The Click Trilogy (22 page)
Authors: Lisa Becker
From: Shelley Manning – October 17, 2011 – 9:35 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Disbelief…Total Disbelief!
Well, good for you. Not many ladies get to say they turned down a rock star. Not that you’re that petty. But I am. ;)
From: Renee Greene – October 17, 2011 – 9:58 AM
Subject: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
About to hop on a marathon conference call with the client from hell but wanted to let you know what I have in my hot little hands. Two tickets to the hottest show in town starring the original Broadway cast including one Kristin Chenowith. Now granted, it’s a Sunday matinee. But they are orchestra center. That’s how I roll! Don’t ask me how I got them. Involved a little bribery and a lot of groveling. But nothing illegal. Will pick you up at 1:00. The show starts at 2:00. Hurrah!
From: [email protected] – October 17, 2011 – 10:41 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
Crap! I just tried you, but you're on a call. This Sunday is the Buckeyes game and some of the guys are coming over. I didn't realize you were getting tickets for
this
weekend. Are you totally pissed? Do you want me to cancel my plans?
From: Renee Greene – October 17, 2011 – 10:45 AM
Subject: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
I'm not pissed. Just bummed out. No, don't cancel on your buddies. I'll take my best friend.
From: [email protected] – October 17, 2011 – 10:48 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
You are amazing! Talk with you later.
From: Renee Greene – October 17, 2011 – 10:53 AM
To: Shelley Manning
Subject: Fwd: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
Guess you're in. Pick you up at 1:00?
From: Shelley Manning – October 17, 2011 – 11:51 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
Excellent. And how do you really feel?
From: Renee Greene – October 17, 2011 – 11:58 AM
To: Shelley Manning
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
Totally bummed. Of course I’m glad you and I will get to see the show. But, honestly plagued by self doubt. Is this a sign he doesn't want to see me anymore? Is this a Matt-style blow off all over again? Should I be offended he would rather hang out with his friends than with me? And why hasn’t he introduced me to his friends yet?
From: Shelley Manning – October 17, 2011 – 12:07 PM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
Well, why haven’t you introduced him to us yet? What’s good for the goose, sweetie. And don’t be so paranoid. It’s a guy thing. Sundays in the fall = football and beer. Don’t read too much into it.
From: Renee Greene – October 17, 2011 – 12:15 PM
To: Shelley Manning
Subject: Re: Fwd: Re: Little Bribery/Lotta Groveling
You’re right. I’m letting my mind get the best of me. And a week from Saturday night we are all going out for dinner for Mark’s birthday. So you will meet him then. Hurrah!
From: Renee Greene – October 19, 2010 – 4:42 PM
Subject: Great to see you!
Greg Gordon! I can’t believe it. What an amazing coincidence running into you at Excel Paint today. In the four years that I’ve worked on the account and been there countless time for meetings, I can’t believe we haven’t bumped into each other before. So you’re a scientist. Fantastic! As you saw, I’m a public relations director who works on Excel among other accounts. After college, I ended up moving cross country to work for a major PR firm in New York and then returned to LA to be near my family about four years ago. I’m dating a wonderful guy and having a great time hanging with friends and enjoying all of the fun Los Angeles has to offer. Hope you are finding much happiness and success.
From: Renee Greene – October 19, 2010 – 4:44 PM
To: Ashley Price
Subject: Blast from the past
So, I’m at a meeting at Excel Paint this morning and I bumped into…drum roll, please…Greg Gordon! Can you believe it?
From: Ashley Price – October 19, 2010 – 4:45 PM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Blast from the past
Who?
From: Renee Greene – October 19, 2010 – 4:47 PM
To: Ashley Price
Subject: Re: Blast from the past
Greg Gordon. We went to junior high and high school with him. He was a science wiz, which is fitting because now he’s a scientist for Excel Paint.
From: Ashley Price – October 19, 2010 – 6:56 PM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Blast from the past
I can’t put a finger on it. Let me check the yearbook. Oh yeah, I kind of remember him. So he’s a scientist. I didn’t realize you needed scientists to make paint.
From: Renee Greene – October 20, 2010 – 9:02 AM
To: Ashley Price
Subject: Re: Blast from the past
Oh yeah, it’s very scientific and has to do with nanotechnology. I don’t understand it all, but apparently it’s big business.
From: [email protected] – October 20, 2010 – 9:16 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Great to see you!
Great seeing you yesterday, Renee. You haven’t changed a bit since junior high. Can you believe that’s how long we’ve known each other?!
Yes, I’m a molecular chemist at Excel and have been here since graduating from college.
Speaking of which, I should inform you that my mom no longer sends me shoes in the mail. I still remember that day when you laughed uncontrollably when I opened the shoe box in the dorms! Nice to catch up with you ,and take care.
From: Renee Greene – October 20, 2010 – 10:03 AM
Subject: Re: Great to see you!
I have no recollection of this alleged “shoes by mail” mocking incident. Isn’t it funny what we remember…and forget? But, since you so vividly recall it, it must be true. So, I must offer my sincerest apologies to you. I can’t even IMAGINE why that would have been wildly funny.
From: [email protected] – October 20, 2010 – 10:32 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Great to see you!
I do remember it vividly because you could not stop laughing. And then you told me that – unbeknownst to me – running around junior high and high school was one of your friends – Ashley
– who completely despised me for being a “mama’s boy” and would mock me behind my back. I found it so surprising that someone I remember seeing for years but never really exchanged words with could hate me so much. Not that I’m harboring any ill will. I just remember the day because it was so shocking.
From: Renee Greene – October 20, 2010 – 10:57 AM
Subject: Re: Great to see you!
I’m horrified to read your email. I can’t believe I was so mean. Some good-natured ribbing about shoes by mail is one thing. Heck! You were ahead of the curve: I love getting shoes in the mail. These days, Zappos rocks! But I can’t believe I told you that Ashley
hated you. I’m sincerely sorry, not only that she was cruel but that I told you about it. I had a pretty miserable childhood school experience (not that I'm using that as an excuse.) But in my adult years, I've prided myself on having been - for the most part - nice to other people. Now I find out I was just as bad. How awful. Well, perhaps next time I’m at Excel, I can buy you a cup of coffee – but only with a Zappos gift card in tow.
From: [email protected] – October 20, 2010 – 11:26 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: Great to see you!
Seriously, don’t worry about it. You know that crap about what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger? Well, let’s just say, it works. But I would be happy to grab a coffee with you next time you’re at Excel. No gift card needed. Be well.
From: Renee Greene – October 20, 2010 – 11:38 AM
To: Ashley Price
Subject: We suck!!!
So I’ve been emailing a bit with Greg and apparently we were awful – just awful – to him growing up. You hated him for being a mama’s boy and made fun of him behind his back and I told him all about it while we were in college.
Ugh! I feel sick to my stomach. After surviving “Mean April” in grade school, I really prided myself on being a nice person because I understood how cruel kids could be. Now I find out I was just as much of a bitch.
From: Ashley Price – October 20, 2010 – 12:12 PM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: We suck!!!
You aren’t a bitch! Kids can sometimes be cruel and we were kids. But honestly, I doubt you were anything but the lovely, wonderfully nice person you are today. Knowing you as I do, this will probably eat away at you for days. You can beat yourself up over lunch at Mel’s. See you tomorrow at noon.
From: Renee Greene – October 21, 2010 – 2:45 PM
To: Ashley Price
Subject: Re: We suck!!!
Thanks for our talk at lunch. I do feel a bit better about things. It was a long time ago and I wasn’t the mature adult I am today. Okay, so I’m not all that “mature,” but at least I am a good person and do my best to treat others nicely. Thanks for letting me work through it all. I feel like I should be paying you for a therapy session.
From: Ashley Price – October 22, 2010 – 10:05 AM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: Re: We suck!!!
Consider ourselves even. Plenty of times, a heart-to-heart with you has helped me as well. Believe me.
From: [email protected] – October 23, 2011 – 2:38 PM
To: Renee Greene
Subject: You are Amazing!!!!!
You are still at the show, but I needed to tell you right away: YOU ARE AMAZING! When the buzzer rang and the guys heard it was you, they started grumbling about the “clingy girl who couldn't let me have ONE day with my friends.” But after I returned from downstairs with your homemade cookies (which, by the way, were even better than advertised) and explained that you wouldn’t
even
come up to say a quick hello because you didn’t want to interrupt our fun, I was dubbed the luckiest SOB on the planet and you were crowned the coolest chick ever.
From: Renee Greene – October 23, 2011 – 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: You are Amazing!!!!!
From: Renee Greene – October 25, 2011 – 8:26 AM
To: Shelley Manning, Ashley Price, Mark Finlay
Subject: Spoooooky!
Just wanted to see if anyone has anything fun planned for Halloween. It’s on a Monday this year, which kind of puts a damper on festivities. I’m thinking of just staying in and handing out candy in my building with Ethan. Anyone want to convince me otherwise – or join us?
From: Mark Finlay – October 25, 2011 – 11:26 AM
To: Renee Greene; Shelley Manning, Ashley Price,
Subject: Re: Spoooooky!
Slammed with work. Major deadline on the game. Saving up all of my free time for my birthday. Sorry Renee.
From: Ashley Price – October 25, 2011 – 12:32 PM
To: Renee Greene; Shelley Manning, Mark Finlay
Subject: Re: Spoooooky!
Ditto for me. Too busy with work and such. But happy to celebrate Mark’s birthday in a few weeks.
From: Shelley Manning – October 25, 2011 – 1:27 PM
To: Renee Greene, Ashley Price, Mark Finlay
Subject: Re: Spoooooky!
I have a date with a handsome doctor I met through Tiffany of all people. I’m going to a costume party at the hospital. He’s planning to wear army fatigue bottoms and a regular shirt. I’m planning to wear an army fatigue shirt with regular bottoms. And together, we will be an upper and lower GI. I think the hospital folk will get a big kick out of that. And, hopefully later, I’ll be wearing nothing at all. ;)!!!!!