Chapter 45 Chipfairies 2
Emily quickly stopped by her apartment to pick up some chocolates she was saving for the celebration—or for comforting in case the court decided against her. Not forgetting about Rupert, she grabbed a sausage for him. Nick wasn’t home, but she wasn’t too worried anymore since he had both work and studies now to keep him occupied, not to mention his dates with Katie.
Nick was shy and secretive about the new relationship, but Emily was fairly sure it was more than a friendship.
“You look dapper!” Byron said when she arrived at his place, still dressed up in her court room clothes.
Rupert came towards her, wagging his tail, and she fed him a few sausage slices, saving some for later.
“Thanks, I think,” Emily said, “Are women supposed to look dapper? I thought it was only men.”
“I don’t see why not,” he said, gesturing freely with his hand, “Women have equal rights.”
She could smell something delicious cooking, maybe a beef stew. “And you even cooked dinner. What did you make?”
“A new beef and kale dish I’m trying out,” Byron said as they headed over to the kitchen. “I wanted to eat some kale since it’s supposed to be healthy, but it’s also extremely tough. So I cooked everything together in the pressure cooker.”
One of the things Emily liked about him was his persistence in looking for solutions to problems. This was just a small example of that. The only time she had seen Byron give up was when his company was in danger and he was too depressed to do anything. She hoped something like that wouldn’t happen again, and that Byron’s therapy would help him to be more resilient, but she knew he wasn’t perfect. Yet his imperfection was something she found endearing too.
The beef and kale stew turned out to be delicious. After they had the chocolates for dessert, they both had to beg off the rest of the evening because of work.
“Does this mean our honeymoon period is over?” Emily asked while they cleared away the dishes and put the plates in the dishwasher.
“Are you kidding? It’s barely just begun.”
Byron gathered her into his arms and leaned her down slowly into a dip. A slow, lingering kiss told her that the passion had not gone out of their relationship yet.
“I’m sorry to leave,” she said, catching her breath. But I also have to make sure my brother doesn’t go feral.”
“He’s young,” Byron said, “Going feral is part of the experience.”
Emily sauntered off home, still feeling the thrill of the kiss and the delight of liberty thanks to her new protection order against Josh. Just as she was leaving the building, it dawned on her that she had left her handbag.
She took the elevator all the way up again and found the bag. Byron’s voice reached her from another room; he was already busy talking on the phone to someone. A bit of the conversation caught her interest as it sounded like it had something to do with a movie.
“Yeah, it’s actually a sequel to Chipfairies, what did you think?” he was saying, “Yes, I understand what that means, but I’m not crazy.”
Emily stood rooted to the spot. She couldn’t help but want to eavesdrop because that information was too much of a teaser.
Chipfairies was a well-known box office failure. It had a promising concept as a children’s film that mixed animation and live action. The chipfairies were animated chipmunks that flew around on fairy wings, and thus they were guaranteed to be cute. However, its clichéd plot and overly saccharine mood caused the film to lose a lot of viewers.
“It won’t go direct to DVD,” Byron continued, despite evident objections from whoever was on the other end, “I’ll make sure it opens in theaters, don’t worry about that. I’m going to push for it. No, I’m not setting you up for failure!”
Emily’s mouth fell open as she realized this was not merely a conversation about a movie. This was a movie that Byron wanted to produce in his newly-acquired studio.
Was this Byron’s way of sabotaging his own studio just to get back at Nova Summers? No one could believe a sequel to Chipfairies was a good idea.
Part of her wanted to go into his office and tell him off, but she was clearly not supposed to be privy to this information.
“Chipfairies 2 is going to be a hit,” he was saying as Emily retreated to the elevator.
He can’t be serious, Emily thought as she took the elevator down again. This was all some kind of practical joke, and she was sure it would get cleared up soon.
