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"Maybe you misheard him," Julia suggested earnestly as they walked to Eileen's office after morning auditions.
"I heard him loud and clear, he kept saying things like 'She can't find out, that would ruin everything.' I have to tell Ivy," Tom exclaimed furiously.
"Wait, Tom, wait...You can't tell her anything; not until you are sure-," she tried to reason with him.
" I am sure," he interrupted her and then continued, "I have to tell her. She is my best friend. Am I supposed to just keep quite while he humiliates her by waltzing around town with some bimbo?" His anger was getting the better of him.
" Look, you need to give him a chance to explain himself," Julia was desperately trying to get through to him as they entered the building.
"You think he is going to tell me the truth?" He looked at her accusingly." And why are you defending him? You know what he is like; he has slept with half the women in New York City." He exclaimed incredulously as they got in the elevator.
She turned around to face him.
"I know what he is like but I also know that people can change .And he does love Ivy…Look, I am not defending him but I am asking you, as Ivy's friend, to at least talk to him before you turn her life upside down. Tom, this is not something that is just going to affect them; they are going to have a child together," she pleaded.
" Well, he should have thought of that, before-," his anger had reached new heights.
" Tom," she exclaimed, cutting him off.
He exhaled, still furious, but nodded his head in agreement and assented, " Okay, I'll talk to him but if he tries to lie -," he said raising his voice
" We will tell her together," Julia assured him, taking his arm as they got off the elevator.
" It is very nice of you to finally join us," Derek said sarcastically when they entered Eileen's office.
" Well, we've been busy," Tom responded bitingly, throwing his briefcase on sofa and sitting down. The tone didn't go unnoticed by Derek who approached Julia and whispered nonchalantly, "What did I do now?"
"Nothing. Why do you always assume everything is about you?" She replied just as icily and moved to sit next to her writing partner, leaving Derek baffled.
"So, we have narrowed it down to 2 actors for Gatsby; they are going to read the new pages in the afternoon and we will decide then," Derek told Eileen.
" Sounds great," she replied and then added, more to herself than to anyone else as she looked through the window," Poor Gatsby, he tried so hard to escape who he was but he never really could."
" That's the thing," Tom spoke up. "People pretend to change. They say that they have but they ." He said slowly, pausing between the last two words for added emphasis as he starred menacingly at Derek, causing the latter to exclaim furiously," Oh my God Tom. What is your problem?"
"Me?" he answered in a high-pitched voice, feigning confusion, "I don't have a problem," he claimed.
"Oh yes you do." Derek exclaimed in a knowing tone." You are being passive aggressive."
" No, I don't have a problem. You are the one with the problem," he yelled, getting off the couch and pointing at Derek," You've got everything including a wonderful woman who for some inexplicable reason loves you and yet you decide to throw all of that away and for what? Some actress you barely know?" He was getting angrier by the second.
Derek was growing more and more confused. "What are you talking about?" He yelled.
Tom's face fell. A part of him had hoped he was wrong, for Ivy's sake. He laughed, incredulous. " What are you talking about?" He repeatedly weakly and then added, anger palpable in his voice "That's the best you've got?"
Derek, meanwhile, was getting frustrated. "Yes, Tom, that's the best I've got because I actually have no idea what the hell you are talking about."
" I heard you, yesterday, on the phone," he yelled angrily, causing Eileen, who had been watching in stunned silence, to jump.
"Heard me what?" Derek asked.
"Arranging to meet that woman; saying that Ivy shouldn't know. I heard you," he emphasized the last sentence. A look of realization crossed Derek's face and he laughed.
" You do really hate me, don't you?" the director asked sarcastically and then added, " Not that it is any of your business, but the woman I was talking to, her name is Olivia, she works at -" He was interrupted once more.
"I don't care where she works .I care that you are sleeping with-" he was just as riled up as ever.
" Oh my God Tom, "Derek was getting exasperated. It was his turn to interrupt. "I am not sleeping with her. She helped me pick out a ring," Julia's eyes widened and she and Eileen exchanged shocked looks.
"For whom?" Tom asked.
Who do you think," Derek replied sarcastically.
" I don't believe you," the composer said stubbornly.
"Oh, for Goodness's sake, Tom" his nerves had finally reached their limit; he took out a little box out of his pocket and forcefully threw it at Tom.
Julia and Eileen walked closer to them.
"You are going to ask Ivy to marry you," Julia smiled.
"I am," he responded.
"Can I open it ?" She asked.
"Sure," he was going to ask for her opinion anyway.
The looked at ring for a while when " Wow, what's that?" came a voice from the door and the four of them turned around in shock.
"Ivy! You are here!" Eileen exclaimed in surprise, stating the obvious.
"Yeah," she was confused by the tone of the statement; "Derek and I were going to get lunch. What's that?" She asked again.
Derek's face fell and he was about to say something when Tom, feeling incredibly guilty, interrupted,
"It's Julia' s engagement ring," he exclaimed and everyone starred at him for a fraction of a second before nodding in agreement.
"Her what?" Ivy was stunned and so was everyone else, not least Tom, who couldn't believe what was coming out of his mouth. Julia gave him a deadly look and then said as happily as possible, "Michael and I got engaged". She would have made a good actress, Tom thought.
" Wow...ah...congratulations," she moved closer and hugged her." Look at that ring...did Michael rob a bank?"
"You know what, we should really get going," Derek interrupted, and whisked her out of there before she could uncover any more flaws in their master plan.
Meanwhile, in Eileen's office, Julia was pretending to be furious at Tom, much to Eileen's amusement. The producer had rather enjoyed the farcical situation.
-Later that Evening-
"Hey," he said as he closed the door behind him." What are you doing?"
"Oh, I was going to call Michael and congratulate him," she said and his blood froze. Julia had gone to visit her son at college which meant that Michael would have no idea about the ring debacle.
"You shouldn't do that!" He exclaimed.
"Why?" Ivy looked at him suspiciously. That was a good question, he thought. Why? Why would he care?
"Because he may not want you to know about it," he offered. It was a pathetic lie. He knew it. Their story was unravelling.
"Why would he not want me to know?" She asked in a confused tone and then looking up, added earnestly, "Seriously, what's going on?"
He sat down on the couch, next to her and looked down at the hardwood floors." Okay, look, ah, yesterday, Tom overheard me talking on the phone with a woman. He thought I was sleeping with her, so he started yelling at me in Eileen's office. To get him to shut up, I told him the truth. That she was helping me pick out a ring. Well, he didn't believe me, big surprise there, so I showed him the ring but then you walked in and saw the ring, so we pretended it was Julia's ring. Julia and Michael aren't engaged." There was silence.
He finally gathered enough courage to look at her and she burst out laughing.
"So?" He asked expectantly.
"So what? You think that was a proposal?" She laughed and then added, "Try again tomorrow".
"What will you say if I ask you tomorrow?" He probed.
"Derek, no one can say "no" to that ring," Ivy answered laughingly. She kissed him. He smiled." Please order some food, I am starving," she ordered.
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