She looked up at him. ‘I do. I do love them,’ she said quietly.
He nodded. ‘So Simon goes and you can still doBlind Bakingfor Netflix but please find a new judge, a woman please.’
‘How can you tell me what to do with my show?’ she spat as she spoke.
‘If you get rid of Simon, then I will drop the cooking show from Cirrus TV,’ he said.
Avian was silent for a moment.
‘Do you want me to hire Christa as a judge?’
He laughed. ‘No, she wouldn’t do that.’
Avian immediately went on the defensive. ‘Because she’s too good for the show and for TV?’
‘No, because she doesn’t want to do that sort of stuff. She has other plans and she’s really shy.’
Avian’s face was stony as she uncrossed and crossed her legs again.
‘You can’t tell me who I can and can’t date,’ she said.
‘I can, because I know Simon is abusive and narcissistic, and he will use you and hurt you, Ave, and underneath your armour I know you just want to be loved, like we all do, and he won’t do it.’
‘Did Christa tell you he was abusive? I mean, her perspective is tainted,’ she started to argue.
But Marc laughed. ‘I didn’t need Christa to tell me. I saw it in him from the minute I met him. He’s exactly like my father. A self-absorbed lying piece of shit who will sell his kids for a good deal, which is exactly what my father did to me and my siblings. You know this about my family, Avian. So don’t let Simon Playfoot make you sell your kids for a good deal that benefits him and him only and leaves our boys fucked up like I’ve been.’
Avian was silent but he saw her shoulders drop.
‘You love her,’ she said as she looked up at him.
He said nothing.
‘I know you do because you look at her in a way you never looked at me.’
‘And she looks at me in a way you never did,’ he replied.
She stood up and walked to the door. ‘So you will drop your show if I dump Simon from mine?’
‘And from your life. Honestly Avian, you know he’s a shit.’
She paused. ‘He is pretty annoying; he’s been getting on my nerves lately. He talks about himself constantly, and he’s not that interesting.’
Marc laughed a little. ‘Will you tell him or will I?’
‘Which part? That he’s not interesting or that he’s being dumped?’
‘Any of it, I would enjoy it,’ he said.
But Avian shook her head. ‘No. I’ll do it. I’ll tell Simon they want a new direction.’
She was quiet for a while. ‘I might head back to LA; the boys can come over later. I think I need to sort a few things out back there, mostly myself.’
He nodded. ‘What will you tell the boys?’ he asked.
‘The truth. That I need to work on being a better person, that Simon and I aren’t together, that I want to be able to be there for them and be the best I can be. I don’t know. What do you think?’
He saw her insecurity and fear and he felt sad for her.
