White Space Season 2

of coke?’ I know you care about the ‘Jon Conway legacy,’ and I know indie stuff matters. If you want to preserve and nurture your name, man, this is it.”
    Marty’s eyes were big and pleading. Jon was glad his were mostly shrouded in darkness.
    “I need more time,” he said. “This isn’t something I can just sign off on without thinking it through. I’ll have to be in New Zealand on and off, mostly on, for the next three years, at least. You’re asking me to pick up and leave everything behind. That’s not easy, Marty. I have other people — other lives — to consider.”
    “Take the girl with you,” Marty said. “There’s plenty of cool shit for kids there. Plus, she can tell all her friends she got to live in New Zealand for three years, while her daddy was shooting Black Fucking Nova! Come on, Jonny. This is the best thing you can do for her, trust me!”
    “It’s more involved than that,” Jon said. If it were anyone other than Marty giving him parenting advice, he would’ve told them to go fuck themselves. Despite being an amazing agent, Marty was also a helluva dad, and even though the man loved his commissions like Houser did onion rings, Jon knew he always had his client’s best interests at heart.
    “Listen, Jonny, I’m not saying this because I’ll get a big fat payday if you sign this deal, though that’s certainly a part of it, and I’ve already promised Sharon a week in Parrot Cay. I’m telling you to take Black Nova because I fucking love you, man, and know you’ve got some seriously awesome movies left inside you. You can be one of the best ever, but if you want to make the movies you really want to make, and not just because you’re the billfold behind them, well, you need a blockbuster. Black Nova gets your next dozen direct distribution indies inked. Say no to this, then … well, I don’t know what happens after that.”
    Jon closed his eyes, hating that the one blockbuster he wanted to do, and had fought through nearly a year to get, was only now coming into his life. Marty was right. This was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of opportunity. And the Black Nova series, directed by the Maris Brothers, was as close to a box-office guarantee as you could get. It would be damned good — a popcorn movie he could be proud of, one that would give him the credibility needed to not only get his pet projects made, but earn them the attention they deserved beyond his name.
    “I’ll think about it,” Jon said.
    “OK, Jon, but you don’t have long. I might be able to stall the brothers a bit, tell ‘em you’ve got shit going on, and blah-blah, fucking blah,” Marty said with an exaggerated sigh, “but they are waiting. When do you think you’ll have an answer?”
    Jon looked back through the long glass wall, inside at Cassidy and Emma, thinking about how the girls might take the news, and wondering if they would go with him if he took the deal.
    Will I take Emma anyway if Cassidy says no?
    “I don’t know,” Jon said. “Can you stall them until next Friday?”
    “I think so,” Marty said. “But if you make them wait that long and then say no, they’re gonna be pissed, Jonny. And they’ll have every right. Plus, you know as well as I do, if the brothers are pissed, the studio will be pissed, too.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I get it.” Jon paused, then said, “Thanks for everything, Marty. Sorry I can’t give you a better answer right now. I promise I’ll figure things out as soon as I can, then call you the second I do.”
    Jon tapped the glass, killed the call, then dropped the phone in his pocket.
    Rather than going inside, Jon stood on the balcony, still staring in at Emma and Cassidy, looking equally content as they sat in a snuggle. He wondered how they might respond to his opportunity. Emma would probably be excited by all of it, from a trip (or full relocation) to New Zealand, or the shooting of a movie. But how long before the novelty thinned to burden? How long before Emma resented him for dragging her away from her home, friends, and family?
    Shooting a movie, especially one where he was the lead with a ton of heavy effects, meant endless days on the set. Those long days would feel like forever, and mostly be spent in Emma’s absence. Unless Cass came with them, there was no way he could take Emma without subjecting her to long periods of isolation, loneliness, and maybe even despair — a prisoner far from home.
    As Jon watched Emma and Cassidy bundled