Will returned to his office, confused but determined. He looked down at his phone to see the message light blinking.
-Jason: Hey Uncle Will I heard u on the phone with Mom.-
-I was, yeah. She said you've been practicing. Good for you!-
-Jason: Yeah. I figured something out.-
-What's that?-
-Jason: U were rite - girls like smiles but they also like boys who play guitar!-
Will laughed out loud at his nephew's revelation of an important universal truth.
-Yes. They do. Keep up the good work young man!-
Will put down his phone and leaned back in his chair bringing his fingers to his lips. Jason was right, girls like smiles and guitars...and Will could think of a few other things that they like too...
He sat up and got to work.
A few hours later Mac had collected herself and managed to mostly focus on her work. Mostly. Unbidden her thoughts continued to return to Will and the unbelievably unexpected conversation. She had woken up this morning pissed as hell at him and thinking he really thought less of her than the dirt on his shoes. Then she saw that humiliating display on ACN morning and only became more pissed at him. Then he was suddenly apologizing and professing his love and asking for forgiveness and wanting to kiss her? She replayed the conversation over and over in her head, still unable to believe it. As the hours passed and she didn't see him again she became worried that she had done the wrong thing; did he think she was outright rejecting him? Would he go back to covering his wounded pride? Had she just blown her only shot at being happy again?
She sighed and dropped her head on the desk. It was time for the run down and she was procrastinating because for once she was afraid to see him.
She took a deep breath, she had also afraid to see him 2 years ago when she had come to New York but that didn't stop her. She wasn't going to let this stop her. After all, after she told him no he had technically kissed her. That's not what he would have done if he was upset...not to mention then winked at her. Winked! Will McAvoy doesn't wink! The last time she saw him wink was years ago when they were in bed and he had made a bad pun about Australia...
She flushed at the memory. Okay, time to focus, do the run down and no more thinking about Will winking.
Unfortunately for her Will was not about to make it easy on her. He was already in the conference room as she and the other staffers arrived. He was leaning back in his chair, knee propped on the table and a yellow legal pad in his lap. Putting on a frown he grumbled, "Wasn't this meeting supposed to start 3 minutes ago? What's up; were you distracted by something in your office?" and then he winked at her again! She immediately blushed and tripped over her own feet as she made her way to the opposite head of the table. Will smirked.
She took a deep breath and glared at him, "No...should I have been?"
He pouted but said nothing more, allowing her to go ahead and run the meeting. The meeting was brief and straight forward but she couldn't help but be distracted by the fact that Will seemed to not be paying any attention, all of his focus on his notepad where he would occasionally write something before appearing to be in deep thought.
At the end of the meeting Mac called out to him, "Well that looks good to me. Will? What do you think? Or are you too busy with your doodles?"
He looked up, "I'll have you know I'm not doodling, it's a list of important ideas that I've been working very hard on all morning."
Martin leaned over to try and verify but Will slapped the notepad to his chest. Mac crossed her arms disbelievingly, "Okay. Well then we can review those later. Everyone else get to work, let's lock this down and I'll see you all again 6."
Will waited while the rest of the room filtered out. He met Mackenzie at the door and slipped his notepad on to her stack of binders, "This is my list. Let me know what things you think I should be going after." Then he walked away.
Mackenzie glanced at the list and promptly tripped over her feet again. Gratefully she caught herself and prevented her papers from going flying. She quickly disappeared into her office and sat down as she picked up Will's list again.
Ways to Convince Mac that Will REALLY Loves Her
-Tell her
-Tell her every day
-Smile more
-Flowers
-Chocolate
-Sexy voicemails...double check that Reese has stopped hacking
-Sing her a song
-Write her a song
-Stop smoking inside
-Do everything she says with out argument at work
-Do my best to put on a really good show everynight
-Don't make fun of her shoes
-Compliment her shoes
-Pull her into an empty elevator and kiss that spot on her neck by her collarbone that makes her do that thing
-Write her a love note
-Singing candygram?
-Take her out to a fancy restaurant
-Buy her drinks
-Take her stargazing
-Contrive an opportunity to slow dance
-change back to that soap that she said she likes the smell of
-Buy her jewlery
-Be a happier person
-Buy her a stuffed animal
-Be nicer to the staff; especially the ones she likes
-Find any excuse to touch her
-Wear those slacks thats she likes
-Wear those blue shirts she likes
-Come in in the morning with messy hair
-Make her smile
-Make her laugh
-Say Thank You more often
-Buy a nightlight for my bedroom and tell her about it
-Cook her a meal
-Call her every time I have a dream about her
-Start telling stories of all my favorite memories
-Stop teasing her for subtracting with her fingers
-Touch her when noone is looking
-Leave a single rose on her desk
-Wink at her and hope she knows I thinking of all the things I wish I was doing with her
-Stop resisting the urge to stare at her legs
-Stop resisting the urge to stare at her ass
-Stop resisting the urge to stare at her breasts...especially during rundown meetings when she leans over the table and I can see straight down her cleavage
-Pay another 3 million dollars to amend my contract so that she is the only person allowed to be my EP
-Tell Sloan...who will then tell everyone...Peer pressure!
-Tell Charlie
-Call her parents
-Buy a billboard
-Give her the time and space that she wants...but make sure she knows you'd like it to be much, much, much shorter...as in time served.
-Give her this list
She was smiling softly at the list when Sloan stuck her head in to her office, "Hey."
Mac looked up, "Hi."
The economist eased herself into the room and was careful to shut the door behind her before approaching Mackenzie's desk, "Do you know what's up with Will?"
Mac furrowed her brow, "What do you mean?"
Sloan shrugged, "I don't know. This morning we had a little heart to heart and he was annoyed and feeling bad about the morning show but now it's as if that never happened. He's been smiling and giving people compliments and I think it's kind of creeping people out. It's only been a couple of hours but there's already a rumor that he's dying or something."
Mac tried to contain the automatic look of horror that crossed her face at the thought of Will being sick.
Sloan's eyes grew wide, "Oh my god he's not, is he?"
Mac smiled quickly and shook her head, "No. Of course not."
Sloan sat in the chair across from her, "So what do you think it is?"
Mac looked back down at the list and smiled, "Number 3, 23 and 25." She counted aloud to herself.
Sloan tilted her head, "Uh Mac? Was I supposed to understand that? Because I didn't."
Mackenzie looked up again and narrowed her eyes at Sloan, "Will didn't tell you anything, did he?"
Sloan shrugged, "Like what? He tells me lots of things."
"About this morning?" Mackenzie asked.
"That he apologized for making a fool of himself on ACN morning?" Sloan clarified. "Yeah. We talked about that."
Mackenzie sat back in her chair, "Did you talk to him at all after?"
"Why?"
"Sloan!" Mackenzie snapped, "Did you talk to Will anytime after your discussion earlier?"
Sloan shrugged, "No, not really. I means I saw him at the run down just like you. But he looked distracted. Then I stopped by his office just now to ask him what was up with him he told me to talk with you. But he just looked like he was super focused on writing the script."
Mac leaned back and smiled knowingly. "Well I guess that was nice of him."
Sloan squinted at Mac, "What was nice of him?"
Mackenzie bit her lip and regarded her friend carefully. "He's leaving number 45 to me."
Sloan leaned forward, "Mac. Stop talking crazy. What is number 45?"
Mackenzie smiled, "You." She hesitated a minute, "Contrary to what it says I'd like to trust you to keep this quiet."
"What quiet?" Demanded an increasingly agitated Sloan.
Mackenzie didn't say anything but instead handed the list over to Sloan who almost dropped it with excitement when she read the title.
"KENZIE!"
Mac smiled and leaned back, embracing herself in a self hug as Sloan stood and paced the room reading the list half aloud and half to herself.
"Flowers? Sexy voicemails? Girl you have got to tell me about those...Write her a song?! Slow dancing? Change his soap? What slacks do you think he means? The dark gray ones? And why messy hair? You like his hair messy? Awww...make her smile? Single rose...wink at her and...oh boy...oh boy...3 million dollars? What the hell does he mean by another 3 million? A billboard? Give her time?!"
Sloan stopped her pacing and looked incredulously over at Mac, "Why on Earth would he need to give you time? Why do you want time? Do you see this list? I've never thought of Will this way and the list makes me want to jump him. How are you still sitting there?!"
Mac twisted in her chair, "It's complicated Sloan, you know that."
Sloan dropped back into the chair in front of the desk and leaned forward, "No. It was complicated. Not now. Now it's clear and easy...you love him and he loves you and wants to buy you chocolate and compliment your shoes and drag you into empty elevators! Where is the problem here because I swear I'm not seeing it."
Mackenzie smiled at her friend, Will certainly had the peer pressure factor down. "I know. And I'll tell you what I told him. I love him and I want to be with him but I won't be able to stand it if he changes his mind and he's been through a lot this past week and I just want to make sure this isn't just some misguided reaction to everything. I need to give him the time to be sure that his feelings are real. Because once I move forward with this I'm not looking back."
Sloan slowly leaned back in her chair, "Okay. I don't like it, but I get it."
Mackenzie nodded, "Thank you."
Sloan crossed her arms, "How long are you going to make him wait for?"
Mac gave a small shrug as she picked up the list again, "I don't know but I have a feeling he's going to make it very difficult."