Jackpot! Page 23

  As embarrassing as Ma’s behavior was, she was also being uncharacteristically nice and non-judgmental to Drew, so unlike her typical attitude that if a guy wasn’t Jewish, he would never get her stamp of approval.

  Ma seemed genuinely interested in getting to know Drew. However, she wasn’t asking him a million questions about what he wanted to do in the future, or how many kids he wanted, or what kind of house he eventually pictured himself owning. She seemed more interested in just talking to him for the purpose of learning more about the guy her daughter was crazy about.

  At dinner, Drew held up his glass of wine and asked if he could make a toast. “To you, Frankie, to your health and well being. And also, to your contract!”

  “Why do you say that?” I asked.

  “Because I guarantee that if there was no contract, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you at your mother’s dining room table having dinner.”

  “I’m sorry about that,” said Frankie, “I realize now how wrong it was.”

  “Maybe, but a really good thing came from it. Your bribe forced Jamie into giving me a chance. I feel grateful for that.”

  “Well, I feel grateful that you have forgiven both me and my daughter.”

  The meal couldn’t have been going more smoothly. There was only one moment I lost my appetite and became nauseous. It was when Ma asked Drew, “Where do your parents live?”

  “My dad and his wife live in Arizona. My mother passed away when I was really young.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Frankie said happily. The enthusiasm in her response made me realize she felt death was better than divorce.

  “How long has your dad been remarried?” she asked.

  “Three years. He met Monica through me, actually.” This was the moment I thought my spaghetti and meatballs might come back up.

  “How nice,” Frankie responded, “Did you set them up?”

  “Does anyone want some more wine?” I asked.

  “You could say that,” Drew answered Ma with a chuckle. Then he gave me a wink.

  The night went extremely well, better than I could ever have expected, far surpassing all the nightmare meetings I’d had with Frankie and various boyfriends. I wasn’t sure exactly what made the difference, but I felt it was probably a combination of things. Drew, first of all, was so likeable that I couldn’t imagine anyone not taking to him. And me, I was different now. I was softer and more at ease. But even more so, I knew my mother could feel how much I loved Drew, and any mother would feel good about that, right?

  The biggest reason the night went smoothly, though, was because Frankie had changed, I think. Instead of focusing on the fact that I was with a non-Jewish cameraman who on paper wasn’t a good match for me, she seemed to put stock in the fact that the two people sitting at her dining room table seemed truly in love. Everything seemed so natural, the way it was supposed to be.

  The next few weeks were crazy. I would go to work in the mornings and spend my afternoons taking Ma to her doctor appointments and/or to her chemotherapy and radiation treatments, and then running errands for her.

  I also spent every free minute I had sending out my recently finished new movie script, Jackpot!, to producers and agents. I knew I’d get several rejections, but I also knew I only needed one person to believe in the concept of it, and with how funny and sweet it turned out, I was sure it wouldn’t take long. But even if it did, that was okay. I’d keep trying. Because I had all the time in the world. I had a great life. A good job, an amazing boyfriend, a dear, sweet, brother, and a mother who was on her way to getting healthy. I had it all, and anything I obtained professionally would just be gravy on my full and happy plate.

  The only thing worrying me these days was my brother. He was working really hard at his job, and also working at Pretzel Perfection on the weekends, trying to make extra money. He seemed really distressed. Apparently, he had tried talking to his student, Angela Walker’s parents about keeping the girl in school and they had shot him down. Angela’s last day of school was approaching quickly and it was killing Danny.

  Then of course there was Courtney. She still wanted to be nothing more than very casual acquaintances with him, and what was even worse was that she and Ma had now become friends. Courtney had gone over to my mother’s twice since the night I’d brought her there. One morning, she brought Frankie and Rose a casserole to either heat up for dinner that night or to freeze. Another time, she showed up with Starbucks coffee and all kinds of scones and muffins. The two also spoke on the phone almost every day. And although Danny was happy Frankie had some more support, I could tell it bugged him.

  One Friday night, Drew and I went over to Ma’s for Chinese. Even though Rose offered to cook veal piccata, which sounded amazing, no one wanted to break tradition. Both Danny and Frankie had invited Courtney, but she had a meeting with her accountants and had to decline. She told Frankie to count her in for next Friday, though.

  “So that’s good!” I told Danny, “Maybe she’s coming around.”

  “I don’t think so,” he said, “She still won’t see me.”

  Ma put her hand on Danny’s. “Give it some more time. I’m working my angle. Last time she was here, I pulled out all kinds of baby pictures of you, and if you’d have seen the fuss she made…”

  “Ma, why did you do that?” he asked.

  “She’s trying to help you,” I said.

  Danny smiled at Ma. “Thanks.”

  “You’ll see,” said Drew, said, “Your mom’s right. Give it some more time.”

  “Pass the shrimp, please?” I requested of Danny, who was in an arm’s reach of it.

  “Jesus…” he said.

  “What?” I asked defensively.

  “Hungry?” he teased, passing me the container.

  “I have an announcement,” said Ma, “Even though neither of you were able to give me my baby, I’ve decided to give you the money anyway.”

  “Ma, I don’t want the money,” said Danny, “I just want you to be around for the next thirty or forty years.”

  “I feel the same way,” I added.

  “No! Listen to me. I’ve made up my mind. I don’t need all this money, and I want you both to be happy.”

  “I can’t believe this, Ma,” I said, “Can’t you see how happy I am right now? I’ve changed. I have a good job, I have Drew, I have a mother who’s on her way back to being healthy…”

  “I know and I’m glad. But I want you to have everything you want.”

  I started giggling and said, “I do have everything I want.” I looked at Drew and said, “Help me.”

  He grinned, “Just tell them.”

  I took a deep breath and spoke. “I’m having a baby,” I announced to the table.

  My mother let out a scream that was louder than Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween.

  Chapter 43

  I didn’t really look pregnant yet, but I sure felt it. Throwing up three or four times a day became the norm for me, and one would think since I was pretty much puking up everything I ate, I’d have had a hard time gaining weight. Not the case. I had put on a few pounds, to the point where I’d started to use safety pins instead of the buttons on my pants and skirts.

  Don’t get me wrong, though, I was truly happy to be pregnant, and ecstatic to be carrying the baby of the man I loved. Drew and I were getting closer every day, picking out baby things together and planning our future. I had given my landlord notice, and was moving in with him in the next couple of months. I had never believed in miracles until the day I told Frankie that Drew and I decided to live together (and we weren’t engaged), and she was actually happy about it.

  One afternoon, I sat down at my desk to check e-mail. As usual, I expected to find a couple of rejection e-mails in my in-box. As I scrolled down the list past some junk and work related items, something caught my eye; a message from KThompson@sonypictures.com. The message line read “Please call me regarding Jackpot!.” Instantly, I knew they were interested in my script. “Plea
se call me” said it all. The standard rejection letters never read “Please call me.”

  I was psyched beyond belief, but not surprised. I had had a strong gut feeling about the success of the script from the moment I’d started writing it. And now, I wasn’t sure what would happen, but if there was interest, then selling it was a possibility. Something in me knew that my screenplay writing career had just been born.

  A few minutes later, I heard “Jamie Jacobson, please come to the front desk; you have a visitor.”

  I walked to the lobby. Standing there, looking as beautiful and sweet as ever was Courtney, holding a box with a big white bow around it. I hadn’t seen or talked to her since the day I took her over to Ma’s place. I knew she didn’t hate me, but the past few weeks, I hadn’t spoken with her, and I’d assumed she wasn’t ready to fully forgive me yet. In fact, I wasn’t even sure she’d ever want me, or Danny, for that matter in her life. It was my mother she was friends with now, and I was happy for Frankie, but very sad for Danny.

  “Hi,” I said.

  “Hi,” she smiled, “Do you have a minute to talk?”

  “Sure. Let’s go in here,” I said, walking her into a nearby empty conference room.

  The first thing she did was hand me the box. “This is for you. It’s something I know you can use right now.”

  “I guess my mother told you?”

  With a grin, she nodded.

  I opened the present, which was a pair of light pink silk pajamas. “Thanks,” I smiled. Then I leaned over and hugged her.

  “I’m really happy for you,” she said.

  “Are you?”

  “Yes. Just because I can’t have kids, that doesn’t mean I don’t think other people shouldn’t.”

  “That’s not what I was thinking,” I said, “I’m just wondering if you think I’ll be a good mother. Do you think I’m a good person, Courtney?”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Yes, I do. Plus, I know how much in love you are with Drew. That night we went out, I could see it. The way you looked at him… Your baby’s really lucky. The parents really are in love.”

  I practically threw my arms around her, making her giggle.

  “Thank you,” I whispered. Then I pulled away from the hug and said, “Thanks for the gift, and for coming here. Does this mean we’re friends now?”

  “Of course,” she smiled.

  “I’m so glad.”

  “Jamie, do you know where Danny is?”

  “You mean, right now?”

  She nodded.

  I remembered Danny telling me he had a shoot today at 5:30 in Lincoln Park. I looked at my watch. It was 5:15. “Yeah, I do,” I answered, “why?”

  Courtney broke into a huge grin and answered, “I decided it’s time for me to play the lottery.”

  Chapter 44

  Kristin was hot. She was very tall, very tan, and had long beautiful legs, not to mention huge boobs that obviously were fake, but still really nice. The only problem was, actually, there were two problems. One, Kristin’s breath smelled like smoke, and two, I was still totally in love with my Courtney girl, and I couldn’t even think about being with anyone else.

  Kristin was sitting on my lap on a park bench in the middle of Lincoln Park. She was facing me, and I had my hands on her butt. And we were kissing. Not because I wanted to, though, but because we were posing for a shoot. I was pretending to desire her, and it was actually making me a little nauseous because I felt no such feelings.

  “Nice…” said the photographer as he snapped a few shots. “A bit more passionate, yes?” he said in his French accent, trying to shoot and speak with a lit cigarette in his mouth at the same time.

  ‘Leave it to the French,’ I thought, as I continued to make out with the other person who obviously couldn’t live without a smoke.

  This snobby French photographer, who thought he knew everything was really bugging me, and I couldn’t wait to get this shoot over with. Believe it or not, Jennifer had actually set this up for me, even though she was no longer my agent. She had called me a couple days earlier and said she wanted to bury the hatchet and that she thought I’d be great for this gig. I thanked her and felt lucky at the time. Now I decided maybe I could have lived without this job, which was a magazine ad for “Potent Plus,” a male sex drive booster pill.

  What had my life come to? Did my acting suck so much that all I was worth was “Potent Plus?” As I kissed the girl harder and harder, I kept thinking, ‘This is the last time. I’m done.’ More kissing. ‘I’ve changed. I am better than this.’ More kissing. ‘I deserve more.’ More kissing, only this time, something made me look up in between kisses. A few feet away, with the sun going down behind her stood the love of my life.

  “Oh my God!” I shouted. Then I stood up, causing the girl on my lap to fall onto the ground.

  “Hey! What do you think you’re doing, asshole?” she shouted, brushing some dirt off her leg.

  I helped her up and said, “Sorry,” and then I called out, “Courtney, this isn’t what you think! This is a shoot for ‘Potent Plus,’ a male sex drive enhancer.” At that moment, I couldn’t have felt like more of a loser, and I figured it was only a matter of seconds until the girl I truly loved would say bu-bye for good.

  But Courtney didn’t turn and go. Instead, she walked toward me, looked into my eyes and said, “It’s okay.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah,” she said with a giggle, “This isn’t a coincidence. Jamie told me you’d be here.”

  “So you hunted me down?” I asked, “That’s a good sign.”

  “Excuse me, mademoiselle,” interrupted the French guy, “we’re in the middle of shooting and we need to finish before the sun goes down. Do you mind?”

  “Give me two minutes,” I urged.

  “We don’t have two minutes!” said Frenchy, clearly beginning to panic.

  I ignored him and guided Courtney a few feet away for some privacy. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m great, but I have a question.”

  “What?”

  “Do I still have you?”

  I swear to God, at this moment, I felt exactly like Charlie did when Willy Wonka told him he was giving him the chocolate factory.

  “Well, do I?” she asked.

  “Yes! You got me!” I exclaimed.

  “The light! The light!” shouted the photographer.

  “One second!” I shouted back. Then I looked right into her eyes and said it again, softly this time. “You got me.” And then we kissed, and everything was perfect.

  A few seconds later, I heard clicking sounds. I kept kissing Courtney, but I was becoming preoccupied. It sounded like a camera. Then I felt bright lights. And then more clicking. Both of us looked at the lights, and quickly realized Frenchy was snapping shots.

  Kristin shouted at him, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “this is too good. I must go with it. She is tres jolie!”

  “Un-fucking believable!” she shouted, storming off.

  “Please…” Frenchy said to us, “Keep doing what you were doing.”

  I looked at Courtney. “I don’t have a problem with it, do you?”

  “Not at all. It seems like you took your ‘Potent Plus’ today,” she said with a giggle.

  We continued to kiss until the sun went down.

  Chapter 45

  The next morning, I headed to work in my pretzel costume. It was just another typical Saturday of handing out candy for my boss, Vito, but something was different. My attitude. Mr. Salty had a lot to be happy about. I’d made peace with my mother, who thank God, was going to be fine, my sister was happy and having a baby, and me, I was truly in love for the first time in my life. Life was good. I walked into “Pretzel Perfection” smiling and whistling.

  “Good morning, Vito,” I said happily.

  “Why are you in such a good mood?” he asked, grumpy, as usual.

  “Because I love this job,” I joked, “How
many guys do you know who get to dress up in tights, wear a pretzel pillow around their waist and hand out samples all day?” Before Vito could offer a sarcastic comeback, I continued. “Then there’s the self-sampling factor. I’ve got to be honest with you, however. Your Snickers pretzel could have a little more Snickers on it.” I was getting a huge kick out of myself. Vito wasn’t amused.

  “Listen Mr. Actor boy, I’m the highest grossing chocolate shop in the city. I think my Snickers pretzels are alright, and so do the thousands of customers who buy them. If you ever get a real acting job, and you end up making movies with Dinero or Pacino, then you can cut my pretzels down. For now, shut up!”

  I wanted to tell Vito to go fuck himself, but I didn’t want to lose my job, so I apologized. “Listen, Vito, buddy, I was just kidding.”

  “Okay then, let’s sell some pretzels.” He managed half a smile, and I could tell he felt badly about going off on me.

  I walked outside and began to diligently hand out samples.

  “Delicious…mouth watering chocolate covered pretzels…” I shouted.

  Michigan Avenue was crowded and I was busy. The samples were going fast. “Absolutely the best Snickered-covered pretzels you’ll ever taste!” I shouted extra loud for Vito’s benefit.

  “Very funny, Mr. Salty!” Vito shouted from inside the shop.

  All of a sudden, I saw Angela Walker coming toward me. Her belly was getting bigger, and that was a reminder that her days in school were numbered.

  “Hi Mr. J.!” she exclaimed with a giggle.

  “Are you laughing at me?”

  “No.”

  “You better not tell anyone you saw me like this,” I joked.

  “I won’t.”

  “How’d you know where to find me?”

  “I just left Courtney’s store. She told me I should come here.”

  “Hey pretzel boy, don’t get chatty on me!” shouted Vito from inside the shop.

  “Look, I have a tough boss. I can’t really talk. Is everything okay?”

  Angela looked like she was going to burst. “I have some news. I’ve decided to stay in school.”