A Heart of Stone

**This story has been on my todo list for over 4 years. It—still—is not as good as it could be, but I'm happy enough with it now that I want to get it published and over with. Comments and feedback are appreciated, though please be constructive and helpful. That said, I hope you enjoy this, at least a little bit.**

Chapter One

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016

The most significant indication that I had been working for too long was when the 'low battery' warning appeared on my laptop. I sighed, closed down what I had been using and shut off the machine, sliding it into the padded rear pocket in my backpack. I settled into the seat I had appropriated, in the back corner of the Starbucks, and downed the rest of my coffee.

I stood up, slipped my backpack onto my shoulder and stepped up to the counter to get another coffee. A man and a woman got into line behind me and - judging by what I heard of their conversation and their appearance - they were out on something of a late business lunch. While I was waiting to place my order, I noticed the woman who was standing in front of me. She looked somewhat familiar. She was medium height with reddish-brown hair tied back into a loose knot, blue-green eyes and a slim, athletic figure. She was wearing skinny black jeans, white sneakers and a white T-shirt under a black faux-leather jacket, and had a large pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head.

The woman ordered then moved over to the side, returning her purse to her bag. I joined her a moment later. She looked up from her phone for a second, and I caught her eye: she gave me a smile, which I returned. She finished what she was doing on her phone and went to put it in her bag, but it slipped out of her fingers, landing on the floor with a dull 'thump'; it skidded to a halt at my feet.

"Oh, god damn it," I heard her curse as I was kneeling to pick her phone up for her. "I'm so sorry about that, thank you so much."

"It's no trouble," I smiled, handing it back to her. "Here you go."

"Thank you," she smiled, pushing a loose strand of hair away from her eyes.

"Any damage?"

"No, I think I'm okay," she sighed, giving her phone a quick look over and carefully slipping it back into her bag. "I knew I should have been worried about taking it out of my bag. I've just been so clumsy today."

"You keep dropping things?"

"Yeah, all day," she sighed, shaking her head. "I've dropped my phone, my purse, my car keys... I probably would have found a way to drop my car if it was possible."

"Iced coffee for Emma and an iced coffee for Chris?" The barista's voice caught mine and the woman's attention, and we both turned to face him as he set our coffees on the counter. I had confirmation of her name if nothing else.

"You're one of the famous ones, right? Watson, I think?" I joked, shaking her hand. The look on her face was priceless, and I had to laugh. "Don't worry, I'm joking: I know who you are, Miss Stone."

"Damn, and there was me trying to be incognito," she laughed, in that way I knew very well. "So, you know who I am, but what about you? What's your name?"

"I'm Chris."

"And what is it that you do, Chris?"

"I'm an author," I answered as we walked towards the door of the Starbucks.

"What sort of stuff do you write?"

"Science fiction mostly, a bit of fantasy on the side."

"Anything I might have read?"

"That depends, how much science fiction do you normally read?"

"Not a lot, I have to admit." Emma pushed the door open, and we stepped out into the street. "I don't think I've ever seen you around here before, do you live here?"

I shook my head. "I live in London. I'm just staying at a friend's place for a week or two."

"Anyone that I might know?" Emma joked.

"Well, I would say you do: his name is Matt Carter."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "You're friends with Matt?"

I nodded. "I sure am."

"And you're staying at his place while he's away filming in Scotland?"

"I sure am," I repeated with a smile.

"Lucky for some, huh? How long have you and he been friends?"

"A year and a half or two years, give or take? We met through a mutual friend when he was living in London. He was just getting started acting, so he'd only been living there a couple of months."

"You knew him before he was famous," Emma remarked with a laugh. "Are you headed back to his place now?"

"Yeah," I nodded. "My laptop is out of power because I forgot to take my charger with me, so I was just going to go back to Matt's place and chill out for the rest of the day."

"I can give you a ride if you want?"

I looked at her. "You sure?"

"Of course!" Emma smiled. "Come on; my car's just over here." She started walking further down the street before I could put up any more resistance, so that was that settled. I followed her to her car, a black Audi SUV, slipped into the passenger seat and buckled up as she backed out of the parking space.

"So how long are you staying in LA for?" Emma asked.

"A few more days, and then I fly home first thing on Monday," I answered. "I've been here for about a week now."

"You come out here often?"

I shrugged, reached into the side pocket of my bag and pulled up a bottle of water. "Every few months, though I haven't been over in the last year. I used to stay at Airbnb places, but when Matt moved out here, he said I'm free to use one of his spare bedrooms when I'm here. Well, as long as he doesn't have any family over, I guess."

"That makes sense," Emma nodded, dropping her sunglasses onto her face. We were at a red light. "Too busy to come over last year?"

"Pretty much." I cracked the cap and took a drink of water. "I was busy getting my book published, so I spent so much time last year getting the final manuscript done and ready to print."

"Oh yeah, I guess that would be a stressful time," Emma laughed. We started moving again, the car purring away down the street. "So what's your book called? I don't remember if I asked earlier."

"It's called Vanguard," I answered. "You ever read it?"

Emma took a second before answering. "I haven't, but I feel like I've seen that title around somewhere. What's it about?"

"It's about a bounty hunter who gets caught in the middle of a political turf war and is roped into a black-ops mission to capture a high-value political prisoner."

"So it's a bit like Sicario, but in space?"

"In a way, I guess," I laughed. I had never really thought about it in that way before. "With less Emily Blunt, though."

"I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm passing a Barnes and Noble, then, that sounds interesting," Emma smiled. "I like that idea, Sicario in space."

The rest of the drive to Matt's house was slow and monotonous, Los Angeles traffic playing by its usual crazy rules—or lack thereof, from what I saw. Eventually, we found it, a large, two-storey white building on the corner with large windows, a double garage and a wide driveway.

"Here we are," Emma remarked, pulling into the drive and parking up.

"Here we are," I echoed.

"It's been lovely meeting you, Chris," she said. "I'd love to stay for a while, but I need to go meet up with my agent, so I'll let you get on with the rest of your day."

"It was lovely meeting you too, Emma," I smiled, opening up the passenger door. "No doubt you'll end up seeing me around at some point this week, I'll be in the city for at least a little bit every day."

"I'll keep an eye out for you," she laughed. "Oh, before I go, what's your last name? I'll be able to find your book easier that way."

"Randall."

"Well, thank you for your hospitality, Chris Randall," she smiled. "Oh, one other thing: if you need a ride anywhere this week, I'd be happy to help. I don't want you to be spending all your money on Uber and cabs."

I considered her offer for a moment. Matt had picked me up from the airport when I had arrived, and I'd been too lazy to go out and get a rental for the week, so it made sense to say yes, especially since she'd been the one to suggest it. "That does sound like a useful idea."

"Cool, I'll give you my number in case you need it."

I took her number, stepped out of the car, then watched as she reversed out of the drive onto the road again. She waved out the window at me as she drove off. I headed inside the house and closed the door behind me, then went through to the kitchen for a coffee, dropping my bag by the couch.

It was almost 7 PM when Emma sent me a text. I was sitting on the couch, typing away on my laptop with the TV on as background noise. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and looked at the message.

'Hey Chris, got a question for you.'

'Sure, what is it?' I typed back.

'Is this your book?'

Attached was a picture of a very familiar front cover on top of her back on her passenger seat. I smiled when I saw it. She had found it.

'That's the one! Where'd you find it?'

'My agent was reading it while she was waiting for me, I told her that I wanted to give it a read, and she let me borrow it.'

'You started reading it yet?'

'Nope, I'm going to do that tonight though. My agent loves it, and she's usually pretty reliable as far as recommendations go, so I'm excited.'

At the same time as I felt a little swell of pride at seeing my book - the one that I wrote and all that guff - in Emma's possession, I couldn't help but feel a little nervous about what she would think of it. At the very least, I knew that any criticism she did have would be a fair bit more constructive than "I didn't like it" or "it was bad" or things like that.

I would at least be able to gain something useful from whatever she told me.

'Well, do feel free to tell me what you think about it! I like hearing other people's opinions. It lets me know what to fix for the next one!'

'I'll take notes! Anyway, I'll leave you to your evening, talk later!'

I set my phone down beside me on the couch. My mind eventually started to drift to warm thoughts of food. I couldn't be bothered cooking anything, so I ordered a pizza and got back to writing while I waited for it to arrive. When it did, I set the box in my lap and opened up Netflix on my laptop. I didn't particularly want to watch anything, but having something on in the background was preferable to eating in silence. I was close to pressing play on an old episode of The Office when a familiar name on the screen caught my eye: Birdman. Why I focused on it I didn't know, but how appropriate was it that I had noticed that film mere hours after meeting one of the stars of it.

I pressed play on the film and picked up a slice of pizza.

My phone started to ring about an hour into the film. Emma was calling me. I picked up my phone and answered. "Hello there," I greeted her.

"Hey there, Chris," she said, "I've got another question for you."

"Alright, go ahead."

"I'm just wondering if you'll be needing a ride anywhere tomorrow? I just found out that I have a meeting with my agent to discuss a couple of possible projects first thing in the morning, so if you need a ride, it'll have to be before 8.30."

I had to think for a second before replying. Did I need a ride anywhere? All I would do is get her to take me to a Starbucks or similar and then get a ride back home when I finished. "No, I'll be okay tomorrow," I answered. "I don't plan on leaving the house in all honesty."

"Okay, cool," she laughed. "Just wanted to check before it was too late. See you around."

****

Chapter Two

It turned out I also had a meeting with my agent, the first thing the next morning. It was a last-minute thing, a result of some dodgy yet ultimately unavoidable rescheduling. Even though I found out about it in plenty of time, it was late enough at night when I found out about it that I didn't want to hassle Emma by asking her for a ride on short notice. Though on the other hand, after my Uber got stuck in traffic for half an hour, I was reconsidering.

The meeting finished at 1 PM, and by then, I was starving. Lunch was absolutely on my horizon, as was caffeine. There was a Subway the next street down from the coworking space where my agent had her office, so I made an immediate beeline for it once I was out the door. There was a bit of a queue, which I should have expected given the time of day, but I got my sandwich after a short wait.

I sat down in a window seat just as my phone started to ring. Emma was calling me again. "Hey, Emma," I greeted her.

"Hey, I think I just saw you downtown? I thought you weren't going to be in the city today?'

"My agent had to push a few things forward to today, she has to fly home to deal with a family thing tonight," I replied. "Speaking of, how was your meeting?"

"Usual movie person stuff. Got a couple of new scripts to take a look at, so that's going to be my weekend sorted! Do you need a ride or anything? I was just on my way to the gym, but I can put that on hold for a bit if you need it."

I took a bite of my sub. "No, I'll be okay. I'm just having some lunch, and then since I'm out and about already, I might as well take care of a few errands while I'm here. I'll let you know if I need anything."

"Alright, no worries," Emma laughed. "See you later then."

I spent the next hour and a half dealing with emails and some admin work that I could do on my laptop, and afterwards, I sent Emma a text to see if she was free to give me a ride back to Matt's house. It was coming up to 4 PM.

'Sure thing, where are you?'

Of course, not being an LA resident, I had to double-check where I currently was. Thankfully, however, Emma wasn't too far away, so her car pulled up a few minutes later.

"Hey there," Emma smiled as I slipped into the passenger seat, reaching over to lower the volume on her car stereo. True to her word, she looked like she'd just come from the gym. Her hair was tied back into a knot, and she was wearing her workout clothes (a black sports bra, a light blue t-shirt and grey yoga pants). There was a faint glow radiating from her skin, the kind that I've only ever seen on people who've just been to the gym.

"Hello again," I smiled back. "I bet you didn't think you'd be seeing me again so soon."

"I can't say I did, no," she laughed, waiting until I'd buckled in before setting off again. "It's a pleasant surprise."

"The joy of last-minute meetings, right?" I remarked drily.

"Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt," Emma nodded as we pulled up to a red light.

I settled back into the passenger seat and sighed heavily. My day had been exhausting. I didn't like meetings: I never had, although if I have some warning for them, I can usually just deal with it and get through it. This one today had been necessary, admittedly, but it still had not been fun. I opened my eyes as we started moving again and reached down to grab the water bottle in the side pocket of my bag.

"That was a big sigh," Emma noted. "Tough meeting?"

"No, not tough," I answered, taking a drink of water. "Just rather long. And I didn't have much time to prepare myself for it mentally."

"Not a fan of meetings then, I guess?"

"Is anyone?"

"I guess not," Emma smiled. "I guess I'm just used to them now. I've been doing them for long enough."

"Longer than I have, at any rate," I remarked. We stopped at another red light. "Well, unless you count all the meetings I had in my previous job."

"What was your last job?"

"I worked in advertising," I replied. "That was a fun few years."

"I've heard it's not the most pleasant industry to work in."

"Honestly, I didn't find it too bad, but now that I'm out of it, you'd never see me back in it. Well, unless this writing gig I've got going fails on me and I'm in desperate need of a job again."

"So what does the rest of your day look like?" Emma asked as we set off again. "More writing?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm going to take the rest of the day off. I think I've earned it."

"Yeah? Think you've done a good day's graft?"

I nodded. "I sure do. I think I've earned a beer or two tonight."

"Why not? You have to treat yourself every once in a while."

"That was my thought exactly."

"I was supposed to be meeting up with a friend for drinks tonight, but they've had to cancel on me," Emma sighed, "so I'll probably just have a couple of glasses of wine at home."

In an instant, a thought popped into my head, and the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. "I could take their place if you want? Having some company would be more fun than drinking alone anyway."

Emma paused, considered my offer for a moment. She smiled warmly. "Sure, why not? No point drinking alone, I guess. I'll come and pick you up at, half six? That okay with you?"

"I'll be ready," I nodded.

It was 4:30 when Emma pulled her car back into Matt's driveway. "Well, here we are again, chez Matthew," she smiled. "I might have to institute a fare if you keep asking for rides everywhere."

"Oh god, that means I'll have to pay you, doesn't it?" I laughed, opening the door and grabbing my bag.

"I won't stop you if you want to pay me," she laughed back. "Alright, I guess I'll see you at half six then?"

"Sounds good," I nodded, "I'll be ready."

"Great," Emma smiled.

"Oh, by the way, may the fourth be with you."

Emma gave an excited squeak. "May the fourth be with you!"

As soon as the front door closed behind me, I headed upstairs. I had a good two hours to get ready, so I didn't feel a real need to hurry as I made my way to the bathroom. The shower went on, and my clothes quickly found their way off my body and into the laundry hamper. I showered, dried off, then looked for something to wear. I had no real idea where Emma would be taking me. Still, one way or another, dressing relatively smart would probably be a good idea.

I settled on a navy blue shirt and black jeans, freshly laundered the previous night. I didn't have fancy shoes, but the ones I did have were plain black, so they would have to suffice. Nothing special but good enough on short notice - and hey, I had known that I would end up going out for drinks with someone like Emma, I would have packed more appropriately.

I picked my outfit then went back into the bathroom to shave. I had never been able to grow much more than stubble, so I didn't have much to worry about in all honesty, but better to make an effort now, right? First impressions and all that. With my ablutions completed, it was back to the bedroom to get dressed.

I was ready by 6, so now all I had to do was wait.

Emma sent me a text at 6:10.

'Hey! I might be a few minutes late, need to stop for gas on my way to you. I'll be as quick as I can, promise!'

I sent back an acknowledgement, drained the rest of my coffee, then nipped back upstairs to brush my teeth—no sense greeting a lady with your breath smelling of coffee. As additional insurance, I popped a couple of breath mints in my mouth too and stuck the packet in the pocket of my jacket. My phone and wallet went in the front left and front right pockets of my jeans respectively. Just after 6:30, I heard a car pull into the driveway. A glance out the window told me that it was an Audi, presumably Emma's.

A moment later, I headed outside and locked up behind me.

Emma smiled at me as I slipped into the passenger seat of her car again. "Hey, you! You scrub up well."

"It has been known to happen once in a while when the stars align," I joked. I took the opportunity to look Emma over. It seemed we had both had the same idea in terms of not dressing overly fancy. She wore a dark blue, three-quarter sleeve blazer on top of a plain white v-neck t-shirt, and a pair of dark skinny jeans hugged her legs tight. Further down, her heels were matte black with a cage-like strap dotted with black studs.