“You have my permission,” I tell him with grim humor.
“What do you mean?”
“To put on your producer hat because I’ll be damned if I can right now, and I guess somebody has to.”
“Galaxy is gonna ride us on this. They don’t want to be all am I the asshole, and they’re concerned for Neevah’s health, obviously—”
“Obviously.”
“But they’ll want a timeline. Trey has another project that begins shooting next month. Jill is booked for another film soon after. So is Kenneth. If we shut this production down now, it could compromise the last scenes.”
“No, it won’t.”
“And how do you guarantee that?”
“Because I’ll still be involved and I’ll make sure we get what we need once Neevah’s able to resume shooting.”
Tension pulls the line taut between us.
“Canon, but what if she—”
“Don’t you say it, Evan.”
“God, I don’t want to, but we have an unfinished movie with a huge budget on our hands. You’re the one who just told me to be the producer here, so I am.”
“What do you want me to do?” I explode, springing to my feet, prowling the waiting room. “I can’t think about that with Neevah sick. I just can’t care about this damn movie until she’s better.”
Story must be protected, at all costs. Sometimes at personal cost.
My words from the night of the New York film festival, the night I met Neevah, come back to haunt me. Damn, I was arrogant. It was so easy to say story must be protected at all costs, at personal cost when I had so little to lose. Now the only thing I care about protecting is Neevah, and there is no cost higher than losing her.
“Canon, I know,” Evan says, his voice sober. “I get it. You focus on her. I’ll buy us some time with Galaxy. They’ve been understanding with the slower schedule to accommodate her illness.”
“Well, I need them to understand that it’s doctor’s orders that she stop production immediately until further notice. Dr. Okafor wants her to start dialysis this week. That’s four hours a day, three days a week.”
“Shit.”
“Lots of people on dialysis can work and lead relatively normal lives. They do the dialysis and then go about their regular routines. Some even do it from home, but that takes weeks of training. Dr. Okafor hopes we’ll find a match for a kidney soon and not have to go that route, which brings me to the reason for my call.”
“There’s more?” Evan asks, injecting the tiniest bit of humor into the question.
“Can we see if Galaxy could bring Neevah’s mom here? She’s afraid of flying, and I think the private route might be better for her, and maybe get her here quicker.”
“I don’t see why that would be a problem. They’ll probably want to do anything that could move this along.”
“Right. I honestly don’t care about their motivation. I just want to give Neevah something. I feel pretty useless right now.”
“You’re where you should be doing what you should do. Now I’m going to go do what I should do. Let me talk with Trey’s agent and the rest of the production team. Update them and talk through some possible solutions.”
“Thanks, man.” I glance up to see Dr. Okafor approaching. “I gotta go. Keep me posted and I’ll circle back.”
Dr. Okafor’s usual impassive expression is tinged with concern.
“How is she?” I demand, slipping my phone in my jeans back pocket.
“She wants to see you. I’m glad you got her here when you did. This could have been a lot worse. She could have had a stroke, Canon.”
My heart palpitates. Skips several beats and the bottom drops out of my belly. I grip the back of my neck and have to sit down.