Alex left with Fiona and her friends on the trip to the Trois Vallées region in the French Alps, near Courchevel, on the twenty-second of December, and the group was as lively and fun-loving as Fiona had promised. There was a lot of drinking involved, flirting, and random sex, but it was all easygoing and no one felt compelled to do what they didn’t want. A number of the men were attracted to Alex at first, but picked up on a vibe that said she wasn’t interested, and Fiona was disappointed. She wanted Alex to meet a great guy, as much as she wanted one for herself, but Alex didn’t cooperate. She went to bed early almost every night, except New Year’s Eve, and she scribbled for hours in a notebook in her room. She was incorrigible, and she knew it.
But on the bus on the way back, she told Fiona she had had a great time, and meant it. And Fiona had met a man she really liked on the trip. Clive was an accountant and worked for a solicitor’s firm. He had a good job, he was great looking and a good skier, and he appeared to be crazy about her. She had slept with him on New Year’s Eve, and he wanted to take her out as soon as they got back to London. He seemed promising, and Alex was happy for her.
When she got home, she had had a letter from Brigid that was so excited it was almost incoherent. She was three months pregnant and the baby was due in June. It had happened even faster than they’d hoped, not even a month after their wedding, without even trying. She had been married for four months by then. Fast work. She would be thirty-seven when the baby was born. And she said they were hoping for a boy, or Patrick’s father would be bitterly disappointed. Alex was thrilled for her friends. Brigid was married and having a baby. All her dreams had come true. Fiona had met a new man. And she had her books. Alex didn’t feel cheated at all not to have a man in her life. She had what she wanted, the writing career she had dreamed of, beyond her wildest dreams. It seemed like a perfect way to start the new year.
Chapter 14
Alex finished her new book at the beginning of April, and sent it off to Bert to edit. And then she decided to take a trip to visit some cities she hadn’t gotten to yet and wanted to see before she went home in June.
She went to Madrid and Barcelona, Munich and Berlin, and Prague because she had heard the city was so beautiful, and she wasn’t disappointed. She had become an expert at traveling alone by then. She stayed in good hotels because she could afford them with the money she was making from her writing. She ate early in respectable, moderate restaurants where she felt safe, or ordered room service, and in each city, she saw all the museums, churches, and tourist attractions she had planned to. And her last stop was Paris, because she wanted to go back one more time before she left Europe.
She spent May packing and buying small gifts for the nuns, and had dinner with Fiona several times, with her new boyfriend. She was still seeing Clive, the accountant she had met on the ski trip, and it was starting to look serious. They were both twenty-seven and he couldn’t do enough for her. She was in love, they both were.
Alex was boxing up some of her papers one night when Rose called her. It was three in the afternoon in New York, and eight at night in London, and Alex was feeling a little wistful about leaving. And although she hadn’t met the man of her dreams, which hadn’t been high on her agenda anyway, she was sad to be leaving London, and her travels around Europe. Her last trip had been the best one so far.
“We’ve had a very interesting offer today,” she said to Alex on the phone, “from a very important production company in L.A. They want to buy Darkness for a movie.” It was her second book and first big bestseller, and one of her most popular titles. “They already have a screenwriter, and they have a number of stars in mind that they’re negotiating with. The director is a big name. This could be a fabulous opportunity for you, and some nice money. And it never hurts the books. There’s only one hitch, but I think we can work it out.”
“What’s that?” Alex was shocked as she listened. She hadn’t thought a lot about movies of her work, she was too busy writing the books.
“They want Alexander Green on set, to correct the scripts and work with the screenwriter and keep the movie true to the book, or as close as possible.”
“Well, that’s the end of that. I can’t do that,” Alex said, disappointed for a minute.
“I’ve been thinking about it all day. Green is a famous recluse by now. We could set you up as his assistant, say he’s in a house somewhere in L.A., and you could go back and forth with the scripts, make the corrections at night, and bring them back fresh from the pen of the famously invisible author in the morning. It’s convoluted but it could work, if you’re willing to sit in L.A. on a movie set for four or five months. It’s all going to be shot in a studio and on locations in L.A.”
“Even the African scenes?” There were several jungle scenes in the book.
“Apparently. They don’t want to spend the money to go on location in Africa, and have their stars getting eaten by a boa constrictor.” She laughed as Alex listened. “What do you think? Should I pursue it or turn them down?”
“I don’t know. I don’t want to get found out and blow everything else. We’ve put too much into keeping it secret. I don’t want to risk someone discovering the truth.”
“Let me talk to the producer and get a feel for it. If they’re too pushy, we can turn them down. If they want Alexander Green badly enough, they’ll cooperate with us on our terms. I won’t risk exposing you, Alex, I promise.” Rose had been Alex’s strongest ally, and Alex loved and admired her. She was a fantastic woman, and had become a great friend. She had handled the publishers flawlessly when they told them about her, so she trusted her to deal with the movie people as well. “I’ll keep you posted. When are you coming back?”
“In ten days.”
“I probably won’t know anything by then, but we should hear pretty soon after that. They’ve already got the money for it in the bank, are close to signing the actors, and they want to start shooting in September, if they get the stars they want. So we’ll probably know in June, or beginning of July at the latest.” Alex thanked her and they hung up, and she spent the next few days in a daze, wondering if she should do it, and if it would work out. It sounded dangerous to her, in terms of keeping her identity secret, but very exciting. And she hadn’t heard from Rose by the time she left.