The Man I Became... Because of You (Completed)

Life Bets

"So what are you doing now?" I asked Manx as we waited for permission to see Ae. He was out of surgery but wasn't awake yet. Mae is there with him but we thought we would all wait until he was up and she had seen him. It was important to me that she got this moment.

"Ae hasn't mentioned anything?" Manx asked though he didn't look super surprised

"He might have but I don't recall."

"We haven't talked in a year or so but I haven't changed professions either."

"He also remembers you like pretty boys like Pete. Some things are just ingrained in Ae and he can't help them." Pond says easily and Pete had to admit to himself that he wasn't lying.

"True," Manx agrees with a grin. "Anyway. I created a company. TailGate Productions. We look for authors who are willing to let us turn their novels into movies. Kind of like what we do here. We mostly go for the action romance genre and we go for known names in the community. Right now we're actually working on a series. So there's this author who passed away a couple or so years back called Sandrine Gasq-Dion. She had these connecting series but the main one is the Assassin-Shifters. We contacted her estate and promised to work closely with them and do her justice. Her kids have been really involved and we've started our first series.

"She also included a lot of Native American influences so we reached out to the community and used connections to get young talent. Then we went for a more diverse population than even she has and sent out feelers everywhere including here. In fact, though he refused a part, Noh from Elevation got excited about the project and offered to do some of our tracks. He came straight out and said he usually does some kind of free music every year so he's not going to charge us. He made me so star struck that I went and bought his CDs. When I caught myself, I was a fan. The dude has some weird charisma."

"Wow. Did you get to see Secret? I mean Phun?" Pond asked excitedly, forgetting the setting and the atmosphere of the room. However he did get everyone's attention and it lightened the mood. 

"Yeah. The whole family came to the set and I even made a pitch to cast him but he just smiled and shook his head. He's actually really cool and knows how to push Noh's buttons. But Ohm is the one you need to watch out for. He almost got me killed because he talked me into some crazy stunts. I got this." That's when he showed off the scar I had been looking at earlier. So that's how he got it. I had been leaning towards him being in a fight. 

"He was really sorry and even paid my medical and everything even though I had insurance. Anyway, I'm back here because we're trying to cast this new kid from here. We want him to play a part in a movie called Without Reservation. The author, J L Langley doesn't have many novels but her With or Without series, I like it."

"So that's not going to be a series too?" I heard the word series and automatically assumed that it would be one.

"No. She only has about 5 books in that series. Sandrine had more than 20 books in the main series alone. And actually we're doing pretty well. We're doing great in the theaters we're allowed to show at but we do way better in Europe. Also we got a shout out from this director at the Acadamy Awards. He said our Sinner's Gin which we did with Rhys Ford was one of the best movies of the year and he didn't know why we weren't even nominated. He actually got people standing and clapping with his comment. I was stunned. I mean I know it did well but I didn't realize people were actually paying attention to us."

"So what made you decide to do this?" I asked.

"Actually this guy who goes by the name PD and has his own channel called Form of Therapy. He actually does a lot of K-pop reactions. Anyway he makes gay themed movies and he had a really hard time getting support. We met through a friend and that was it. TailGate was born."