Almost Perfect by Tagan Shepard

Author:Tagan Shepard [Shepard, Tagan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2022-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Riley gave her query letter one last read and finally deemed it ready to send. She’d been agonizing over this since QueerCon. After all, it wasn’t every day she got a personal introduction to a successful showrunner. If this worked out, she could skip the laborious, often fruitless process of getting an agent. Plus, an agent would try to get her any old show, even if she had no interest in writing for it. That was if she could get one to take her seriously, unlike the one from QueerCon who, unsurprisingly, had not been in touch. This was a chance to write for one of her favorite shows in one of the only writers’ room in Hollywood that was majority queer and people of color. It was the dream job.

Honestly, Riley had probably leaned a little too hard on the flattery in her letter. It was common knowledge Ashton had pushed hard for the finale scene with Carmen and Erin. The studio wanted shock and gore in the style of The Walking Dead, but Ashton wanted to take The Railyard in a different direction entirely. She wanted to find the glimmers of hope in the darkest nights, and that appealed to Riley. Her spec script hinged on the lesbian leads getting away after the “I want better for us, not just good enough” speech.

“Okay, Nic,” she said to the ball of fluff on the guest bed. “Here goes nothing.”

She pasted her query letter into the email, attached her spec script, and smashed the send button before she lost her nerve. She let out a low, slow breath and stared at the screen.

“Done.” Nicodemus slept soundly through Riley’s hopes and dreams whooshing away in an electronic envelope. “Now it’s one hundred percent Olivia time for the next three days.”

Riley spun her chair around, happier than she had any right to be. She still got butterflies in her stomach when it was time for Olivia to visit. In fact, the butterflies multiplied with each reunion. Every day in between her visits felt like a lifetime. Riley tried not to dissect her feelings. If she thought about how much she craved seeing Olivia, she’d start to try to name those feelings, and Riley wasn’t the type to name feelings after only a couple of months.

She’d changed up her routine to accommodate this visit, working through last weekend so she’d have all her articles submitted by midweek when Olivia had time off. With summer tourist season in Florida, they had no choice. Olivia would be working more weekends for the next few months and Riley had enough established deadlines that she could easily adjust.

Riley was shutting down her computer when her phone rang, Olivia’s name on the display.

“Hey, babe, you here already?”

Rather than the usual teasing, throaty purr, Olivia’s words were rushed. “Hey, Riley. I’m sorry. Something’s come up and I can’t make it.”

Riley’s smile dropped. “Can’t make it? I thought you’d be on your way.”

“Yeah, me too, but Poppa has a doctor’s appointment and I can’t get away.

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