The Write Match // Bill Hader

Thirty

It's been an hour and nothing. I've gotten nothing but nervous, and that's when there's a buzz on my office phone. I click the button and hear the secretary's voice.

"Ms. Elliot, you have a Mr. Hader here for you." She tells me.

"Send him in." I tell her and she hangs up. I straighten everything up on my desk and open my laptop and journal. Look busy, Meredith, so busy. Should I be standing, or should I stay seated? Or should I-

The door opens, and Bill walks in. He's in jeans and a plaid shirt, the same thing he always wears. He got his hair cut though. I know everything that I was planning to do, all the ideas that I once had are gone, but as soon as he looks at me, I look back down at my journal. I put my pen down, and I stand up, walking around my desk.

"Hi." That's all he says.

"That's it? Not to be rude, but I think I deserve a little more than that." I tell him and he smiles.

"Hi, Meredith. It's really good to see you." He tells me and I feel that same warmth in my chest.

"Much better. It's nice to see you too. John called me and he told me that you wanted to talk sketch ideas. I heard that you're working closely with Seth now, that's exciting." I smile, sitting on the front of my desk and he nods.

"Yeah. Did you want this, or did John make that up?" He asks and I furrow my eyebrows.

"I didn't know you were going to be here until about an hour ago." I tell him truthfully.

"I am so sorry. I'm sure you're busy, I can go and we can just find some other-" He starts and I cut him off.

"No, you flew all the way here. I'm not going to turn you away now, let's get to talking about what kind of ideas you have and just a basis of everything, is that okay?" I ask and motion for him to sit down, trying to keep this strictly business, he has no other intentions from what I can tell. "Do you know what Lorne is expecting? I know how he is, and you have made a lasting impression-" I start but he cuts me off.

"I want to do some of the ideas we never did..." He tells me and I raise my eyebrows, crossing out some ideas I had already come up with.

"Okay, that is a choice." I mumble and see him shrug.

"I think we had some really good ideas, Meredith. Everyone is writing stuff that I don't necessarily find funny or even understand, so I don't want to do that." He tells me and I nod.

"Writing is all about expression, being yourself and putting as much of yourself out into the world as you choose. If this is what you want to do, I'm here to help make it happen. We decided on some old or scrapped ideas, but I was thinking that we do something that will make us, and the audience entertained." I say and see him smile.

I move behind my desk, reaching into a drawer and pulling out my old journal from last season. I open a new document on my laptop and start getting to work. I haven't gotten to work on something like this in a long time and I'm excited to get to work again. I start typing feverishly and stop when I notice that Bill is looking at me, smirking. "What?" I ask and he shakes his head.

"It's always so interesting to see you work, the way this comes so easily to you and how you take one idea and work it a thousand different ways, that's all..." He tells me and I ignore him, looking back down to my laptop, actually excited to write something for once. I write a rough draft and see him trying to look over my screen, but I move my laptop closer to me.

"Not yet. You don't get to read it until I'm finished." I tell him and he leans back again. "Would you like to go down to the writers room?" I ask and he nods his head.