Fiction: The Inner Sanctum

An excerpt from the novel Imagine Me and You

A A A Comments (0) By Billy Mernit Wednesday, Mar 26 2008

“And that’s why we’d like to proceed with all due haste, Jordan. I know you’re fast,” he adds. “That’s one of the things we like about you.”

I try to come back with some of the breezy playfulness I hear in Rumer’s voice. “We’re not talking the end of next month, right?”

Illustration by Paul McCreery

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Rumer laughs, a warm, robust, fruity sound. He’s delighted. I’m delighted. Smiling Dana is, too. “Hell, no!” says Rumer. “By the end of next week.”

Yikes. I want to be this fast, wise, visionary writer Rumer sees me as, and I’ll do my best to be him, but even as I say, “No problem,” I’m reeling, trying to reassess now all those bright new ideas I wanted to pitch.

“So,” I continue, “I do have a couple of thoughts — well, more like questions to run by you — ”

“You read over the notes — they’re just a few suggestions for the direction we want to go in. Come up with an ending we’re all happy with, and we’ll talk about the next steps, all right? Good.”

“Right,” I say. “And as for the rest of the draft?”

“AWWWRK! Kack-kack! ARRR-KSS-AWK!”

Yuko, with an eloquent smile that seems to speak for everyone present, is already graciously opening the door for me.

Reprinted from Imagine Me and You, copyright ©2008, by Billy Mernit, published by Shaye Areheart Books, a division of Random House, Inc. In stores April 8, $23. Mernit, author of Writing the Romantic Comedy, is an expatriate New Yorker who currently resides in Venice, California.