CHAPTER 3
“Do you need some help?”
Georgie blinked.
Seth was standing beside her. Tapping the top of her head with a folder. Jeff German wanted an episode rewritten before the writers all left for the holidays—and it was mostly Georgie’s job to finish it. (Because she didn’t trust anyone else to help.) (Which was her own issue. And not something she should be irritated about.) The whole afternoon had been a blur of noise and food and Christmas carols. For some reason—well, for alcoholic reasons—everyone had decided to sing Christmas songs from two to three thirty. Then somebody, maybe Scotty, had tried to slide a shrimp tray under her office door. Now it was six, and quiet, and Georgie was finally making progress on the script change.
“No,” she told Seth. “I’ve got it.”
“You sure?”
She didn’t look up from her screen. “Yep.”
He settled against the desk, her side of the desk, next to her keyboard. “So . . .”
“So what?”
“So,” he said, “they went to Omaha.”
Georgie shook her head, even though the answer was yes. “It made sense. We already had the plane tickets, and I’m going to be working all week anyway.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Seth nudged her arm with his leg. Georgie looked up. “What’re you gonna do on Christmas?”
“I’ll go to my mom’s.” It was only sort of a lie. She could still go. Even if her mom wasn’t home.
“You could come to my mom’s.”
“I would,” Georgie said. “If I didn’t have my own.”
“Maybe I’ll go to your mom’s, too.” Seth grinned. “She loves me.”
“That’s not much of a character reference.”
“You know, she called here three times this morning before you got in. She thinks you let your phone die on purpose. To avoid her.”
Georgie turned back to her screen. “I should.”
Seth stood up and slung his leather messenger bag over his shoulder. It was going to take Georgie another hour to rewrite this scene. Maybe she should just start over. . . .
“Hey. Georgie.”
She kept typing. “Yeah.”
“Georgie.”
She looked up one more time. He was standing at the door, studying her. “We’re so close,” he said. “It’s finally happening.”
Georgie nodded and tried to smile. It was another weak effort.
“Tomorrow,” Seth said, then thumped the doorframe with his palm and walked away.
Georgie was on her way home when her sister called.
“We ate without you,” Heather said.
“What?”
“It’s nine o’clock. We were hungry.”
Right. Dinner. “That’s okay,” Georgie said. “Tell Mom I’ll call tomorrow.”
“She still wants you to come over tonight. She says your marriage is over, and you need our support.”
Georgie wanted to close her eyes, but she was driving. “My marriage isn’t over, Heather, and I don’t need your support.”
“So Neal didn’t leave you and take the kids to Nebraska?”
“He took them to see their grandmother,” Georgie said. “It’s not like he’s fighting me for custody.”
“Neal would totally get custody, don’t you think?”
He totally would, Georgie thought.
“You should come over,” Heather said. “Mom made tuna mac.”
“Did she put peas in it?”
“Nope.”
Georgie thought about her empty house in Calabasas. And the empty suitcase sitting next to the closet. Her empty bed.
“Fine,” she said.