Page 28 of The Bodyguard's Fall

Ari: NO COMMENT. Also, this is completely unrelated, but Mr. Stevenson, the principal, is no longer old, crabby Mr. Stevenson. He is now a young and very flirtatious Mr. Stevenson.

Me: As in Wade Stevenson from high school?!?!

Ari: The very same. That was an important distinction I could have used distinctified earlier as well.

Reese: WHATTTT? You’re working with Wade?!

Ari: Like I said, completely unrelated to our topic of hot teachers.

Me: Because he’s the principal? It still counts.

Ari: It’s very different.

Ari: I have to run. Did you need something?

Me: I have six weeks to write a romantic screenplay. First time for me. In an effort to get inspired, I’ve been watching some horrifically cheesy TV movies that Reese recommended. But I can’t do it. There has to be better out there, right?

Reese: HEY. They are NOT cheesy.

Ari: Bite your blasphemous tongue. Cheesy romance is TOP TIER.

Ari: Best when paired with a bad day at school and a mug of hot chocolate covered in whipped cream and a cinnamon sticky bun from Keller’s. Don’t ask me how I know.

Reese: I like to pair a movie with a crisp, cold Dr. Pepper and a maple bar from Keller’s after a long day with my roommate.

Me: I’m not sure if that’s brilliant or really sad.

Ari: Hey! We’re the experts here.

Me: That’s what I’m scared of.

Ari: Give me ten minutes. I’ll send you a list of my faves.

In the end, my old friend gave me a handful of TV movies that she claimed to have loved. I didn’t know where to begin, but I picked one at random called Romance on Purrfect Lane.

I should have stopped right there with a title like that.

My laptop called to me. My current stress level was demanding that I make progress on my script, but I was terrified to face the dreaded blank page. So, instead of writing, I fired up my laptop, snuggled into my blankets with a notepad, and told myself this was research.

It was about the time the big-city lawyer woman was forced to move from her high-powered law firm back to her small town in Connecticut to help save her family’s dying cat bakery, The Sweet Whiskery, that I began to check out.

To be clear, there was no baking of cats at this bakery, which had been my first thought, and honestly…was the only thing that held my attention. Upon further investigation, I discovered that it was a high-end, gourmet, organic, and all-natural bakery for cats.

One quick Google search later and I could confirm it was, indeed, a thing.

But it was when she ran into her ex-high school boyfriend, who owned the land the cat bakery sat on and was looking to tear down said bakery as well as the adjoining buildings to make space for the fancy condos he wanted to build, that I had to turn it off.

So, ten minutes.

That was enough research for today.

The guy wasn’t even that cute, which I thought was mandatory for this genre.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected] Are you dead? Dying? Nursing a bad night? You missed our Zoom meeting yesterday. Daniel was furious. We need an official update on your screenplay. Are you okay? I tried calling you, and it kept saying the number no longer worked. I’m now worried sick. I will call the police if you don’t get back to me ASAP.

I groaned, wiping the sleep from my eyes. I hadn’t thought to check my emails yesterday. With my new phone nobody knew about, I hadn’t been getting the usual pings or notifications. Other than being stressed for the actual writing of my screenplay, I hadn’t given anything regarding work a second thought. Apparently, when one was snatched away from her life under the cloak of darkness, her previous life did not cease to exist.