Speak Now

XX

"Get changed," Sam's voice fills the bedroom as he barges in and looks at me expectantly. When he eyes James sharing my bed, he frowns slightly, shakes his head and sighs. "Martha, we're going out, remember?"

I nod. "Well, I didn't forget, if that's what you're asking," I retort, unable to stop the sarcasm from lacing my words. Beside me, I hear James snigger, only to try and cover it up with a measly attempt at coughing. Looking down at what I'm wearing, I pull at the tattered, oversized grey t-shirt that was once James' but has been mine ever since I stole it out of the clothes hamper. There was no hope of me finishing watching the film and getting dressed in the next half an hour. I point at the TV and say, "Could we at least finish watching Spymaster: Vengeance first?"

"Vengeance?" Sam asks, suddenly impressed. "It's not even out yet. How the heck did you-" He abruptly stops when he realises how stupid he sounds. He pinches his eyes closed and grimaces. "Right, James is the star and obviously, you get previews. How long ago did you start watching it?"

I could see James was itching to correct Sam about how he was able to get his hands on a copy of the film before its release; yes, he's the star of the franchise but he's also a producer and has a contractual stipulation that he has some input into how it's edited, meaning that even though the film isn't in theatres until July, he's able to scrutinise the almost-ready cinematic version. To be honest, I also wanted to explain this to Sam but at the end of the day, it's not really something worth explaining in detail so we let his comment slide and tell him that we've literally just climbed into bed to start watching. We're barely past the intro credits. 

"Oh, right," Sam mutters. A mischevious grin spreads across his lips as he leans against the wall and crossed his arms over his torso. "Did you know that it's rude not to share? I think we should have a viewing party."

James shakes his head. "No, this is just for me."

"Martha's here," Sam argues. 

"Yeah, well, she's like an extension of me so the same rule applies," James effortlessly counters. Removing his dark, heavy-rimmed glasses and setting them on top of his notebook- which already has a few comments jotted on the first page- James tilts his head and tries to compromise. "Since you're like an extension of Martha, I guess you could stay and watch with us."

Sam ponders the offer before kicking off his shoes and motioning me to budge over. "Not quite the ménage à trois I've been dreaming of but I'm down with this. Do we have popcorn?"

The director of Vengeance had included a note in the package he's sent to James, saying that currently, the runtime of the movie was just over three hours and some additional scenes would need to be cut before it was ready. With a keen eye for how a movie would fare at the box office, both James and I could be critical and had absolutely no qualms in culling some action sequences that were, quite frankly, redundant. Sam, meanwhile, thought ever set piece was thrilling and would insist that everything should stay in the final cut, even going so far as to argue with myself and James. Naturally, he was overruled and at the midway point of the film, he sulked away, muttering, "You two don't have taste."