#Duretti and Jillian have a thing going on à la Call my agent

[emylilas]

I know Love Actually is a Christmas romcom but my fics are never ready on time (the Easter chocolate hunt fic is staring at me in my WIP files).

Now, the real question is, should I write this 👇?  I did spend way too long writing that plot that was supposed to be short.

Vincent is a stage actor. The company he’s in will be playing God of Carnage, from the French playwright Yasmina Reza. This play presents two couples seemingly politely discussing the fact that one of the sons hit the other. Vincent is one of the fathers and Adriel plays the other one. Unlike Vincent, Adriel has made his career in Hollywood, he is well-known and well-loved by the public. Adriel’s ego makes him insufferable for everyone in the company but that’s not why Vincent is having such a hard time working with him. No. They have history together, and Vincent hasn’t forgotten that. 

Beatrice, the play director ー said to be one of the most promising directors of her generation ー is trying her best to ease the tensions between her two male leads because the words have gotten out that movie-star Adriel and his co-star could not stand each other. She doesn’t want that kind of press for her play. Ava, working at the opening, lets her know whenever journalists are trying to get information. 

Ava dreams of being a movie star. Waiting for an opportunity to present itself, she shares an apartment with her older sister, Shannon, and Shannon’s friend, Lilith. 

Shannon has graduated with a journalism degree and is now struggling with her debuts. As for Lilith, she works in a small flower shop. 

SEPTEMBER, 29th. That’s where she meets Camila, a student in computer science who likes to do random good things for people and who has decided, that day, to pick flowers for people in the nearest hospital. Shannon, passing by the shop to drop Lilith’s keys she forgot in the morning, sees Camila struggling with the many bouquets she has ー she offers to help her.

Mary works in this hospital as a nurse in oncology. Her patients find Camila’s initiative lovely. As a public hospital underfunded, nurses and doctors are overworked, there aren’t enough beds, patients must sometimes be left waiting in the hallways and wait for hours before someone can come check on them. It’s a shock for Shannon, because she can tell it’s not a lack of care from the staff, it’s a fault in the system.

Shannon wants to do something. She asks Mary what she thinks of the possibility of Shannon writing an article about the current situation in collaboration with nurses and clinicians. She doesn’t want sensationalism, she wants to raise awareness and point fingers where the fault lies. Mary is reluctant at first but eventually notices Shannon only means well. She suggests she talks to upper directions.

Mary’s best friend is Suzanne, a teacher, who’s Vincent’s little sister. Between her clumsy enthusiastic assistant, Yasmine, who means well but requires a lot of her time, her kind yet exhausting pupils and her brother’s awful mood because of Adriel, Suzanne has been begging Mary for a weekend away, just the two of them, to flee the stress of her everyday life. This little getaway would also be a great opportunity for Suzanne to set Mary on a date with a perfect stranger, since Mary has rejected anyone Suzanne knows.

OCTOBER, 15th. Tonight is the opening night and it couldn’t possibly be worse. Vincent and Adriel aren’t talking to each other, they refuse to get out of their respective lodge for the finale rehearsal and Beatrice has no other choice than to call their respective agents. She regrets her decision the moment she realises Francesco Duretti, Vincent’s agent from O.C.S, and Jillian Salvius, Adriel’s agent from F.B.C, are sworn enemies in their own business, constantly trying to steal each other’s actors. Despite their mutual contempt, they need to get the two actors back on stage before tonight, which won’t be easy considering Adriel won’t talk to Jillian and Vincent is ignoring Francesco’s calls.

Ava is the one who suggests to Jillian that she tries talking to Vincent’s sister because she’s the only one who scares him enough to get him to do anything. Ava has overheard Suzanne mention her students once, but she’s not sure which school it is, just that it’s nearby. Jillian visits three schools before finding the right one. Suzanne finds it weird, yet not completely not funny, to know that this stranger has been looking for the most part of her afternoon so she agrees to talk to her brother. Vincent eventually agrees to come out of his lodge and if Adriel doesn’t want any bad press, he has to play along.

The opening night goes smoothly, as opposed to the entire day. Everyone is in the room. Yasmine came with her roommate Camila who came with Lilith who herself came with Ava and Shannon. Mary came with Suzanne. Jillian and Francesco are there to make sure their actors won’t try running away during intermission. Everyone gets to stay for the After Party, Beatrice lets Ava know her friends are more than welcome.

Suzanne gets to meet Shannon and she quickly notices her interest in Mary that has grown while the two of them were working together for the article. And Suzanne has heard a lot about Shannon from her friend. She just needs to get Mary to be brave enough to ask Shannon on a date. 

Yasmine, Camila and Lilith hang out together, they like staying near the buffet and try to guess people’s most embarrassing secrets.

Ava gets the courage to tell Beatrice that she inspires her. Beatrice could faint but eventually confesses to her that she kept her distance because she was scared Ava’s attempt at getting closer only was to get a first role somewhere. It hurts Ava that Beatrice would think something like that but she understands it must have happened before for it to be such a strong fear. She promises she has no secret interests behind her willingness to get to know Beatrice better.

Jillian manages to steal Suzanne from her brother, Francesco and their friends for a few minutes. She thanks her again for allowing the situation to go back to normal. Suzanne is reluctant to talk to the agent, Francesco has warned her about Jillian Salvius’ questionable methods. Jillian ensures her that her brother is not the one she’s interested in. She tells Suzanne that if she ever gets bored of the five men she seems to be destined to spend her evening with, she can come find her later. Later that night, Suzanne gets a text from an unknown number:

“You didn’t come.” “How did you get my number?” “Questionable methods ;)” “You had already left.”

Jillian actually asked Ava if she could ask Suzanne’s number to Vincent. Ava instead asked her sister to ask Mary. Jillian had left the party in a hurry after a call from her babysitter informing her that her son, Michael, was running a fever. Her 8 years old only recently recovered from leukaemia. His first nurse when he was 4 was Mary.

NOVEMBER, 2nd. Taking a walk in the city with Suzanne, Mary recognises Jillian and Michael in a park. She tells Suzanne she needs to say hi. That’s how Suzanne meets Michael for the first time and how Mary understands Jillian is the woman Suzanne has been talking to since the opening night without ever agreeing to meet her on a proper date. Michael tells Mary that, for Halloween, he was dressed as Dr Noru, the scary chief of oncology. Mary laughs, because Dr Noru was indeed terrifying. Later that day, Mary offers Suzanne a deal: if she goes on a date with Jillian, she’ll ask Shannon out. It’s a deal.

NOVEMBER, 10th. Ava knows it’s Beatrice’s birthday. She asks Lilith and Shannon to disappear for the night so she can have their place. She cooks, bakes, and decorates the room for Beatrice. She buys her flowers, the English tea that Ava has noticed Beatrice had run out of, and she has collected all positive reviews about the play and specifically Beatrice as a director in a journal that she’ll give to her. She knows Beatrice doesn’t have plans so she calls her and asks her to come over because she has some very important news to share with her. Beatrice is grumpy when she shows up, thinking Ava is going to tell her she was offered her first role and would soon have to leave. She bursts into tears when she realises what Ava has done for her. It turns out Ava is a great baker but a terrible cook. They end up ordering food and spend the entire evening talking. Ava asks if Beatrice wants to stay over. They fall asleep in Ava’s room, watching a movie together.

In the meantime, Lilith is enjoying board game night at Yasmine and Camila’s. They have invited their friends Hans, Todd and Chanel to join them and Lilith really enjoys Chanel’s company. 

Shannon has asked Mary if she was free tonight because her sister was kicking her out of home. Mary’s shift supposedly ended at 8pm. It’s 10 when she finally gets out. She’s too tired to go anywhere and Shannon offers to just make them both dinner and then let Mary sleep. Mary tells her she can stay. Shannon is shy and doesn’t want to cross any boundaries so when Mary is asleep, she leaves a note on the kitchen counter and goes back home where she finds burnt cannelloni in the shrink.

DECEMBER, 14th. Suzanne’s class goes to visit the Science Museum with another class that turns out to be Michael’s class. He’s happy to see her, she’s been at his home a few times lately but has never stayed long. He spends the whole visit holding her hand. When it’s time for parents to come pick their children, Michael’s teacher complains that Jillian is late again. Suzanne tells her to go, she’ll bring Michael home, she knows his mother. When Jillian opens the door, she’s paler than usual and she’s slightly shaking. Food poisoning, she explains to Suzanne. There’s no risk for Michael to catch it so they should be fine. She thanks Suzanne for bringing him home. Suzanne doesn’t leave her a choice and walks in. She helps Michael with her homework, makes Jillian rest on the couch with a bucket on the ground for emergencies and busies herself with making something for dinner that Jillian’s stomach might not immediately reject.

DECEMBER, 20th. Love actually is a Christmas movie so it’s Christmas!

It’s the last day the theatre is open for the season and the last representation of Gods of carnage tonight. They’re having a little Christmas party after. It’s just them, it’s nothing much but Ava insisted they did a Secret Santa this year with the possibility of only giving something homemade. After the party, Ava asks Beatrice what she’s going to do for Christmas. Beatrice won’t fly home. There’s nothing stopping her from accepting Ava’s invitation to come celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas and Post Christmas with her, her sister and their friends. Neither Ava or Beatrice are very certain of what they are to each other. Both hope.

Lilith invited Camila and Yasmine and told them to bring Hans, Todd and Chanel if they had nothing better to do. Todd will spend the holidays with his family but Hans won’t go back to Switzerland and Chanel has lost contact with her family, they’re delighted to have this Christmas time with their friends. Shannon and Ava can’t stop teasing Lilith at how delighted she is to learn that Chanel will be here.

Shannon knows Mary will be working on Christmas and asks if it’s okay if she comes to the hospital to spend time with her during her breaks. She could bake Christmas cookies for the patients and the staff. Mary tells her that will make a lot of Christmas cookies. Shannon spends the whole day baking to make sure there are enough for everyone.

It’s the last day of school and when Suzanne hands the last kid to his parents and tells them to enjoy the holidays, she notices Yasmine coming back with Michael’s hand glued to hers. “He was looking for you.” Michael wants Suzanne to spend Christmas with them. Disclosed reason: she needs to save them from Jillian’s cooking. Secret reason: he saw mistletoe at the flower shop near their house and is planning to buy some for his mum and her friend who should really be her girlfriend instead. Suzanne calls Jillian to make sure she doesn’t go into cardiac arrest when Michael’s teacher tells her he’s already left. Suzanne drops him home and before she leaves, Jillian shyly asks what her plans for the holidays are.

CHRISTMAS filled with Christmas activities (hot chocolate, gingerbread houses, decorating a tree, Christmas cooking, Christmas movies, board games, ice skiing, snowball fight, building a snowman, cuddling by the fireplace, kissing under the mistletoe, last minute Christmas shopping…)

SO, should I write this?