Read Rewind (A Perfect Forever Novella) for Free Online Page B

shoot Bobby a text, but hell, the guy should have texted me.
     
    Eight a.m. commute on the 101 means two hour drive from Simi Valley into the downtown. If Bobby and I get back together, we’re going to have to figure out something so that I don’t have to do this commute.
    Back together. How would that work? Our living situations are incompatible now that he lives in Simi. Finally we are at perfect-guy-perfect-time and now there is geography ruining it.
    Oh well, he’s just nearly perfect at the moment. He’d be perfect if he’d text me so this rampant flashing suspicions would end in my musings. He’s doing nothing wrong. Bobby is an all-in or all-out kind of guy. I know that. Why is not knowing where he is driving me crazy?
    I park Bertha next to my shiny black Lexus. I laugh, wondering what everyone will think of me arriving to work in an old truck still dressed in yesterday’s clothing.
    I hurry through the double glass doors and Veronica’s face shoots up to greet me.
    She comes around her desk. In a whisper, she says, “Justin has had me on lookout duty for an hour. You’re late.”
    I frown, shaking my head. “What’s the big deal? He just wanted to meet and discuss a few things.”
    Veronica’s eyes round. “He didn’t text you?”
    “Text me what?”
    “He did another cut of the documentary yesterday. Without you. The team voted on a new title. He pushed up the meeting with the distributor to today. They are doing the pitch today.”
    I freeze. “He did what?”
    Veronica makes a shush face. “We got a call from IGSB. We’re behind schedule. They were thinking of pulling out. The team worked all through the night, Kaley. IGSB wanted the meeting today. They’re scheduled to be here in two hours.”
    Oh crap. I scramble toward my office, feeling panicky, betrayed and irritated as hell. The one day I take my eyes off everything, and Justin can’t work things out with IGSB, he does solo a new cut of the documentary without my permission, and he’s about to show it without my approval.
    I dump my purse on my desk, hit the lights and then power up my computer. I look at myself in the wall mirror. Great, I have wind-dried hair and I look like a girl wearing yesterday’s outfit. Crud.
    I rush down the hall to the conference room, swing open the door, and the entire team turns at once and stares at me.
    “Justin? Can I speak with you for a moment? Privately.”
    I don’t wait for him to answer. I hurry down the hall to my office. I settle on the edge of my desk feeling ready to pounce on him.
    “Why didn’t you delay the meeting with IGSB? They just want to keep track of our progress. Why take the meeting now?”
    Justin steps in and closes the door. “Rafe said they were going to pull the plug.”
    Rafe, my USC buddy and hotshot independent documentary distributer. Like hell he would have pulled the plug.
    “Why didn’t you call me. I know how to manage Rafe. Instead you did another cut, rushed, all without me.  And then you take a meeting that if it goes the wrong way it could bankrupt me. You do understand I need this project to succeed.”
    Justin stiffens, but his manner remains calm. “I couldn’t reach you. I made a decision. The one I thought was in the interest of the company. There was no point losing valuable production time because you weren’t here.” He checks his watch. “I’ve got enough time to run the cut for you before the meeting. You can decide after if you want to risk another delay with IGSB.”
    Justin’s calm infuriates me.
    “I specifically said I wanted to be there through the next round of cutting. I specifically said we don’t screen this unless I give it my OK.”
    “Kaley, you’re the director. You shoot the film. But I’m the editor. I turn it into a story. We’re a creative partnership. We’re not working against each other. The process would work a lot better if this was the process you’d commit to.”
    My cheeks burn. “Are you telling me how