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She wasn’t quite ready to get into the gory details of her recent breakup and her five-point grief plan, so she tried to pivot the conversation. “It’s been good. I feel like I am seeing a lot of you lately. I just saw your new movie over the weekend.”
“Oh, you floated down the river of denial?”
Maye froze momentarily, surprised that Chris somehow knew about her personal plan to get over her break-up.
“My new movie?” Chris clarified.
“Oh, yes!” Maye said, relieved. “Should I call you Captain Chris?”
“Actually, if you recall, I was promoted to Admiral by the end, so…you did see the end, right?”
Maye must’ve done a terrible job pretending to strain her memory because he called her out immediately.
“You didn’t even watch till the end??”
“I fell asleep on the couch,” she admitted. “But let me guess, you saved the day and got the girl?”
“Well,” Chris looked like he was about to deliver a scolding monologue. “In short, yes.”
“Yay,” Maye patted her palm, offering a tiny applause.
“But it wasn’t easy,” Chris said as he leaned in towards his camera and rubbed his scruffy face. He looked like he hadn’t shaved in a day or two. “My character had just been through a horrific breakup. Completely unexpected. In the wake of an important work trip, no less. He had so much to overcome. That’s why he had to put his feelings on the back burner and just push through to get the job done.”
Maye nodded.
“Wow, Maye, your tells are incredibly obvious. The way you’re pursing your lips while you nod. You’re holding back on me.”
He was right. His oversimplification of the grieving process was hitting a little too close to home. “It’s just that it’s a bit more complicated than shoving feelings down and pushing through, you know?”
“Not for him,” Chris said. “You see, my character Randy needed to compartmentalize in order to accomplish the task in front of him…”
Maye tensed up when she heard the name.
“What?” Chris paused and tilted his head.
Her reaction was strong enough for him to notice.
“Is compartmentalizing not a real thing?” he asked.
“No, that’s not it,” Maye said. She considered how much to say about her own personal situation. On one hand, this was a business meeting with two people she had just met. She typically reserved pouring out her troubles for professionals or people who knew her really well. On the other hand, they were talking about a movie where the character had just gone through a breakup, and the character’s name was freaking Randy. Could there be a more convenient context? Maybe it could be healing. It would probably come up, eventually. Might as well own it.
“It’s just that…” Maye took a deep breath. “It feels silly to say, but this situation in your movie is a little too real for me right now.”
“Aw,” Chris sat back in his chair. “You have also captained a riverboat through the Amazon?”
Maye froze.
“I’m kidding,” he continued. “So you recently went through a breakup? I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thanks,” Maye said. “That’s partially why I am a little more on-edge lately,” she bit her lip to keep from criticizing his movie any more.
“You seem to be holding back a little, care to expand on that?”
“Hey, which one of us is the psychologist here?” Maye joked.
Chris smiled. “Come on, I can take it.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay. I just found it a bit ridiculous to think that someone could go from a breakup to falling in love with a completely new person within, what? Five days. It’s absurd. Especially when he’s on a work trip and he’s supposed to be pouring all of his attention and effort into their job. Extra especially, some dufus named Randy!”
