If I can ever stop tweaking with this chapter of Cleaving, you’ll see it on AO3 soon…
“This one’s for you,” Zach told Chris as he delivered the last round of gifts.
Chris shook the narrow, blue box, raising his eyebrows when he felt how light it was. He tore at the paper and lifted the lid to uncover two tickets.
“Grey Gardens is coming back to L.A.?” His smile was everything Zach could have hoped for.
“I know you missed it when it was on Broadway, and we were both shooting Trek when it came through the first time. I’ve read reviews; this cast is supposed to be as good as the original. The date…” Chris’ face fell as he looked at the tickets more closely. “I had to guess on the date. I know your film schedule is still fluid, so if this isn’t going to work, I can exchange them once for free to any other date during the run. Or I can return them for credit if you’re going to be out of town the whole run.” He tried to hide the disappointment in his voice, but the look on Chris’ face made it clear that the date wasn’t going to work. This had been a stupid idea. He knew Chris’ schedule was completely impacted, but that particular weekend wasn’t spoken for yet — at least in the electronic calendar they shared — and he’d wanted something firm for a gift. Something to look forward to.
His mom was looking back and forth at them, and Nathan was collapsing on the sofa again and turning so that his feet were high along the back, which he knew there were rules against, but no one seemed to have the heart to enforce them at the moment. The Christmas music suddenly felt oppressively cheerful.
“I’ll try, Zach. They’re starting to schedule the sound-stage work, and that’s in England, too. But I’ll try to keep this free. If I have any say, I’ll keep it free and be in town.”
“It’s fine,” Zach said, scanning the floor for a distraction. “Whatever happens. We’ll roll with it. I certainly understand how crazy film schedules can be.” And he did. He really did. This wasn’t Chris’ fault. He grabbed the package next to him. “This one for me?”
Chris nodded, though he still looked worried. Or guilty. Or
something that had no place on Christmas day. Zach forced a smile and
tore into the package.
Where I wrote 3250 words of Cleaving, nearly getting to the end of the chapter.
In related news, I finally got Google Docs working on my iPad again, but I have to write each chapter as a separate doc. **insert eye-rolling emoji here**
“Daring Greatly ” by Brene Brown would be a great choice IMHO.
Is that non-fiction? For some reason I was really thinking of a novel, but all the best options seem to be non-fiction… I’m worried that as a gift it can seem like Zach is making a suggestion for something he finds lacking in Chris, as opposed to something he thinks he’d enjoy, you know? There’s always a chance that a novel could hint that way anyhow, but I’d rather be more subtle. That said, I’m coming up a bit dry, so I will definitely look into this as well. Thanks so much for the suggestion!
After scouring countless interviews, we have compiled a list of nine books for our book clubbing pleasure. Nine books is a good selection to chose from, and we want your input. Tell us which of these you most want to kick things off for our first book for the month of June. (Each book title with author name is a link to the Amazon page with the price and summary of it.)
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