“I ran a bath, and soaked in the tub, crying  I was more lost than ever.  Not knowing how to deal with this.  I wasn’t reacting to Scott, but I wasn’t stopping him, or else, not with enough force, either.  I didn’t know what I was doing, what I wanted…”

“Thankfully, after New Year’s we began to slowly re-connect…do you remember?…and I began to feel less vulnerable, in a way.  Maybe I was also getting my “sea legs” under me at Film Features, able to better manage things, expectations, even  gain broader authority over programs at work.  Meanwhile, Sarah called me out on all this, too.  It was a jarring, but much needed wake-up call.”

Bette remembered the scene in the café around the late third or late fourth week of January.  Following her own meeting  with Mark, one of George’s key lieutenants, she noticed a new entry in her calendar app that synced in Tina’s updated calendar that indicated Tina had decided to join that afternoon’s house-hunting with Sarah and Bette.  But since Bette and Sarah had canceled, Bette was worried that Tina would have probably dropped an appointment to join them, for nothing.  So she hurried to the café, only to find Sarah comforting Tina, in some way.  Bette had been puzzled then, but now understood what must have happened.

Tina continued, “So… I told Scott a few days later, once I got a better grip on myself, that whatever he thought was going on, or hoped to go on, was not, and that it had never had a chance, in the first place.  I had been stupid, and was struggling with something, but I wasn’t going to let it happen again with him. When he tried to lean in, maybe thinking I wasn’t serious, I slapped him hard.  Made a mark. Then slapped him again.”

Do you get it?, Tina had asked, challenging.  No. More.

Uh, huh, Scott responded, holding his chin. Then said, Okay, Tina,  I’m guessing we’re never working together again.  So I just wanted to say this, and take it any way you want to: trust your instincts.  You’re a great producer.  Don’t let anybody  let you think otherwise, ever again.

“Once final edits were done, I disengaged myself from the project to the extent I could, and had somebody else oversee the extra footage that he’d needed to film, and also let others handle more of the discussion around film distribution, marketing, etc. later on.  The senior guys loved the film now.  We never spoke directly, and were never alone, again.  He knew that we were never going to work together again. He acknowledged as much.”