As much as the idea of his book being butchered in the hands of filmmakers bothered him and despite the intense feeling of betrayal, Michael managed to push his anger and disappointment away for Ashley's sake. After the lengthy monologue of hers after Michael had signed the deal, he made a silent pact with himself to help Ashley instead of sabotaging her.

In the end, he understood not everything was on her shoulders. He's known her for a long time and since the beginning of their partnership, she had done everything in her power to get him to the top without ushering him to change his book in any way.

He thought back on the past plenty of times, and whenever he did, he couldn't help but think of the success his books harvested. Not every book he wrote was like Nightingale. He was well aware that without Ashley's help he would only have had one successful piece of writing with all the others barely reaching the bookshelves in the stores.

He could write about junkies, rapists, knights in shining armours, lesbian band members, or any other of the possible combinations that would make his characters real and honest to the story, and Ashley would claw her way through the business to get him a book tour, all possible advertising and to the list of New York Times Bestsellers, no matter how much people were against that.

Ashley clawed the way for him like a lioness for her cub. That is how Michael perceived it, while she referred to it as magic.

He rarely agreed with her on the spot, but he could say one thing for sure: she never did anything to harm him, which is why he believed her when she said she got him the best deal possible. And if she had done all of that for him, he could at least try to make her happy this one time by cooperating loyally and by supporting her.

The film was already in production. Even though the process was slow, some things were moving too fast for Michael. He wasn't looking forward to having lunch and brunch and early dinners and cocktail parties with a bunch of filmmakers who would ruin his life's work. But Ashley claimed his presence was crucial at this point. Maybe the filmmakers decided not to include Michael at all, but if they got to know to him, they could change their minds and he would be let in on the set. Though, he wasn't really sure how his peculiar presence will change anything.

He listened to her advice and was on his way to one of the rich hotels to have lunch with two members of the filmmaking crew. Ashley let him in on the details, but at that point, he was still an angry lion cub who was busy sulking away. But, he promised to change and listen to her. That was how Michael was going to give Ashley his support. He knew next to nothing about business, a perfect reason and an excuse to remain silent and eat food in public and in a company.

Strangely he was looking forward to it. He rarely ate outside of his home even with Ashley breathing down his neck every minute of the day he didn't spend writing or panicking about the movie. The truth is he didn't know who to ask out for lunch, his 'friends' were usually business-related. Eating alone was fine by him, he never depended on the company and found solitude in being completely alone, but he did dread other people's remarks when they saw him sitting behind the table with his eyes fixed on his plate.

He was already thinking about what he was going to order. He liked regular foods but since this was such a rare opportunity, he was thinking about going for something fancy and completely out of his character. Like caviar wrapped in octopus meat with avocado sauce and soaked in lemon juice or something similar.

He was going to eat his lunch, keep a silent presence like women in Petrarch's sonnets, nod occasionally and speak only when directly spoken to.

Michael got in front of the hotel. As per usual, it was sunny and hot in LA. Most of the people he knew were sick of high temperatures throughout the entire day, but Michael, being someone who prefers to stay indoors and rarely goes out, liked the feeling of the sun burning his skin and lightening his blondish hair. He hoped Ashley and the members of the crew found a table somewhere outside where he could prolong this feeling.

He walked in and before he was aware of his own surroundings, Ashley already noticed him, "Michael! Over here!"

Even though his eyesight was still to adjust, Ashley was hard to miss. In her slick expensive colourful dress with beads of pearls around her neck and her wrists she looked like the boss of the world. Michael's lioness.

One of his fears surfaced. When Michael saw a pale, short woman and an exotic looking man, his courage dropped. His confidence was gone. How to approach these people without making a complete fool of himself? If Ashley accompanied him, she would take the lead, and he'd follow his mother goose around. Being alone with no leverage and having to do this all by himself was a tough and very demanding mission for him. No longer was he Michael Stone, the best-selling author setting milestones in romance. He was just Mikey, a little boy too afraid of the world.

As he was nearing the table, he wondered how does it feel to be confident. How does it feel to walk up to people, take the stage and rock on all night? He himself nearly tackled a chair when his knees got all wobbly. He was quite desperate to sit down but was startled when both of his new acquaintances got up.

Ashley must've noticed that since she took the lead. She got up and welcomed him to the table, "Michael, meet our new friends."

"Mr Stone, it's such a pleasure to meet you in person!" The woman spoke enthusiastically and shook his hand before he even offered it. Michael smiled and nodded politely, but was breaking a sweat during all the time he had to keep himself up. "My name is Nastasia Patrick and I am the producer of The Nightingale."

He nodded again, fully understanding that must have been a whole another level of lameness, but that was nothing compared to his own introduction that made Ashley cringe, "I'm, uh, Michael. The writer."

The man whose Armenian looks Michael found exotic and warm to the eye, introduced himself next. He clasped Michael's hand between his palms, "And I'm Haig Avagyan, the screenwriter. It's such an honour, Mr Stone!"

"Thank you, likewise." For a moment there, he wanted to ask her why was it such an honour.

Then Haig Avagyan tried to keep himself from bursting in a huge smile and shook Michael's clasped hand again, "I never thought I'd get an opportunity like that! To work on a masterpiece!"

Michael was pretty sure not everyone introduced themselves like that, but he smiled nonetheless. He was a little worried about it, though.

Ashley apparently recognised he was weirded out a bit and jumped to save the lunch meeting before it even started, "Miss Patrick and Mr Avagyan are admirers of your work."

Whenever an opportunity like that turned up, Michael began to suffocate. He was grateful to every single person who just looked at the covers of his books and considered buying them, and to each and every single one who bothered to stick through the entirety of it, but he wasn't sure he could properly express that gratitude without sounding like every single make-up guru on the Twitter.

ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ

His hay-aged Bresse duck wasn't exactly caviar wrapped in octopus meat with avocado sauce and dipped in lemon juice, but Michael thoroughly enjoyed his lunch. Maybe it was just overpriced and was nothing special, but he had lately lived off microwave meals. When his ideas bloomed and inspiration hit him like a train, there was no time to be spent in a kitchen.

He let Ashley do the talking. It all started with a small chit-chat for a warm-up and it lasted for most of the meeting. Michael started to suspect these two just wanted to hang out and not talk about business at all.

He wanted to keep the silent presence as he had decided before but that was almost impossible. Both Miss Patrick and Mr Avagyan were constantly asking him questions. If Ashley started to talk about last summer vacation, Michael was asked where did he himself go. If someone opened the topic of pets, he was expected to tell a funny story or two from his own experience. It was nice and all remembering all the summers he had spent at his grandpa's ranch, but he wasn't excited about sharing all of it.

When Ashley was in that particular mood where everything seems to go according to her plan, she was Michael's holy grail. Her attitude, her laughter, her gestures, all demanded attention, and Michael was let off the hook. He finally got a minute or two to sip on his Coca-Cola and beer mixture, a combination that made Ashley throw up by just looking at it. Still, Michael enjoyed the peculiarity of it.

Ashley was entertaining the entire table, but at one point even Miss Patrick and Mr Avagyan had enough of her. After all, they did come here to the meeting to discuss business and filmmaking - one of Michael's worst nightmares.

"So, Mr Stone, could we say a word or two about the adaptation of The Nightingale?" Miss Patrick as the producer started. When she saw Michael's attention was fixed on her and Ashley backed away this one time, she continued, "We are very familiar with The Nightingale. I liked The Oak Tree more, oh! or Madman's Name - just a terrific suspenseful book! - but when I was offered this job, I made a promise to give my work on The Nightingale my best!"

What was on Michael's mind at that very moment was that his book did not need anyone to work on it. It was perfect as it was.

No matter what an honest ring her words had to them, Michael didn't trust her. He was completely sure that's what every producer tells to a writer. And the result is usually something like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

Mr Avagyan was vibrating in his seat he was that eager to say more on the topic. Michael noticed he was a little creeped out by him. "I take it you're working on a new book, Mr Stone?"

He wasn't too happy about this question either. It wasn't that he couldn't reveal anything to him, he simply didn't want to. Besides, after all the questions they had asked him, he just wanted to passivize himself like a little Christmas ornament on a Christmas tree.

Michael straightened in his chair and tried to give the screenwriter something that wouldn't say anything about the book, but could still pass as some kind of an answer. "I-uh, yes. I always have something in the works."

Miss Patrick giggled to that excitedly and Michael hoped the next thing she said was just not thought through, "Wow, how do you find time for your own romance, then?"

What was meant to be a tiny joke or an honest and nervous mistake had a different effect on Michael. His polite smile faded slightly, but he didn't let it disappear completely. "I manage," he replied, but the truth was he didn't really. He had a hard time talking to women, especially if he was in any way interested in them. As a writer, he accepted that his fate is to write stories of love for all those who were as lonely as he was.

"Oh, I have all of your books, Mr Stone, I simply can't decide which one is my favourite, and I was so doubtful when the movie was announced. Now, that I was picked as the screenwriter and with Nastasia's blessing, we wanted to ask you for your help." Mr Avagyan's own excitement plunged the previous question of romance into the past.

Michael glanced at Ashley. Now that he looked at her, she was percrivung everything with the eye of a hawk. A simple talk about business worked had a stranger effect on her than a bucket of ice cold water. When she gave him a nice smile, he focused back on Miss Patrick and Mr Avagyan. "How would you like me to help?"

It was hard for Michael to get rid of any kind of doubt. He wasn't even close to being Stephen King or JK Rowling or Philip Pullman or Markus Zusak, why would his opinion value in the making of this movie? It was clear to him he could only contribute to the making of this movie as a consultant, whose advises may or may not be heard and acknowledged.

Mr Avagyan visibly took a deep breath. His shaky tone reminded Michael of himself and how he was feeling on the inside. "Here it goes," the man squared his shoulders and said, "I'd be honoured if... if you were to help us, Mr Stone. We'd hate to see this book turn into a disaster!"

He understood this as a simple promise to win over his blessing. He wanted to trust them, he was the type of person to trust people. He was raised to believe people have something good in them but in recent years, experiences with people shaped him into someone very distrustful.

He leant forward, still trying to wrap his head around what Mr Avagyan just said, "What exactly would you need my help for?"

Miss Patrick apparently thought this was an appropriate time to suggest something: "I talked to the casting director, who's still in question for now, but it's very likely he'll take the job, that you created the book and the characters out of thin air. You're the one who knows them best and... We wanted to ask you if you would help us pick out the cast as well? Mr Stone, Harry Potter was going to be a disastrous film but when J K Rowling tagged along the movies were beyond successful!"

"We were hoping," Mr Avagyan continued while fiddling his fingers and bending them in all sorts of directions, "that you would also help us with the script?"

"Help you? As a consultant of a sort?"

Miss Patrick exchanged look with Mr Avagyan with a smile ornamenting her face like she had sensed something incredible is headed their way, "In a way. We'd like you to literally write a script with me."

Michael looked at both of them. First at one, then at the other. "For real?"

They nodded in sync, like Siamese twins that wouldn't accept they had been separated. He was creeped out by his imagination that sometimes seemed like it could move the mountains.

Luckily for him, to confirm everything they had just said, it was only Miss Patrick who spoke, "Of course! We want to recreate what you wrote as best as possible."

Before he looked at Ashley in disbelief to receive another confirmation coming from her, his agent answered him with a smug smile, "It's all according to the contract. You agreed to be a consultant and they responded to that."

"The first thing we need to do is write the script!" Mr Avagyan exclaimed before Michael managed to process this entire thing.

Ashley put her hand on his arms as if to wake him up and convince him this is happening and that is in fact reality. "They understand you probably have to think about this whole deal, but they need your answer by the end of this week."

"No, I have already made up my mind." He could hear both the screenwriter and the producer suck in a chunk of air once her uttered those words, but for him, this was no choice at all. This was the only possibility for him. "I would love to work with you on this project!"

Both Mr Avagyan and Miss Patrick smiled widely at his response, but he preceded her by far. "Wow, that's great! And about the script I already have a plan how we could approach this! You know that first scene where Brian's plane lands and..."

At first, Michael was a bit wary of Haig Avagyan, but he seemed so excited about working on The Nightingale as if he were Michael's soulmate of a writer. The man has even thought about how one scene could be done and nothing was set in stone just yet.

Michael was getting fond of him. With his imagination he could imagine bonding a friendship with him and a part of him was looking forward to working with him.

Ashley intervened, "I think we could talk about this some other time?"

They all agreed, though Mr Avagyan wasn't particularly happy about it. It looked like he couldn't wait to tell Michael of his ideas, and in all honesty, Michael was more than beyond excited to hear them.