Page 23 of Flowers To Give
Beyond dehydrated from the intense work week, Jeremy rolls his eyes but only considers protesting further. It’s not like Clark will put a funnel in his mouth to pour the liquor down, Jeremy will just have to nurse his glass. He takes a sip to cleanse his palette as he looks out over the crashing waves below.
“What the hell are you doing?” Clark asks.
Jeremy is getting a lot of whiplash from Clark this evening, brow crinkled as he replies, “What?”
“We didn’t cheers yet,” Clark huffs, holding up his glass expectantly.
Sighing, Jeremy recalls the Hawaiian toast from the party and clinks his glass against Clark’s, saying, “Kamau.”
“Huh,” Clark raises an eyebrow, “Eneki’s really rubbing off on you, hm?”
Jeremy’s gaze drifts back off to the expansive ocean and he admits, “I like it here.”
“Of course you do,” Clark scoffs.
Suddenly defensive, Jeremy spits back, “Yeah, so?”
“It’s just everybody does,” Clark sips his whiskey and gestures at the saturated sunset, “It’s Hawaii. Don’t be so predictable.”
Feeling like he just got hit between the eyes, Jeremy sits up straight and puffs his chest, asking outright, “What’s your deal?”
Clark laughs, “My deal?”
“Yeah. What, did you ask me here just to pick on me? And that shit yesterday with the EPs, what was that?”
“What are you talking about? Shit with the EPs,” Clark brushes him off.
“Don’t fuckin’ gaslight me, man,” Jeremy begins to seethe, deciding to rehash the incident, “I made a suggestion and you stomped all over me.”
“That?” Clark leans forward in disbelief, “Look, Jeremy, I mean this with full sincerity - you’re gonna need tougher hide than that if you want to make it through this movie. Don’t let just anybody get under your skin.”
“It wasn’t just anybody. It bugs me because it was you,” Jeremy tells him with heated intensity.
Clark visibly deflates at that comment, sitting back into his chair. He puffs on the dying cigar, smoke making his expression hazy. Slowly, the tension in Jeremy’s shoulders eases as well. He takes another healthy swig of his whiskey and glances overhead to two passing terns, squawking as they fly by.
“Alright. You got me,” Clark suddenly says, confessing, “I’ve had a bad week. I guess I was taking it out on you. Sorry.”
Thumbing at the rim of his crystal tumbler, Jeremy clears his throat before asking, “What’s up?”
Clark doesn’t answer right away. A lengthy silence falls over them before Jeremy finally looks over to find Clark staring at him outright with a fixed expression. The ember at the end of the cigar burns bright as Clark inhales, exhaling the smoke as he says, “Would you be willing to sign an NDA?”
“Aren’t I already on, like, two?” Jeremy grumbles, conceding, “Yeah, sure. What’s another?”
Clark swallows the rest of his whiskey then pours himself another while topping off Jeremy’s drink. At last, Clark starts with: “Laurelai and I are getting divorced.”
“Oh… I’m sorry,” Jeremy says. Yet inside, his heart is racing. Some part of him is thrilled to know that Clark’s marriage has failed, irrationally excited at the sad event.
“Yeah, well,” Clark stares into the amber liquid in his glass and sighs, “It’s been a long time coming. We decided beforewe moved out to Colorado, believe it or not. Thought maybe a change of scenery would give us another chance. But her and the kids hate it. We were gonna wait until after the holidays, for her kids, but she called me this week and told me she wants to sign the papers as soon as I get back. Now we have to get the PR together and have the kids sorted to leave again all while not fucking them up.”
Jeremy nods, listening before asking carefully as if he hadn’t read a few tabloids, “River and Ocean are from her previous marriage, with that other actor, right?”
“Yeah, Travis Monroe. But I’m not in much better shape. I was fresh out of my second marriage when I did Hotter Summer with Laurelai,” Clark openly reflects.
“You two fell in love on set?”
Clark smirks, “‘Love’ isn’t quite the word, but yeah. We started seeing each other while filming that.”
“Huh.”
