raise an eyebrow at him.

"I'll just have to keep my thoughts to myself," he grins to himself.

"Right, Little Women it is."

"Are you sure? 100%?"

"100%. Let's do it."