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Minutes later, Maye received an email for a meeting at noon the next day. The subject line said, “Pre-production meeting for untitled show.”

Wednesday was day two of her angry stage of grief, but Maye was having a tough time letting her frustration out because she was anticipating the meeting with Jayce. She had blocked off the whole hour on her calendar, even though the meeting was only scheduled for thirty minutes. A personal meeting like this would be better taken outside of the office. There should be a clear boundary between her professional ventures.

Maye found an empty table in the back corner of Tay’s Choffee Shop, so she dropped her laptop there and then jumped in line. She saw Tabby working the espresso machine, so she crossed every finger and toe she could, in hopes that Tay would stay at the register.

“Hey, Maye!” Tabby said as she approached the counter.

“Hello, Tabby,” Maye said as cordially as she could muster. She immediately wished she could take it back. “I didn’t mean to sound so cold. I’m just processing my grief.”

Tabby didn’t say anything.

“I mean, I assume someone has told you by now that Randall and I broke up,” Maye said.

Tabby nodded.

Maye’s phone dinged with a five-minute reminder about her meeting.

“Oh, I have to get on a call. Can I get an iced Americano?”

“I’ll bring it over,” Tabby offered. “You get on your call.”

When Maye joined the meeting, Jayce was already there, as was another participant she hadn’t anticipated seeing: Chris. Not that it made much of a difference, she just didn’t expect to see him. She certainly didn’t mind the surprise. He looked fantastic. Up to then, she had only seen him on stage at the livestream and in movies on TV. In each of those situations, he was made up for a public presentation. This was the first time she saw him as just a regular person on a video call. A regular person with perfectly quaffed hair and a better-than-average jawline. Eyes the color of the Mediterranean. Maye couldn’t help but adjust her position for ‌better lighting.

“Thanks for joining on such short notice, Maye,” Jayce said. “I just wanted to get everyone together to start planning for this phenomenal idea we have here.”

“No problem,” Maye said. “I didn’t realize Chris would be joining us. Nice to see you again, Chris.”

“Well,” Jayce said. “As a producer on the project, Chris will be involved in as much of the planning as possible.”

Maye recalled how a producer credit was swiped from under her during her initial call with Jayce. “Wait, he gets to be a producer but I can’t?”

“Well, this is just one of the many projects I am juggling at the moment, and Chris is going to be doing a lot of the legwork to get this project to the finish line. So it’s not just a label—”

“Oh, I love this,” Chris interjected. “Our psychology expert is already at odds with Production. This might actually add another layer of legitimacy to our project.”

“I am not at odds with anybody,” Maye said.

“I’m just playing,” Chris smiled widely. “How about we start with something fun? What should we call this little show?”

“Hmm…” Jayce leaned back in his seat and pondered. “Something that conveys both sides of the coin…Chris is Mr. Positivity, and Maye’s a psychologist…so…how about The Sparkly Session?”

“I think Chris is more bubbly than sparkly,” Maye said. “What about The Bubble Session?”

“Ehh…” Chris scrunched his face like he was not loving it. “Let’s spritz it up,” he said. “What about The Bubbly Session?”

The three nodded.

“Good name,” Jayce said. “Let’s hope it’s available. Hey, sorry everyone. I have another call I have to take. Chris, can you talk about the meeting schedule we discussed? I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Sure,” Chris said. “So, if you’ll allow me to try on my producer hat for a moment,” he pretended to tip an invisible cap, “I wanted to suggest that, Maye, you and I meet on somewhat of a regular call schedule? Maybe once a week? We can talk through show details, do some preproduction work, keep in touch, ya know?”

“Yeah, that sounds good to me,” Maye said. “I am happy to be as involved in everything as I can be.”

“And I was thinking,” Chris continued, “Not to pile even more on your plate, but it might be helpful for you to watch some more of these movies since our little project is closely related to the plots. You don’t watch them regularly, do you? I think it could be beneficial for you to dive into this world and get into the minds of these characters, even if you’re psychoanalyzing their every decision,” he said with a smile.

His smile was contagious. Maye hadn’t expected him to be so thoughtful and organized. Maybe she should have, though. He was a highly functioning professional, and was more than just a character on her TV screen. Maye glanced behind her laptop screen at Tabby behind the counter. Had she judged Tabby the way she’d judged Chris?

“Great!” Chris said, regaining Maye’s attention. “Now that that’s out of the way, whatchu been up to, Maye? How’s your week been since you went slightly viral?”