Hibiscus Films

"I thought this interview was going to be about my work projects rather than my personal life, Ms. Delfina," he said curtly.

"And we've discussed your projects at length," Juno said without missing a beat. "You've also told me about your personal life to an extent when we talked about why you bought the farm. I thought this was a natural progression of that--you know, considering it was your suggestion for me to come out here in the first place."

Felipe pursed his lips and sighed. She wasn't intimidated by his looks, height, or muscles the way most female interviewers were. He'd even managed to have an effect on the married ones in the past, at least enough to make them soften their approach.

Juno

"Alright, fine," Juno relented. "I'll tell you about myself if you just answer that last question. By the way, I'm a book reviewer, not an entertainment writer. I'm not interested in the gossip so you have my word I won't include it in the article."

"Then why ask?"

"Because..." Because I really need to know some of your flaws right about now, for my own good, Juno answered in her head, throwing a sidelong glance at his sculpted chest under his tight, raglan baseball shirt. Rich, sexy action stars couldn't give two shits about anyone else even if they did grow up poor.

"Because some of us normals have no idea how relationships work in Hollywood," she said out loud. "Just hoping to gain some insight."

"The problem was, our relationship only worked in Hollywood," Carter admitted. "Chelsea and I bought a house together in Pasadena but it was all her choosing. I was still committed to living in Canada because I didn't want to lose the part of myself that was grounded. She grew up in California and couldn't take the cold or the simpler lifestyle up here."

"So you were okay with the LA parties but she wasn't okay with Leafs games?" Juno confirmed with a smirk. Carter gave her a rueful laugh.

"Oh, I couldn't stand LA parties but she dragged me along," he smiled. "After Nico was born all I wanted to do when I didn't have to work was be with him. I offered to watch him while she went to weddings and parties alone, but as you can see, that didn't go over well." It was a moment before Carter realised Juno had snuck an extra question in.

Oh man, I was hoping you'd cheated on her or were a bad dad or something, Juno turned her face away from Carter and wrinkled her nose.

"Okay, now you owe me your life story," he said. Juno was hoping he'd forgotten about that. She swiveled back around and slowly ambled back up the path. He followed, letting his eyes momentarily enjoy the sway of her hips in her skintight, bootcut jeans.

"I kind of feel embarrassed at how boring it is compared to yours," she shrugged. "It was pretty routine. First-gen Canadian with two working-class parents who immigrated from Thailand, older brother who's an accountant now, grew up in the suburbs. Went to university, majored in creative writing, tried in vain to get published for years, took a writing job to stay in the game..."

"Got married?" Carter casually asked. Juno's face snapped upward in surprise.

"Uh... yeah. That too," she confirmed. "Worked on my short stories in my spare time, got divorced..."

Felipe/Carter

Felipe's heart quickened, and he turned to look at her just as she turned her gaze forward.

"That's a lot of hardware on your hand, though," he replied, trying to keep his voice neutral.

"I like deterring strange men from talking to me," Juno smiled. "It works wonders; you should try it sometime." Felipe laughed, feeling a noticeable lightness in his chest just as they climbed the last incline and saw his farmhouse come into view.

"Strange men talking to me is how I staffed this place," he told her, receiving an arched eyebrow in return. "Every one of these guys was homeless and we ran into each other when I was on movie sets. I have a clause in my rider that requires a large percentage of the crew on my sets to be local homeless folks. Sometimes that bit of pay is the extra boost they need."

He toyed with the idea of telling her at this point that his real name wasn't Carter Amos. It wouldn't be too awkward if he did it right now, he thought. Maybe just say something like 'You know, we've actually met before, a long time ago before I was in the movies...'?

Felipe was trying so hard to craft the right sentence that he didn't notice Juno looking at her feet while walking beside him.

Juno

Oh, goddammit, Juno thought, feeling the stirrings of her initial attraction to this man grow stronger. She let her hair shield her face as she scrunched her eyes shut in frustration. Luckily, he also seemed a touch distracted.

"But what I really want to know more about," Carter finally said after a minute of silent strolling, "is your short stories."

"Oh, no, I am still way too shy to talk about those," Juno responded after a moment. "You'd have to be one of my two best girlfriends or among a bunch of strangers on Internet writers' forums."

"Well, you don't have to talk about them," Carter pressed, clearly amused. "Just e-mail me one or send me a link."

They reached the farmhouse and walked around the corner, at which point Juno said she was going to wander around and take some pictures of the crops.

Felipe/Carter

As Felipe watched her stroll into the fields, he spotted Jakub getting into his truck.

"Hey," Felipe called out, "going into town to get lunch?"

"Yeah, got any requests?" Felipe held his hand up, then disappeared into the house for a moment. He emerged with a slip of paper and what looked like a few small boxes in a plastic bag.

"If you're going to that panini and pasta place, this is for me and Juno," he said, handing him the paper along with a $100 bill. He ignored Jakub's smirk. "Keep the change or buy something for the guys with it. And this," Felipe added, handing him the bag, "is for anyone on the streets who wants them." Jakub peered inside to see every cigarette Felipe had on him.

"This carton is only missing one pack," he said, perplexed. "And the second one isn't even open."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Felipe grimaced. "I'm done with them. Take 'em and go before I change my mind." Jakub looked out in the direction he'd seen Juno heading a minute earlier.

"That must've been one helluva walk."

***********

That night, Felipe tried to think about anything except smoking, already feeling the urge for just one more drag. He regretted forgetting to ask Jakub to bring him back nicotine patches earlier that day.

You went through this when you were training to bench your own body weight, he thought. It's just mind over matter. He was running out of ways to distract himself. He'd already had dinner, video-called Nico, and stayed outside until the sun went down. He was sitting in the living room and staring at the walls when his phone lit up.

Fine, you win, Juno had texted him. Here's one of them. Never mention it again. Felipe raced to open the attached document, partially in disbelief that Juno actually sent him a short story of hers, and partially thankful he had something to take his mind off cigarettes. If he hadn't just quit smoking, he'd have been riding the high of learning she was single.

Why the hell didn't you just tell her in the field, you jackass? he scolded himself as he put down his phone for a second, unable to figure out why he'd froze earlier that day instead of simply re-introducing himself as Felipe.

No, he winced, looking at the far wall at a smiling picture of his late mother when she was about his age, shortly before she got sick. He asked himself how he could be so open in interviews about being homeless at one point, but still feel shame at reminding Juno that that was the state he was in when they'd first met.

It's just so much easier to be Carter Amos than your Felipe, isn't it, Mama? No past and a shitload of money and power, he thought, walking across the room and wistfully touching the frame.

Maybe there's no point in dredging this up anyway, he rationalised, wondering if he'd ever run into Juno again. She's made her disinterest in me pretty damn clear. Now she's done her feature and all I have is...

He looked down at his phone and opened the downloaded document Juno had just sent him. Felipe read her story, then read it again slower, imagining the characters and appreciating the nuances. Then he sat down in his easy chair as an idea dawned on him.

How are you having trouble getting published? he texted her after his third read. You're a fantastic writer and this is an amazing plot.

It's not about that in publishing, Juno replied a minute later. It's about what's hot right now. Ever wonder why one person came out with a vampire romance series and then 10,000 vampire series happened in the few years after that? Felipe smiled to himself at how she was funny even on text. He hit the call button.

"Look, I know you said to never mention it again..." he started.

"Way too late for that at this junction, don't you think?" Juno interrupted. Felipe could hear her smiling through the phone.

"...but I have a proposition for you," he finished.

"This better not be like that Robert Redford movie where he offers Demi Moore a million dollars for a night with her."

"Will you be serious for a minute?" Felipe smiled, trying not to be distracted at the thought of spending a night with the woman he'd quietly been in love with for over a decade. "I want to turn your story into a movie." There was a long enough pin-drop silence that Felipe looked at his phone to make sure the call hadn't been cut off.

"What?" Juno finally replied, her voice just a touch above a whisper.

"I just bought out Chelsea in the production company we started together, Hibiscus Films. I want you to get yourself a lawyer because I'm going to have my lawyer send you a standard screenwriter's contract to turn your story into a script." Another silence ensued and Felipe wasn't sure what was going on.

"Mr. Amos..."

"I said earlier today you could call me Carter," he reminded her, inwardly torn that he'd again chickened out at asking her to call him Felipe.

"No, that's alright." Juno had gone from playful to cordial with whiplash speed. "Mr. Amos, I know that helping people out is kind of your thing, but I'm not interested. I write because I love it; not because I'm desperate to find a way out of the life I have right now."

"That's... that's not how I meant to come across," Felipe said, trying to balance his thoughts with his panic in that moment. "I'm not trying to help you. I just read the most original thing I've read in a long time, and that includes the scripts of every movie I've made.

"Your story deserves this, even if you hadn't written it and we'd never met." When Juno didn't reply, he got even more uncomfortable.

"At least tell me you'll think about it," Felipe tried.

Juno

Juno slowly nodded to herself before thanking Carter Amos for having her over that morning and ending the call. She opened up her story on her laptop and read it to herself, trying to discern whether it really was a good enough piece of writing to become a film of all things.

The thought preoccupied her so deeply that she stepped into the GTA Life offices the next morning, caught totally off guard by the gaggle of her coworkers gathered around her desk. Including Lucy.

"Tell us everything," her boss demanded. "No detail is too small or insignificant." Suddenly, Juno was hearing questions thrown at her in surround sound about what Carter Amos had been wearing, how tall he was, whether she'd seen his abs, and how he smelled.

"Okay, okay, stop," she said, pointing at her colleagues one by one. "Jeans and a raglan baseball shirt; about six feet; no; and like an ashtray. Are we done here? I have to work on a 4000-word sleeping pill about this guy now."

The other women grumbled at her lack of enthusiasm but dispersed. Only Lucy saw that her friend was a different type of dour than she usually was. She motioned Juno into her office and shut the door behind them.

"Is everything okay?" she asked with concern. "Did anything make you uncomfortable yesterday?"

"No, no, don't worry Luce, you were right," Juno waved away her friend's concerns over her safety. "Carter Amos is an amazing human being and I even found myself getting kind of hot for him." Lucy's eyebrows shot up.

"But you're a little more crotchety than normal," she pointed out. "Can I chalk this up to having to write the story, or just good old-fashioned sexual frustration?"

"Nah, you know me. I can slam out 4,000 words between today and tomorrow," Juno responded. Then she told Lucy in detail of the day she'd had, culminating in Carter offering her the chance to write a movie script. Lucy's eyes grew wider and wider, but Juno stopped her before she burst.

"I'm hesitant because I don't know what this guy's play is," she said.

"Uhhh, he wants to make both of you a lot of money with an original film because you're a stellar creative writer?" Lucy answered. "Girl, do not overthink this. This is the big break everyone is after. Then we can just be friends without you grousing about every assignment you think is stupid because you won't have to work here anymore!"

"So that's your angle," Juno narrowed her eyes and grinned at her friend.

"You're goddamn right it is," Lucy laughed. "Look, if you have any regard for me at all, you will call him back and accept the contract. Even if it doesn't pan out, I don't want that to be because you didn't try." She looked through the business card holder on her desk and pulled three of them out. "These people are entertainment lawyers. Call one of them too."

That night, Juno got in bed and took a deep breath before reaching for her phone and pulling up Carter Amos's contact. Texting through this one would be a lot less painful than calling him, she decided.

Hey, she typed. I'm sorry about my reaction yesterday. If the offer's still on the table, I accept. It only took a few seconds for her phone to light up.

It's not, Carter replied. Juno scrunched her brow in confusion. Not without an additional condition.

"Oh, fucking hell, these Hollywood types are all the same," Juno muttered to herself as she waited for the boom to drop.

I want to oversee and contribute to the direction you take with the script, so I ask that you work on it at my place, Carter wrote. Juno's mouth dropped open. You won't be inconvenienced; I'll send a car to pick you up from work and drop you back home each day.

You want to micro-manage me? Juno typed angrily.

Have you ever adapted a screenplay before? Carter shot back. It's very different from writing a short story. But you don't have to come here so we can work together. I'll just have you do copious rewrites every day if that's better for you.

Juno was now more convinced he wasn't now--nor had he ever been--doing her a favour because he was attracted to her.

Jesus F. Christ, she simply replied.

He's not going to help you get through this script the way I am, Carter retorted, making Juno laugh in spite of herself. Let me know when and where I can have you picked up tomorrow afternoon.

***********

"You're the driver?" Juno asked Jakub when she saw the farm's pickup truck swerve toward the curb in front of her downtown office building.

"Stretch limos are only for the Oscars," Jakub grinned while leaning over to unlock the door. "Not that Carter's ever been."

"Right," Juno said as she got in the truck and they sped away. "I don't expect movies where the main character is liberating space aliens from their human captors to do too well with the Academy."

"Oh, no, I don't mean he's never been invited," Jakub clarified. "He's a voting Academy member; he just never goes to the ceremony. Says it's not his thing. Bad luck for him that it was totally his ex-wife's thing."

"Have you ever met her?" Juno wondered aloud as they got onto the 401 East on-ramp headed toward Pickering.

"Yeah, she and Nico have been to the farm plenty of times," Jakub replied. He chatted about what Chelsea and Nico were like, all the way until they were off the highway again and headed north on Brock Road.

"It's weird because they've visited here, but it's not like they've lived here, if that makes sense," Jakub went on, as they drove toward the 407 Express near where the farm was located. "But Carter's hoping to change that at least with Nico this time. The little guy just landed this morning."

Sure enough, he had, Juno saw as the truck pulled up to the farmhouse. A little boy sat on the front steps, pouting.

"Hey, little man," Juno said, noting how Nico had gotten his dad's black-brown hair and eyes. "I'm Juno. You bored?" Nico looked up, a little guarded, but seeming like he was pleased at being seen.

"Everything's boring here," he said. "And it's cold."

"It was 21 today!" Juno said. "Oh, but right... that would be maybe around 70 degrees where you're from?" Nico went back to looking unimpressed so Juno sat down beside him and pulled her phone out. "Okay, don't believe me," she said, checking a YouTube video to make sure it was age-appropriate. "Believe these guys."

Nico leaned over to see what she was playing on her phone, which was a cartoony video outlining fun facts about Canada. He frowned at it, then looked up at Juno when it was done.

"The US is warmer," he said.

"Yeah, but warm weather comes with all that other stuff like hurricanes and tornados," Juno countered. "And you live in LA, right where a bunch of earthquakes happen. That stuff isn't that bad up here.

"Plus, you can't build a snowman in LA the way we can in Toronto," she added tantalizingly. "If you stay long enough, we can use the plow attachment for Jakub's truck and push a bunch of snow in a pile to build a fort. Then, we'll hide behind the walls of the fort and throw snowballs at your dad." Nico cracked a smile.

She leaned back on the porch step behind her and kept chatting with the little boy, unaware his father was watching them through the screen door with a quiet curiosity.

"And guess what else we do here?" Juno continued. "When it's super cold, we pour blazing hot maple syrup on the snow, put a stick on it, and then roll it in the snow and eat it."

"Eww!" Nico exclaimed.

"Yeah, you're right, maybe I should have shown you before I told you. That's on the to-do list for this winter. But for now, do you have any idea where your dad is?" She turned around just as Carter stepped out the door.

Geez, Carter Amos, can you wear something that doesn't make your arms look photoshopped? Juno thought, noticing how the striped polo shirt he had on clung to his biceps. Maybe a bunch of brown paper bags glued together?

She was annoyed at herself for having bouts of attraction toward him when she prided herself on not being interested in the typical beefcake most of her friends and coworkers were drawn to.

He smokes, she reminded herself. It doesn't matter if he's single-handedly pulling people out of poverty while looking like he's chiseled from granite--smoking is a goddamn chastity belt.

"Your secretary isn't very good at small talk," Juno said aloud. "How much do you pay this guy per hour anyway?" Damn that half-smile Carter did where one corner of his mouth arched sideways to push out the dimple in his cheek.

"He works for hugs, toys, and food," Carter replied, "which is now. Time for dinner, papito." Seeing the question mark on Juno's face, he pre-empted what he knew she'd ask. "We'll eat later, after my man here goes to bed." He put up his hand just as she opened her mouth to object. "No--no. I'm bringing you out here on my request. You'll join us for the family meal."