MY LOVELY AUTHOR'S

STOCK MISFORTUNE PART 4

            “Where did you get those shoes, Asha??” Warda immediately asked me as soon as I returned after stopping Arata with the intention to return expensive shoes and clothes from him.

            The shit that happened was not to my liking. In front of Arata, I could not do what I did and was hit by Arata's trap. I got in the car with Sena and Warda. Sena sat in the driver's seat and Warda sat next to me in the back seat. After that, I told her how chronologically, I was able to receive two pairs of shoes from Arata.

“Hold on my shoulder.” After saying that Arata took out the shoes from inside the big bag that the manager was carrying and put them on my barefoot two feet.

 “You?? My feet are dirty, Arata.” I'm trying to stop Arata's intentions. “Your hands can be dirty, Arata.”

            No matter how. . . Arata did not listen to my words. Arata cleans my feet with his own hands and his handkerchief. After making sure my feet were clean, she fitted beautiful shoes that were only three centimeters tall this time to my feet.

            “See. . .your feet are really pretty wearing these pretty shoes, Asha. Now. . . You can pull your hand off my shoulder, Asha.” Arata got up from his kneeling position and stood looking at me with a happy smile on his lips.

            “You're this??? How can you do that when you're a famous artist??”

            Arata smiled again. “Although I am a famous artist, I am still an ordinary human being. Of course I can do it. But I don't do it to everyone. Please remember that, Asha.”

            Huft, I sighed because I always lost every time I talked to Arata. “I'll remember that. Then how am I supposed to pay for all this? Since you don't want me to return these clothes and shoes, what if I pay you? Give me your account number and I'll pay for it.”

            “No need, Asha. You don't have to pay because you already paid.”

            “With what do I pay for it??” many confused.

            Arata glanced at the four books I autographed in and were currently in the hands of his manager. “Signature. You've already paid for it with four signatures on top of these four books and that's the price I think it's worth.”

            “Kyaaaa. . .” Warda cried out hysterically as I finished my story about the new shoe now attached to my foot. “Ahhhhh. . . Arata is truly a man of dreams. Can't I meet a guy like him out there???”

            I cast a sharp glare towards Warda. “Hei. . . hey. . . Wardae. Remember that you have a husband and are currently pregnant. You didn't forget that, did you?”

            “Ah right, I already have a husband.  Too bad. .”

            My eyes glared at the words of the Warda. “You are!!! How can you say that??? What if your husband hears this???”

            “My husband won't know if you guys keep your mouth shut.” Warda gave a sharp look towards Sena who was looking at us from her rearview mirror.

            “I'll shut up, Brother.” Sena seemed to receive that sharp glare and immediately replied to Warda's remark.

            “Sena, you!!” my reply looked towards Sena who was sitting in the front seat.

            “Already. . . Asha. Two more days, I'll take my leave. The fifth novel has also been completed and is in the editing stage. After this. . . Sena will contact you if there are any parts in your novel that need fixing. Then while waiting. . .you can work on a screenplay with the screenwriter for a month. Give me your phone, Asha.”

            I followed Warda's request by giving him my phone. Warda opened my phone and then put some contact numbers in it.

            “This. ..in it is the contact number of the screenwriter, then the director and producer responsible for the production of your novel. I gave them your number too. So when they call you, pick up the call and answer the message. Understood?”

            I nodded my head. “Understanding.”

            One of my few odd habits is not to receive foreign calls and not to reply to incoming foreign messages. Due to some bad experiences I had in the past, I was too afraid to receive foreign calls and open messages from foreign numbers. During my time as a writer, it was Warda who was responsible for receiving foreign calls and foreign messages that might require cooperation from me. Rather than being an editor, Warda was already similar to the manager who took care of me.

            And now. . . . Warda had to take three months off and all of his work had to be transferred to Sena.

            “You should remember this, Sena. One of the few important conditions for working with Esha is to never let anyone who wants to contact Esha directly contact Esha. You have to keep that person's number in Esha's phone first, and then let them call Esha. You understand, Sena??”

            “I understand, Brother.”

            After the show ended, my life calmed down. Having to write a screenplay that I had never done before, I spent a lot of time studying it. The screenwriter I worked with sent me some examples of his screenplay that had been filmed as reference material for me. Within a week, I studied several screenwriters' scripts.

            After a week passed, I started writing screenplays together with screenwriters who were connected to me online. In the next three weeks, I was really busy. My bedtime, which was originally five to six hours a day, I had to trim it to 3-4 hours a day. Warda who was worried about me, asked Sena to visit three times a week.  Every time he came, Sena would come with food that Warda had prepared for me.

            “Thank you, Sena. Sorry I can't take you and say hello to Warda.”

            “Good, Asha. See you in two days.”

            That's what happens when I'm busy working on my screenplay along with the actual screenwriter. Several times, I made a pretty fatal mistake. But I was lucky enough that the screenwriter I was working with was patient, so he never got angry and just asked me not to repeat the same mistake.

            And three weeks went by quickly. The script with a 90-minute film has finally been completed.

            “Asha, your scenario script is done??” After finishing the script, I who had slept for three hours had to wake up from receiving a call from Sena.

            “Yes, Sena. I've already finished it. It may only need to wait for approval from the director and if approved they will cast for the cast. What's the matter with you calling me?” I woke up from my sleep on the couch in my apartment, walked into the kitchen and made a cup of hot chocolate. I intend to go back to sleep after receiving Sena's call.

            “Your fifth novel has finished checking.  There are some parts you might have to fix. Maybe I'll come tomorrow, how?”

            With the right hand carrying the hot brown cup and the left hand holding my phone, I walked to the balcony of my apartment to feel the sunlight directly after three weeks of confinement inside the apartment. “Sure. I thought you were coming today. If you come today, maybe I won't be able to. Since I only slept three hours after three days, I didn't sleep.”

            “Sorry, Asha. Should have. . I didn't contact you.” I heard Sena's guilty tone of voice from my phone speaker.

            “No problem. I woke up and it just so happened that your call came in. Is that all?”

            “One more. .”

            “What is it?” I sat leaning against the balcony railing looking down where the city streets were visible. The people walking by, look like little ants from where I live.  

            “Kak Warda has just given birth. If you don't mind, I'd like to invite you to visit Kak Warda tomorrow, how?”

            “Very good. Incidentally, going with you I don't need to drive my own car.”

            After determining the hour of our meeting the next day, Sena disconnected her call connected to me. I was still sitting leaning against the balcony railing, occasionally sipping my hot chocolate. Slurrppppc.

            “That's a dangerous thing sitting by leaning on that fence, Author Wallflower.”

            Hearing that voice, I immediately turned my head and looked towards the balcony of my neighbor's apartment. My mouth, which was still full of chocolate that I had just drank, gushed out at the sight of the face of the owner of the voice who had just reprimanded me.

            “Uhuk. . uhuuk.”

            “You okay, Asha? I seem to surprise you. Poor fellow passers-by who just passed under there, he might be hit by that brown rain you just sprayed it.”

            I pulled my body back to get away from the balcony railing so that the person who was unlucky because of the brown rain I spewed could not see how I looked. While doing that, I stared intently at Arata who was laughing, looking at me surprised to see him.

            It seems. .he's not my lucky star because every time I'm with him, bad luck always comes to me.