Page 71 of Thick

I didn’t want to tell her about going back to prison, so I condensed the truth. “Haven’t had much time.”

“I can imagine the life of a tattooed bad boy can get pretty busy, especially when you’re on the top of every list out there.”

“Did I hit the New York Times?” I asked excitedly.

“Hit it?” she laughed. “You crushed it. You’re number one on the New York Times bestsellers, and number one on Wall Street Journal’s list. Believe it or not, that’s not the main reason for this call. The second thing is this, Fred Freedman called me. The Fred Freedman. His wife read the book at the recommendation of her eldest daughter, who, incidentally, had read the series. Based on Fred’s call, I read it.”

“Cool.”

“Cool? That’s your response? Do you know who Fred Freedman is?”

“Can’t say I do, but I don’t get out much.”

“He’s a movie producer. Rigger’s Pass, The Vocalist, The Girl with One Blue Eye? Sound familiar?”

The movies she named were all titles I had heard of, but hadn’t had the luxury of seeing. “I’ve heard of ‘em, yeah.”

“His wife read your book, Tate. He called me.”

“Cool. Hope she likes it.”

“She liked it. He liked it.”

“He read it?”

“He sure did.”

“Cool.”

“Okay, Mister Humble. Listen. Fred liked the book. A lot. His screenwriting company wants to make an offer to buy the rights to the book. It’s not my recommendation at this point that you sell it, but it’s my job to give you his offer. As your agent, it’s my duty to tell you regardless of how sweet this offer may sound, that it’s my opinion that you should think about it. Realize this is still very early in the game to be selling the rights, especially the exclusive rights.”

“Okay.”

“Are you ready?”

“Sure.”

“Seven-fifty.”

“Seven fifty what?”

“Seven hundred and fifty thousand.”

My heart faltered. “Three quarters of a million bucks for that rag?”

“It’s not a rag. And, yes. That’s their offer. But. Every cent they make off the movie? You’d get nothing. No matter how successful that movie is, you don’t see a penny.”

“Tell him to go fuck a goat.”

“I knew you were going to say that. What would it take to buy it? Do you have a figure?”

“I don’t know if I want to sell it. It’s kind of about me. In a sense, anyway. I don’t know if I’m ready to have that on a movie screen. To tell the truth, I wish I wouldn’t have written it. At the time it seemed like the thing to do, but I was trying to get a girl to pay attention to me. I was, you know, inspired.”

“Isn’t that cute,” she said in a snide tone. “Where is she now?”

“Probably on her way to work.”

“What does she do.”