In the morning he called Dell and Strong to follow up on his email. He was able to get an appointment to see one of them at 3. If Sanjay was serious about this partnership Dan wanted to make sure it was feasible.
A courier came to the door with the proposal from Baxter. He flipped through it. Eye See would entail a six episode arc of one hour shows, each devoted a one of the missing children, and one to review all the findings. He was to examine documents and photographs while he interviewed members of each of the families.
The shoot would start in late June or early July too take advantage of the ‘scenic’ locations and possibly attract some provincial tourism investments. There was an initial itinerary of dates, locations that they would be following once they secured consent from all the families. They could shoot around lack of consent by reexamining newspaper clippings of the time and local people’s memories.
Dan sorted through the papers looking for a contract of some sort but there was none. What good was a proposal if it didn’t say how much they were offering to pay him?
He looked in the envelope and there was one last page that got gotten stuck. It was a handwritten letter from Curtis.
“Dan –
Here is the basic package. Financial details to follow. Perhaps you would interested in a co-production and end up with more than just the standard ACTRA fees.
Let me know what you think
Curtis.”
What were standard ACTRA fees? Crap he was going to need a show biz lawyer to guide him through this shit.
His cell rang.
“Hi babe.” It was Sanjay. “I’m should be home in about an hour. Had to stop for a coffee.”
“Great! I’ll be here with eye patches on.”
“Nothing more?”
“You’ll find that out when you get here.”
“Tease. Bye.”
That meant Sanjay would be home by noon. They’d have a couple of hours to discuss the restaurant proposal and even a make out session. No, this wasn’t to be that sort of reunion. The memory of Peter’s glowing butt cheeks got him hard.
He cleared up the food containers that he’d let pile up over the week. He washed the dishes he’d been neglecting. The flowers Curtis had sent were still where he had put them. They could go into the composter. The vase he tossed into the trash. Not worth saving or explaining.
He put his bedding and damp towels into the washing machine. He didn’t want to risk any olfactory evidence of his play with Peter. Clean sheets on to the bed – clean towels in the bathroom. Tidy enough but not too neat either.
His cell rang. Call display told him it was Curtis.
“Did you read the proposal?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think of the title Eye See?”
“I hope it’s a working title. You avoided the important issue.”
“You want your name above the credits? Daniel James’s Eye See? That’s co-pro territory.”
“Threatening to make me a household name isn’t going to get you anywhere. Direct answers will.”
“I can’t help it. I get juiced by new ideas and project and get ahead of myself. My brain thinks faster than …”
“Logic? Practicality?”
“Something like that. But what do you think of the concept, the time line.”
“It sounds doable. I’m not sure I want to spend that much time away from my business though.”
“You won’t have to. It’s easy enough to fly in for each of the shoots themselves. They won’t take more than a day each out of your time. The crew will do the other stuff like location shots and prepping the next location.”
“So that means what? Six days of shoots.”
“That’s right plus whatever we need to do here in Toronto. That shouldn’t take more than another day.”
Dan remained silent.
“You’ll to be paid for whatever research you do.”
“Dan remained silent.
“At your usual rate.”
“What is the ACTRA rate?”
“It varies for hosts, but we’ll offer $2000. for each episode. We’ll be paying for flights, hotels that sort of thing.”
“I’ll want all that in writing. With actual figures.”
“Of course. I’m seeing the Quintex people this afternoon. If you came along it would make it a perfect pitch.”
“I can’t. I already have another commitment.”
“How’s the eye? I’m so, so sorry about all that.”
“I’m recovering. I should be able to play the piano again soon.”
“What?”
“A little joke. I’ll be back to work at the Depot tomorrow or Wednesday.” He almost added ‘I only believe about ten percent of what you tell me Mr. Baxter.’ But opted to keep his doubts to himself.
“Okay. We’ll talk soon. Bye.”
As he shut off his phone he heard Sanjay pulling into the garage.
“You made good time.” He said as Sanjay came into the kitchen.
“To you perhaps, but I thought I would never get here. Not as bad as driving in Kolkata but still not pleasant. How is this?” He gently touched Dan’s cheek.
“Improved. No real pain anymore. Sore. Only hurts when I look.”
“It is nothing to joke about.”
“If it had been worse I might not be joking.”
They clasped each other, kissing and running their hands over each others backs and butts until Dan pushed away.
“No handy busboys for you in Bobcaygeon?”
“Too early in the season for tender college boys. Besides you know I like them well-seasoned and mature.” Sanjay was pulling Dan’s tee shirt up.
“Slow down.” Dan disengaged. “We have important things to discuss.”
“That can wait.” Sanjay grappled with him again.
“You always use sex to divert my attention.” Dan was glad that after his encounter with Peter his need for sex had been dampened. “Beside the pain meds sort of make me … you know.” He glanced down at his crotch. “I want to to be good for both of us.”
“They better wear off before tonight.” Sanjay grinned. “Or I can’t promise to maintain my restraint.”
“Flattery will get you nowhere. We have an appointment with Dell this afternoon. Before making any decisions about your partnership opportunity we should see where we actually stand financially.”
“So you are seriously considering it? I wasn’t sure you would.”
“When did Sylvan spring it on you?”
They went to the living room and sat on the couch.
“He’d hinted at it a few time but when I mentioned to him that I was considering a move back to India be with my family he wanted to know if I was unhappy with my work here. It came around to him asking if I wanted in on the businesses. He plans to continuing expanding and it made sense to him to have his star chef as more than an employee.”
“It’s about time he realized how important you are.”
“I’d rather be that important to you.” Sanjay got up from the couch and went to the kitchen.
Dan followed him. “Look, I’m willing to help if I can afford it.”
“If you want it/ you’ll knot it.” Sanjay sang.
“Not knot it again. Or are you just after me for my money?”
“You’re joking?”
“Of course.”
“Good.” Sanjay put away the dishes Dan had left to air dry. “You don’t look like you’ve been going hungry.”
“Just because I don’t cook doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use a telephone. Linda sent a care package over to me. Lots of KFC. I know you can’t abide that in the house.”
“I thought I smelled a deep fried rat when I came in.”
“Of course she didn’t deign to deliver it personally so she sent it over with Hamid.”
“Hamid?”
“He works for Linda. I think is last name is Ranj … Randapati?”
“Ranjit?”
“Could be. He says it so fast I don’t want to make him repeat it. A northerner. I could tell by his accent. Not at all like yours.”
“You know a lot about him. Did he serve you more than food?”
“No! I doubt if his jalebi would be as good as yours.”
“What time did you say we were meeting Dell.”
“Three.” Dan looked at his phone. “We better get going. I’ll drive.”
“After that drive home I was hoping you would.”
“So how was the opening?” Dan asked once he got the car into traffic.
“Excellent but tiring. Sylvan asked all the local millionaires to come and rub elbows with some Toronto glitterati. It was like a one of those Tift movie openings. Actors you almost recognize meeting people whose names were once in the news all wanting to be seen with the people whose names and face you knew.”
“You get some autographs?”
“Not from this crowd. Trust me if it weren’t free they wouldn’t have been there. But there were people from Michelin. Sylvan wants another star and will probably get it.”
“Great.”
“Now tell me more about this Hamid.”
“I can’t really tell you much. He lost family in some uprising. He might be from somewhere around … Gurdaspur?”
“Then his name might not be Ranjit.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Some areas aren’t know for their good reputations.”
“All the more reason for him not to want to be there.”
“Those northern guys are notorious lungi lifters.”
“Lungi lifter?”
“Yes. Sleep with anything if the cash is right.”
“He seems genuine enough. Linda trusts him.”
“My point exactly.”
“Are you actually jealous?” Dan parked the car.
“Should I be?” Sanjay said shutting his door.
“Not of Hamid.” Dan kissed him quickly. Maybe of Peter, he thought.
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