The 47 partners with 47 different sets of expectations. The gala timeline that was eight weeks behind where it should be. The documentary director who was brilliant and impossible and had strong feelings about everything including the font choices for the signage. She told him about Helen, who was brilliant in a way that required something from everyone around her, and about the two junior producers on her team who were talented and frightened and needed leadership that she was still figuring out how to provide. She talked for 45 minutes.
He said almost nothing. Occasional sounds, the kind that mean, "I'm here. Keep going. " And once when she described the documentary director's position on the signage fonts, a short exhale that was almost a laugh and she said, "Don't laugh. " And he said, "I'm not laughing. " And she said, "You were about to. " And he said, "Absolutely out to. " And they laughed together for a moment. And the weight of the previous 45 minutes lifted slightly. Just enough.
When she finished, he was quiet for a moment. "What do you need right now? " he asked. "Tonight, not tomorrow. " I don't know. I think I needed to say it out loud. Did it help?
She thought about it honestly. Yes. She said it helped. Then call me tomorrow night and tell me what you figured out. I usually know what I figured out by morning.
Then call me tomorrow morning. She paused. Andre, I don't want this to become I don't want you to feel like I'm using you as a Clare. I'm serious. I don't want this to be a thing where I need you constantly and you stop having your own Clare.
His voice was patient, not frustrated, not indulgent, just patient in the way of someone who has thought about this and arrived at his position calmly. I have a business to run and a daughter to raise and a house that always has something that needs fixing. I'm not sitting by the phone. I'm also not keeping score of how many times you call. A pause.
Call me when you need to. Don't call me when you don't. That's it. That's the whole system. She closed her eyes.
You make it sound very simple. It is simple. We make it complicated because we're afraid simple things will break. He paused. The complicated things are actually the ones that break.
The simple things just hold. She stayed on the phone for another 20 minutes. After that. Talking about nothing important, he told her about a crown molding job in Kirkwood that was taking twice as long as it should because the homeowner kept changing his mind about the finish color. And she told him about the Crown Heights corner store that had the best Jamaican beef patties she'd ever eaten.