2003
Writers come up with 'meet cutes' all the time with future soul mates colliding into each other. No matter how big a mess they make, it's all adorable and romantic, or snarky if they hate each other at first.
So it was ironic that I bumped into a writer in this way. But this wasn't like the movies. When I ran into Tina Fey and spilled our food and drinks on both of us, there was no romantic clichΓ© or even snark. Hell, I panicked and ran off to the wardrobe department before she could yell.
When I got some new shirts for her, I ran to her office in my still wet clothes. I knocked on the door and dared to say, "Mrs. Fey? You can put these on, if you want." I barely opened the door and held the shirts out, looking away and expecting her to take them.
"What are you doing?" I heard behind the door. "You don't need to hold those like crosses. Hell, if I was a shirt vampire and I blew up, that door would not protect you, pal." I knew she made a living with jokes, but I hardly expected her to keep....working then.
"Come on in. The prop girls beat you to it, anyway," Tina called out. After a second, I stepped inside and saw she was on the level. Tina was at her desk, wearing a new blue shirt to replace the one I ruined, making my borrowed shirts obsolete.
Nevertheless, I didn't use that to get me out of apologizing. "I am so sorry anyway, Mrs. Fey," I started. I wouldn't finish by saying thoughts of a half-naked Lacey Chabert helped me barge into her without looking. Instead, I said, "You can still yell at me if you want. If you cursed me out while changing, you can still give me the Best of moments."
"Nah. They wouldn't even fill out a commercial parody," Tina shrugged off. "Besides, you put me in that one-woman wet blazer contest at the right time. I was all cursed out about other stuff already. Fine tuning my first movie script, acting for the first time on film without a desk, those kinda things."
"Well, I don't hear anyone else cursing it out," I felt the need to assure. "Not even behind your back. Ironic for this movie, I know."
"Don't worry, the Internet should make up for that later," Tina replied. "Blogs are basically R-rated burn books."
"And you write far better stuff than real and Internet burn books. So their weaker stuff shouldn't be that hurtful or clever. Plus you got a big head start to think ahead of them," I worked out.
"Yeah, if you want to make me all big headed about it," Tina conceded. "Some days that is a nice change of pace."
"I guess it happens to the best of us," I said truthfully. I even went far enough to include, "At least I have that in common with the best. Aside from you guys being far ahead on good days."
"Wait, I thought you were just on the crew," Tina asked, looking really interested. "I didn't know you were....chasing the likes of me."
"Not yet. I'd like to someday, though. If it's possible to go from crewman to the writer's room," I said, then reached into my pocket and added, "Just in case, I came prepared with my own writer's glasses. Handy tool, I've noticed."
After I pulled out my writer's glasses, Tina -- whose own famed glasses were on her desk -- commented, "You didn't carry those around all day, just in case you could make a glasses joke at me. Right?"
"I haven't written enough to be that clever," I answered.
"Then let's hope you never have to," Tina joked -- I hoped she did. Yet she took her own glasses, reached out and tapped them with mine, like they were champagne glasses. "To being clever."
I couldn't help but laugh at her proving it, and she did the same. Although we both probably had work to do, Tina didn't kick me out, and I kept talking so she didn't have room to. But she did seem to like hearing about my aspirations and love of the business, and I ate up a few of her writer's room anecdotes. Given my time as an SNL fan -- and fans of hers for three years already -- I was certainly pleased to hear them.
However, her office phone rang in the middle of her third one, and she didn't look too pleased during the call. She hung up and sighed, "Sorry, writer turned actress business."
"Okay," I said, trying not to feel greedy after this much time with her. "At least you made sure you'll be clean when you do it. At least before you get there."
Tina paused when she should have left. "You know, you could have tripped in the middle of a heart attack finding this stuff," she gestured to the shirts I'd found, which I'd put on the nearest couch. "The least I can do is honor your almost sacrifice."
With that, Tina took the white shirt and purple blazer in my pile of outfits. Before I knew it, she was starting to take off her old new shirt, and I turned around just in time. I barely held back a sardonic laugh over being this close to a shirtless star again.
But this time, she knew I was there -- and she knowingly took her shirt off near me. Weird, given that she was a married woman. And yet when I thought about it, it made me feel....almost on par with what a half naked Lacey made me feel. Despite how Lacey was far more....filled out. Yet I'd actually gotten to talk to and enjoy myself around Tina. If that made a difference.
Tina made another difference by coughing, which made me stop my mental ramblings and turn around. With her new ensemble on, she topped it off by putting her glasses back on and saying, "There, ready for messy battle. Feel free to make that sound cooler in your autobiography."
"I'll try," I promised. "Go get em. And, um, thanks," I somewhat stumbled.
"You too," she said without stumbling. I got caught up and reached halfway for a hug, but stopped myself. Yet Tina rolled her eyes -- not in the fed up, comical way she'd later perfect -- and closed the gap.
I hugged her back for the first second. In the next second, I turned and my lips brushed her cheek, without pressing against it. In the next quarter of a second, I thought about pressing.
In the next, I broke off and left without looking back. In the next several, I kept walking forward and hoped yet again I wouldn't be kicked off the lot soon.
January 13, 2014