Chapter 255: Bad First Meeting.

[Edward POV]

As Paige, Missy, and I sat together, with Missy at the head of the table and Paige and I faced off with each other, the conversation drifted to Paige's past encounters with Sheldon. Missy eagerly shared the details, describing how Paige had once punched Sheldon, his head dramatically hitting the floor.

Paige smiled reminiscently as she tapped her pen on the table, though it was clear she was anxious to get down to business. "She punched him, like thawk, and his head hit the floor, like Kathump," Missy narrated with animated hand gestures.

I grinned and said, "That's really awesome. I wish I could see that." Turning to Paige, I added, "Missy, I guess we need to continue later. Paige here is almost drilling a hole on the table as she waits."

"Oh. Sorry," Missy said apologetically, giving Paige a light touch.

Paige smiled bitterly and said, "It's–It's not that I don't want to talk, but I'm getting paid here. So I want to do my job first."

"It's fine. It's fine," I dismissed her worries, but Paige's expression darkened.

"Well it's fine for you," she blurted out, a hint of hostility in her voice.

Raising an eyebrow, I wondered what she meant. Maybe she felt pressured because this work would be tied to her career in the business, but me, the haughty CEO was insufferable and only wanted to talk. But I couldn't bring myself to care, so I said crassly, "Alright. Let's focus on the work then. We'll talk about the movie."

"Great. First, I am clear about the whole idea of the movie. But I also heard that you don't have a solution to the dilemma here."

"That's why we're bringing you in," I joked.

"Well, we could–" Paige wanted to discuss, but I raised my hand quickly, "I need to stop you there. I don't want to hear the solution here. I mean, I'm not going to talk with you about that. You can ask the creative department for the ideas and feedback later, but for me, I couldn't hear the solution until it was finalized, and it made some sense."

Paige grumbled a bit and pushed up her glasses. "I thought we're supposed to be brainstorming about that."

I shook my head and shrugged, "I have too much on my plate to be worrying about a movie's storyline. I literally had just had a meeting with the President. I'm sure you know about that."

Missy raised her arms up excitedly like a student in a class, "I know. It's been all over the news."

Paige was startled and asked, "Wait. Really?"

I nodded to reply to her. She was in disbelief for a couple of seconds before she collected herself, "Fine then. But you know, a scriptwriter can only work on your ideas, if she can actually listen to your ideas."

"To be honest Paige. I can only give you the details of what I want. I can't help you with the storyline. But don't worry, the director will come in next week, so you'll be working closely with him, not me. We just need a rough draft for the meeting, not the complete story. The studio is also quite busy with our already ready series, and I don't want to increase their workload. This movie...We will decide if we're going to do it or not, after the script is done"

Paige finally understood it, "So, if the script is bad, we won't go through with it."

"No. A studio will usually hire a new writer, but I'll tell you this directly, if the script doesn't excite Pepper, the movie won't go on. I will not interfere at all if he wants to do this movie, but at the same time I also won't try to convince him if he doesn't want to do it."

Missy scrunched her eyebrow and said, "Sounds like you don't really want to do this movie."

I snapped my finger and pointed at her, "That's why I brought you here. High level of EQ."

Missy was bashful and giggled, trying to act like she wasn't flattered, "Thank you. Also, what is EQ?"

Paige: ???

Me: …

I explained to Missy while Paige clicked her pen multiple times, ruminating about the matter. "Alright. I accept that condition. But, you need to give me something to work with." She agreed to the challenge.

"What did Pepper say to you?" I asked, trying to grab her notebook, but she pounced on the book suddenly and yanked it out of my hand. "Sorry, this is private."

I held my arms up in surrender. "I understand."

Missy grinned and said, "Must be something naughty in it she doesn't want you to see. Let me take a look at it later."

Paige blushed and glared at Missy, "N-No."

Missy gasped, "She stammered. It really is–"

She flipped the paper hurriedly. "Right. He said, um, 'Ryan Gosling needs to be there'. He also told me about the curse and ethical dilemma. Pepper wants it to be romantic, set in New York–"

"New York?" I interrupted, then said, "Sorry. Continue."

"That's it," Paige said with a wry smile. "That's all he gave me to work with."

"Nothing about the characters and all?" I raised my eyebrow in astonishment before looking at Paige pitifully.

"None," Paige replied. Missy said, "If you have some drinks here, I think she's going to need it."

"I can't drink alcohol while working–" Paige started, but I cut her off, "There's some beer in the fridge. Also, I think liquor is in the pantry."

"You let your workers drink while they're working?" Missy asked with disbelief and excitement. "This is like a company a Texan wished for their whole life."

"Not during. We'll also have some guests here, so it was mainly for them," I clarified, leaning forward. I wanted to get up, but Missy held my arm to stop me. "Let me go. I want to see it with my own eyes."

I sat back down and said, "Sure. Just walk straight on the right till you reach the end. The pantry is there."

Jumping from her seat, Missy excitedly walked away. I watched her from behind and smirked, "Look at her all giddy."

"Are you sure you aren't just looking at her butt?" Paige asked me with a raised brow.

I turned towards her again, "A little bit. But who wouldn't?"

She groaned in disgust and rolled her eyes. I casually said, "Let's discuss the main character first then. You can build the story from around there."

Paige nodded and said, "Pepper wants RG, so we know what he looks like. But what does he do? His career path? In 'Good Luck Chuck' which has a similar premise–"

"Good Luck Chuck has a similar premise? I should watch–"

"No. You aren't 18 yet, so you can't watch the movie," Paige interrupted me. "It's R rated?" I asked dubiously, to which Paige nodded. She continued, "He's a dentist there, so he wasn't really high profile. His life was quite ordinary until his friend convinced him to use his curse for good– or bad." She blushed a little at the end.

"I'm very confused right now," I said while shaking my head. I thought about it a little and said, "Instead of ordinary, I want him to be high profile."

"Are you sure? That'll be a lot more difficult to steer," Paige said with some concern.

I smiled and said, "A high profile person in Hollywood. Maybe an actor? Anyway, the press will be all over him."

"I see. And you want him to be in a slump or at the height of his career?"

"Top actor. A huge name in the industry. Skyrocketing career."

Paige raised her eyebrow and said, "Like you?"

I smirked and said, "You can base it on me, yes. But made him become big in like 5-6 years instead of months like I do."

Paige was speechless for a bit, but she wrote it down. She accidentally blurted out, "Is he a huge douche like you too?" Her eyes widened after she realized what she had asked, but I answered her casually.

"I guess? I'm not so sure about that. What do you think will work?" I asked her back.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she mulled my question for a while. "An actor… Vanity is included there. He shouldn't be stupid, quite capable, otherwise he wouldn't climb to the top– or, if you're open to another character, we can have a supporting role. Someone that helped him plan his career. An agent, or maybe relatives."

"That sounds great." I replied crassly, not really caring about it. "See, you don't have anything to worry about."

Paige grumbled for a bit before continuing, "I guess that's it for the main character. I don't think you have anything else you want to add?"

"That's absolutely correct." I replied with a grin, making Paige even more annoyed. She grumbled whisperingly, "You basically had every single character workshopped for in the other projects, but you're not even trying in this one."

After she visited the set of 'Breaking Bad' before, she was thoroughly impressed by the project, and everyone's feedback while working with me has been nothing but good remarks. It seemed that she was thoroughly disappointed in the meeting today.

Missy returned with a couple bottles of wine with her. One clutched in her armpit, one in her left hand, and her right hand carried the glasses. "You would not believe what kind of beer they have in here. Lone Star beer… FROM TEXAS!"

She stopped abruptly as she sensed the mood inside the meeting room wasn't that great. "Umm, it seems that I was gone for too long."

We continued the discussion about the heroine of the movie.

"Based on what Pepper said, the girl needs to know about the curse, and is working with him to break it. If the situation is that he's aware of the curse, maybe there's a scene at the beginning describing it-- Sorry. Do you have something to add to that-- The hero-heroine?" Paige trailed off, but she came back to the topic quickly.

"Wait. Does Pepper want a happy ending or a sad ending?" I asked while leaning back on the chair.

"It still hasn't been decided," Paige replied.

"Hmmm…" I wrecked my brain for a while before saying, "For the heroine, she must be kind, can play along with his sense of humor. A bit feisty that she'll call him out on his bullshit."

"Is there an actress you have in mind?" Missy asked with great interest. "Maybe someone you have a crush on?"

"I don't care, but she needs to have chemistry with the main actor. So someone like Emma Stone…"

"This is all great. I can work with this." Paige muttered.

"Back to the ending." I thought about it for a bit before saying, "If he wants the happy ending, then, the curse is broken, and he realized that he had fallen in love with her, so they ended up together."

Missy chimed in, "Like a good movie should do."

I ignored her and said, "But if it's a sad ending, the curse could break, but he lost her. Maybe because she's just doing it to help him, but was actually in love with someone else. Or they worked together to break the curse because the guy was the one in love with someone else."

"Nope. I surely don't want to see that kind of movie. Unless they set it up from the beginning. But if they don't end up together, then what's the point of actually making it?" Missy commented angrily.

I looked at her with disbelief and said, "Why are you so invested? You don't even know the plot of the story."

"Yeah but you fly me over here to become...um, an EQ consultant. So I'm telling you my thoughts about that terrible ending now," Missy said huffingly.

I chuckled for a bit, and we went on to discuss the movie for an hour more before the meeting ended. We mostly discussed the characters and setting, without going too deep in the plot. 

The meeting about the plot was done by Pepper later that night instead of me. Honestly, I just went there to hang out. In this movie, I planned to be the observer...well, at least, that's what I planned to do. 

…

As we drove through the lively streets of Los Angeles in the convertible I borrowed from Pepper, the bustling nightlife was on full display. The city was alive with energy - neon signs illuminated trendy bars and clubs, music spilled out onto the sidewalks, and groups of people strolled along the sidewalks, dressed to impress.

Missy sat up excitedly at the top of the car, taking it all in. "WOOO~!" she shouted enthusiastically, her hair whipping in the breeze. I was pretty sure that some paparazzis recognized me and snapped my picture with Missy in the car, but I wasn't concerned about the scandal.

I glanced back at her through the rearview mirror, a bit surprised by her exuberance. My heart skipped a beat as she caught me staring and smiled at me.

"I didn't think you're a 'Woo' girl," I commented.

"That's just an excited 'Woo'," she clarified. "Not a 'Woo' to hide that I'm not actually interesting." Missy then sat back down next to me at a stop sign, sighing dejectedly. "This is not how I imagined my free trip to LA would be," she complained.

I couldn't help but laugh at her change in mood. "What else can you do? Your mom wants to have a family dinner with Sheldon."

Missy nodded reluctantly. "Even years later, everything is still about him," she snarked, her tone laced with some slight frustration. Turning towards me, she said threateningly, "You won't rat me out about what I said, right?"

I grinned mischievously, "And lose my leverage? Where's the fun in that?"

She scoffed yet her lips were curling upward. 

Changing the subject, she asked jokingly, "So, do you have a brother or cousin that looks like you? He better be rich too, because now that I have already flown on a private plane, I don't think I can ride in the economy class seats anymore."

"Have you ever even gotten on a plane before?" I asked.

Missy shrugged and said, "Nope– Wait. I did once for Sheldon's graduation. But we only came to the college and went back immediately after. We were too poor to stay around."

We laughed as we made our way to 2311 North Los Robles Avenue in Pasadena. The familiar building, the familiar lobby, I was feeling quite nostalgic.

Suddenly, we bumped into Penny in the lobby. She was wearing her tank top and shorts, looking comfortable as she was picking up her laundry. Her eyes widened as she saw me, "Oh my god! Edward!" 

"Hey Penny." I greeted casually. If she wasn't holding a basket I was sure that she was going to give me a hug. "Want some help?" I asked.

"I got it." Penny giggled. She turned to Missy, "And who's this?"

"I'm Missy. Missy Cooper." Missy greeted Penny in a friendly manner.

"She's Sheldon's twin sister." I explained. Penny froze in shock and her eyes widened, "Really?"

"And not one day goes by that I thank god we're not identical twins." Missy jokes. Penny and I giggled. 

We climbed the stairs together, and as we did, Penny asked, "I'm sorry. I have to know. Why is Sheldon's sister with you?"

"You haven't gone to the guy's apartment yet? I thought you would've met Sheldon's mother by now." 

"Oh. I just got home from work." Penny was startled and started deflecting. I remembered something and grinned. "Really? Based on your expression Penny, I don't think that's the case. There's something more here."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Penny stammered.

Missy joined in, grinning, "It seems like Edward is correct. I don't have all the details yet, but I think, something happened in that apartment. That's why you're being all jittery."

"What?" Penny was in disbelief.

"Hmm… Seeing that you have a problem with intimacy, I'd guess that something happened between you and Leonard. It must be something you hadn't planned so that's why you're avoiding him." I rubbed my chin playfully, pretending to be a detective. "So, did you kiss Leonard?"

Penny's jaw dropped and she said, "That's…amazing. How did you guess that?! ALSO I have no problems with intimacy!"

"Leonard, Sheldon's roommate? You're dating him?" Missy asked. Penny was in disbelief and rushed to climb the stairs as we were at our final steps.

"Penny, why don't you join us? We're all having dinner together." Missy invited Penny as she stood in front of her apartment door, which was directly opposite Sheldon's apartment door.

"I'm okay. Thank you for the offer. And it was nice meeting you Missy." Penny said as she opened the door. But before she got in, she glanced at Missy and advised, "Be careful with Howard. The guys are nice, but sometimes they can be a bit too much."

Missy was stunned, yet curious. Penny disappeared from our sight, and I went to the door. Missy wanted to knock, but I stopped her.

"There's something I want to try."

I knocked on the door 3 times with a tri-knock pattern.

Sheldon opened the door with a smug look and asked, "When did you learn about my signature knock?"

Missy smiled and said, "Sheldon!"

"Missy. Nice to see you. You can come in." Sheldon said. "But you–"

"Don't be silly Shelly, let him in." Mary scolded angrily from inside the house.

"I was going to let him in, Mom! I just want to ask him a question before he can come inside!" Sheldon retorted, aggrieved, yet he still concurred and opened the door without any hassle. He scoffed at me and went to sit at his work table, doing some work on his laptop.

"Something smells delicious!" I said as I entered the apartment. Finally, I saw the missing wall in the apartment - the right wall after you entered, where the TV was typically set up.

"Oh you're too kind. I'm making spaghetti with a hotdog cut up in it." Mary said sweetly. I smiled at her and said, "Do you want some help?"

"No. Sit down. Be comfortable. This won't take long." Mary focused on cooking. Leonard walked into the living room and greeted me, "Edward. Nice to see you. Again, I'm very sorry for bringing Dr Gabblehauser to your home."

"Water under the bridge." I smiled at him as I accepted his gesture to shake hands with me. Missy smiled and greeted, "You must be Leonard, the kisser."

"E-Excuse me- Wh-What?" Leonard was startled. "Um, you must be Sheldon's sister." He greeted Missy bashfully.

I walked to the couch and sat casually on it. "That's my spot." Sheldon said without turning back.

I ignored him and watched Missy tease Leonard about Penny. He was excited and blushed for a bit, before he became determined and said, "I'm-I'm going to invite her to. Mrs Cooper, can I–"

"Just call me Mary, Leonard. You may. I'm curious to see the girl that managed to catch your eye too." Mary said teasingly.

"Move away from my spot." Sheldon turned to speak to me.

"No." I replied casually. He became increasingly agitated and walked slowly towards me while crossing his arms.

"Excuse me, but this is my apartment–"

"Nana Mary! Sheldon's bullying me!" I shouted to his mother immediately. Sheldon was taken aback and Mary scolded him, "Shelly! Let him be."

Sheldon whined, "But mom, he's sitting at my spot."

"This spot feels great, Nana." I spoke to Mary again, using a slightly louder volume to reach her. "I think I'm going to sit here the entire night."

"Aww, I love it when you call me Nana. It made me feel like I have one more lovely grandson." Mary said sweetly.

"Mom!" Sheldon tried to snap her out of her awe state. "I'm your lovely son, and you're not supporting me. He's sitting at my spot! He's doing this on purpose to infuriate me."

"No. I'm not." I replied as I settled my ass into the seat, making Sheldon even more mad. "That's a harsh accusation. Why would I come all the way over here, just to infuriate you?"

"Why did you fly my mother and sister here if you're not trying to bother me?" Sheldon asked accusatorily. "We all have questions."

Leonard and Penny entered the apartment at the time, and saw my argument with Sheldon. Missy was enjoying the whole thing and muttered, "Go Edward."

I replied to Sheldon's question, "Um, to be nice? Why, aren't you happy to see your mother?"

Sheldon replied, "Of course I'm happy."

"Then, what's the problem with that exactly?" Missy joined in. "He had his luxurious jet pick up mom. He even let us get settled into a nice beach house. At the very least, you can give him your spot for the night."

"Missy's right. Shelly, why don't you be a good host and help me set up the table." Mary joined in.

"But–" Sheldon was aggrieved. He glared at me before he pretended to smile and walked to the kitchen to try and convince his mother.

Missy sat next to me and said, "You're bad, you know that?" I laughed and said, "I'm sure that won't be the last of it. He'll badger me continuously tonight. I just need to make sure I don't falter"