Cardinal (Love in Los Angeles, #4)

2-7

THEY EAT DINNER TOGETHER at the restaurant and bar in Húsavik. The place is crowded, because it’s Saturday night and it’s the only option in town, but no one pays any attention to them or even tries to get pictures. Ali is clearly having the time of her life acting like a tiny adult even without anyone pointing a camera at her. Like Liam, she mostly loves the paparazzi. Her ego is charming, though Alex is mildly terrified by the idea of how gregarious Claudia might be at age seven. She and Vic may not be much in the way of conversationalists, but that also means Alex doesn’t have to worry about them interacting with the outside world just yet.

The meal goes on for hours. Dinner in Iceland, Alex has discovered, pleasantly lacks the aggressive efficiency of everywhere he’s been in America. Considering they have two babies to tend to, it’s a particularly nice pace.

Eventually, the conversation turns to Scism again. Alex is happy to listen to Liam talk about dead Victor’s show, and happier still that he doesn’t have to be a part of it. Because it seems like everyone else they know — except Olivia and Paul — is.

Jackson’s already attached as a writer, which is a pleasant surprise. Alex got to know Victor’s personal assistant pretty well in the wake of the man’s death. They’ve kept up with each other in the time since, and Alex knew that Jackson, like every other assistant in Hollywood, was pounding out pages. In Jackson’s case, they were actually good. Which, Alex supposes, helps explain why Victor hired him in the first place. He can’t help but wonder what opportunities might have come to Jackson earlier than this if Victor had lived.

Gemma, Alex’s best friend since they were both high school kids who met on the internet, is involved too, in production. She’d been the one to get Liam on board, in fact. She hadn’t reached out to Alex about working on the project, but then, Alex doesn’t do development and has been occupied with Saga.

It’s a good team, as far as Alex can tell. The one issue is Liam’s ongoing feud with Minette Lewis. Minette is Gemma’s boss and mentor who’s overseeing the entire project for the network, and Liam can’t stand her. Which, as far as Alex can tell, has everything to do with Liam and nothing at all to do with Minette.

Alex has been getting annoyed emails from Liam detailing all the ways Minette isn’t respecting Victor’s vision or legacy or something for months now. Which, given Alex’s own complicated feelings about the man and his body of work, he can only barely sympathize with. Victor needs a restraining influence, even — and perhaps especially — now he’s dead.

Liam isn’t the only one he’s heard from about this process, either. Gemma has been emailing just as often, usually from the middle of meetings, complaining about Liam and Minette’s antagonism and the almost-but-not-quite shouting matches that have erupted between them more than once. While Alex finds the situation amusing from a distance, he’s glad not to have to deal with the drama in person.

“I’m still surprised you want to move to development at all,” Alex says. Liam loves to be loved, and there sure as hell isn’t any love in there. “I can get why you want to work on one of Victor’s projects, but why like this?”

“I want Scism to happen,” Liam says. “And I do want to start getting back into work, but I don’t feel ready to be in front of the camera yet. If I stay on the development side, I can make sure the best hands get involved and that it’s the show Victor wanted it to be. Or, well...the show Victor could have gotten away with.” Liam grins and turns to Paul. “Are you sure you don’t want to be in on it?”

“Victor’s fantasy Catholic church political drama pilot is completely not my thing. And not something I want to deal with the consequences of,” Paul says for the thousandth time. “Claudia, no, no, no forks for you yet,” he adds, leaning over to off her a spoon in exchange for the utensil she just grabbed from Carly’s place setting.

Claudia drops the fork, grabs the spoon, gives Paul a gummy grin, and starts gnawing on the handle.

Liam doesn’t seem to notice the interruption. They’ve all long since gotten used to conversations being punctuated by baby drama. And babies at least are cuter than cell phones going off because of production crises. Or anyone being dead.

“I was there when he wrote it,” Liam goes on. “And I was the one who told him he couldn’t pitch it. Time wasn’t right. But it is now. Better, at least.”

“How old even is that thing?” Alex asks because it’s better than asking how the time could ever be right. Whatever they do with Scism, it’s going to piss people off.

“So, remember a few years back, when the Pope announced that maybe gays weren’t evil and could maybe be part of the Church after all?” Liam asks.

“Um. Sort of,” Alex says, because that’s ringing a vague bell, but he doesn’t exactly stay current on the doings of the Roman Catholic Church.

“Well, okay, that’s not precisely what he said. But that was the gist. Which pissed off a whole lot of people, so it got retracted the next day. It was all f****d up. Victor was really, really upset, and I think started fighting with fans about it on Twitter. I don’t even know why. But more than anything he wanted to write a show about it, what might happen if part of the Church decided to be, you know, more enlightened and broke off from the rest of it. So we stayed up one night talking about it, and our very different Catholic childhoods, and like everything while he wrote a bible. A show bible,” he adds. “Not the religious kind.”

“Normally, I don’t think that’s a clarification you’d need,” Alex says dryly.

“Victor was furious, but it was such a good time. So that’s the thing I want to do.” Liam’s voice is tender and pained.

“Then why did you tell him not to pitch it way back when?” Alex asks. There’s a lot about Victor and Liam’s relationship Alex still doesn’t understand, and he’s fascinated by a Liam who could stand up to Victor about his work.

“A couple of reasons. One, it was half-baked because he was angry. It was brilliant, but.... Two, I didn’t want to deal with the fallout.”

“And you do now?”

Liam shrugs. For a few moments, everyone around the table is quiet.

Then Liam pushes back from the table. “I’m going to go get some fresh air.”

“Do you want company?” Alex asks. Liam still looks pensive and a little sad.

Liam waves him off. “Nah, I’m fine.”

Having learned to take Liam at his word, Alex turns his attention to Claudia, who is now trying to cram her entire bib into her mouth.

“What happened to Lee?” he asks after about fifteen minutes, craning his neck to look around the restaurant. It’s not a huge space. Liam didn’t take his coat with him. If he’s still outside, he’s in for some misery at the very least.

Carly tips her head toward the side of the room, a grin on her face.

Alex follows her gaze. Liam, far from catching his death in the Icelandic night, is at the bar leaning forward to talk animatedly with the bartender.

Alex sighs, exasperated.

“What?” Carly says. “He’s having fun.”

“He’s flirting with the bartender,” Alex protests, his voice low for the sake of Ali, who looks around to see what everyone is talking about. Ali knows, in a seven-year-old way, that her parents are polyamorous; she certainly knows that each of them date other people. But that doesn’t mean that Alex wants to deal with a lot of questions about that right now.

“The bartender’s hot,” Carly observes mildly at normal volume.

“But I’m friends with all the bartenders,” Alex moans. “This is the only bar in town.”