[Jay's house]
Jay sat at the kitchen island with a cup of coffee and the newspaper folded in front of him when Manny walked in carrying a leather notebook, three sheets of paper, and the expression of someone about to negotiate a peace treaty.
Jay looked over the top of his glasses and immediately said, "No."
Manny stopped near the island and frowned at him. "I haven't said anything yet."
"You're carrying a notebook before nine in the morning. Whatever this is, it costs money." Jay returned his attention to the newspaper as though the discussion had already ended.
Manny ignored him and took the stool across from him. "Tomorrow is Mom's birthday, and I need your complete cooperation."
Jay lowered the newspaper again. "My complete cooperation?"
"Yes. I've organized the day into phases." Manny placed the notebook on the island between them.
Jay stared at him for a moment before looking toward the colored tabs sticking out from the pages. "Of course you have."
Manny opened the notebook to the first marked page. "Phase one begins at eleven-thirty. You take Mom to a romantic lunch."
"I was already taking her to lunch," Jay reminded him.
Manny glanced at whatever Jay had planned and shook his head. "Not the steakhouse."
Jay frowned as he set his coffee cup down. "What's wrong with the steakhouse?"
"Nothing, if you're celebrating the quarterly earnings of a regional plumbing company."
"It has great steaks," Jay argued.
Manny leaned forward and tried to make him understand the problem. "Mom doesn't want great steak on her birthday. She wants atmosphere."
Jay leaned back in his chair. "She likes steak."
"She likes romance more, and maybe try Colombian food for a change instead of steak," Manny replied.
Jay pointed at him with the coffee cup. "You're thirteen."
Manny held his gaze without the slightest hesitation. "And yet here we are."
Jay pressed his lips together, deciding against whatever response had first entered his mind.
Manny turned the page and continued with the schedule. "I made a reservation at that restaurant she likes near the gardens. Outdoor table, flowers waiting when you arrive, sparkling wine-"
"She can't drink an entire bottle at lunch," Jay interrupted.
"The bottle is for both of you," Manny explained patiently.
Jay shook his head. "I'm driving."
Manny sighed and crossed something out in the notebook. "Fine. Sparkling water for you. The point is, you keep her occupied until one-thirty."
"And then?" Jay asked suspiciously.
Manny checked the next item on his schedule. "Spa."
Jay's face changed immediately. "No."
"Couples massage," Manny clarified.
"Absolutely not," Jay replied without hesitation.
Manny gave him an exasperated look. "Jay."
"I don't like strangers rubbing me," Jay said, folding his arms.
Manny stared at him across the island. "You fall asleep every time Mom scratches your head."
"That's different. I know her."
Manny folded his hands over the open notebook. "You have one job tomorrow: keep Mom away from this house until four o'clock."
Jay glanced toward the living room before turning back to him. "Why four?"
"Because between noon and four, this house becomes a controlled construction zone."
Jay's concern only deepened. "That sentence didn't help."
Manny began counting the different assignments on his fingers. "Claire is handling food and decorations. Haley is making Mom a dress."
Jay raised an eyebrow at that part. "Making?"
"She wants it to be personal," Manny explained.
Jay considered the idea and gave a small nod. "Huh."
Manny moved on to the next part of the plan. "Phil and Luke are preparing a magic show."
Jay slowly lowered his coffee. "You lost me again."
"It was either give Phil a scheduled performance or let him create one himself."
Jay considered that reasoning for a moment. "Smart."
"Alex and Cam are doing a small house concert. Haley just called me and informed me that Jack is going to help too. So, it makes things easier. I also heard that Jack plays guitar. So, maybe he can join the music team. Also, Mitch is helping me keep everyone on schedule," Manny continued, checking each name in his notebook.
"Jack is back?" Jay asked.
"Yes. He came back on Wednesday," Manny replied.
Jay nodded as everything became clear.
"So Mitch is doing actual work."
"He has organizational strengths," Manny said defensively.
"He has anxiety. You're weaponizing it."
Manny continued as though he hadn't heard him. "At four, you bring Mom home. Everyone's hidden. We surprise her, Haley takes her upstairs, gives her the dress, then we start the evening."
Jay studied the notebook and all the work Manny had put into it. "You planned all this yourself?"
Manny's confidence softened as he looked down at the pages. "She's done everything for me my whole life. Even when we didn't have much, she made birthdays feel important. She'd find some way to make the day bigger than it was."
Jay's expression changed as the joking suspicion faded from his face.
Manny kept his eyes on the notebook while he finished. "I just want her to have one where she doesn't have to do anything. She just gets to walk in and see how much everybody loves her."
For once, Jay didn't have a joke ready. He reached across the island and tapped the notebook with one finger.
"Four o'clock?" Jay asked.
Manny nodded firmly. "Not one minute earlier."
Jay stood and picked up his coffee. "Fine. Lunch, flowers, spa. I'll keep her out."
Manny finally smiled at him. "Thank you."
Jay started toward the hallway, though he stopped after taking a few steps. "One thing."
Manny looked up from the notebook. "What?"
"Try not to annoy Jack. Kid's been busy with the shooting and interviews for months. So, don't push him too much," Jay said before returning to the newspaper.
"So, you finally decided to take Claire's advice?" Manny asked after hearing Jay care for Jack enough to say it out loud. He knew what was going on.
"Since Earl wants a fight, I'm gonna give him a fight," Jay replied as she closed the newspaper again, took his phone from the table, and dialed Claire's number.
"Also, you need to give me a ride to Bruester Cafe. I'm meeting up with the team and we need to pick up Luke on the way," Manny said.
..
//Jay and Claire's Commentary//
Jay sat beside Claire.
"Closets, Closets, Closets, Closets! started using celebrities in their ads," Jay said. "Cheap gimmickry."
Claire looked at him.
Jay continued, "People spending fifty grand on a closet don't care whose face is on a billboard. They care about dovetail joints, cedar lining, and whether the guy installing it knows which end of a screwdriver to hold."
Claire quietly slid a sales report toward him.
"Dad, we lost six luxury contracts this month."
Jay glanced down at it.
"Temporary."
"Four went to Earl."
Jay stopped.
A long pause.
Then he looked at Claire.
"Get me Jack."
//Commentary End//
..
[Later That Morning]
By the time Jay dropped Manny and Luke outside Bruester Café, Jack and Haley were already waiting near one of the outdoor tables.
Manny climbed out carrying his leather notebook beneath one arm while Luke followed with a backpack that appeared suspiciously empty for someone who had supposedly been assigned several important responsibilities. Jay drove away before anybody could volunteer him for additional work.
The planning session lasted nearly fifteen minutes.
Manny had arrived with a detailed plan. So, it became a little easier. Haley immediately began simplifying his decoration ideas while Jack went through the practical requirements and separated everything they could buy locally from the things that would require phone calls or delivery arrangements.
Luke contributed whenever someone specifically asked him a question, although he spent most of the meeting drawing increasingly elaborate modifications to Phil's magic show in the margins of Manny's schedule while eating a jumbo burger, fries, nuggets, and iced tea.
By the time they finished, the table was covered with shopping lists and empty plates and glasses.
They needed flowers, candles, table decorations, ribbons, wrapping paper, fabric supplies, extra lighting, photo frames, ingredients for making cake, several gifts, and enough miscellaneous equipment to transform Jay and Gloria's house without making the place look like a wedding reception.
Haley also needed several things for Gloria's dress.
She had already developed most of the design overnight, but she still needed fabric, lining, decorative details, thread, and a few backup options. For the fabric, she planned to swing by the boutique. And considering that she planned to finish the entire dress before the following afternoon, the backup materials weren't optional.
Jack gathered the lists together and divided them into categories while Manny checked his notebook one final time.
The shopping mall became their first destination.
They left the café together and walked toward the parking area.
Jack's SUV waited near the curb with his driver behind the wheel. The dark vehicle had enough room for all four of them, along with whatever ridiculous amount of shopping they were about to bring back.
Luke claimed the rear seat first and immediately stretched across more space than necessary until Manny pushed his legs aside. Haley climbed into the middle row beside Jack.
The driver pulled away from the café and merged into traffic.
..
[Meanwhile]
[Ten Minutes After They Left Bruester Café]
Sheldon entered Bruester Café with Amy behind him.
Sheldon stopped just inside the doorway and surveyed the room with the focused intensity of someone searching an airport terminal for a fugitive. His eyes moved across the tables, the counter, the outdoor seating area, and finally the corner where the photograph online had shown Jack sitting earlier.
The table was empty.
Amy noticed immediately and felt a small wave of relief.
Sheldon did not share that feeling.
Amy adjusted the strap of her purse. "Maybe he finished breakfast and went home, Sheldon. We could also go home and continue our day without tracking a famous actor across Los Angeles."
Sheldon looked toward her with immediate disagreement. "We've already invested thirty-seven minutes of travel time, Amy. Leaving now would convert the entire journey into wasted effort."
"That isn't how wasted effort works," Amy replied while following him toward the counter. "Sometimes recognizing that something was a bad idea is what prevents it from becoming an even worse idea."
Sheldon ignored the observation and approached the woman standing behind the register. She looked to be somewhere in her twenties and had been wiping down the counter when Sheldon stopped directly in front of her.
"Excuse me," Sheldon said. "Approximately forty-five minutes ago, Jack Preston was seated outside this establishment with Haley Dunphy. I require information regarding the direction in which they departed."
The employee stared at him for another moment. "We don't track customers."
Sheldon frowned as though she had admitted to a serious failure in business procedure. "That seems remarkably shortsighted considering your clientele apparently includes internationally recognizable actors."
Amy stepped closer with an apologetic smile. "He's looking for somebody who was here earlier, although I've repeatedly explained that following strangers based on social media sightings creates several obvious ethical concerns."
Sheldon glanced toward Amy. "He isn't a stranger. I met him at a book signing in New York."
"You spoke to him for approximately four minutes while hundreds of people waited behind you," Amy replied.
"Four highly productive minutes," Sheldon corrected before turning back toward the employee. "Did he mention his next destination, receive directions from anyone, discuss shopping plans, or display merchandise suggesting an imminent commercial errand?"
"If you're not buying anything, you need to leave," The employee made it clear.
Sheldon tried to argue, but in the end the employee got annoyed and almost called the cops before Amy dragged him outside.
"Well, that was rude," Sheldon said as he began scrolling through the fan account he had been monitoring since leaving Pasadena. Several posts showed old photographs, speculation about upcoming projects, and blurry images of Jack taken from distances that made Amy increasingly uncomfortable.
"I'm beginning to understand why celebrities complain about privacy," Amy said as she leaned closer to the screen. "These people apparently report his location like they're tracking a migrating animal."
Sheldon barely reacted because his thumb had suddenly stopped moving.
A new post had appeared less than five minutes earlier.
@PrestonWatch2122:
Just saw Jack Preston walking into Westfield Mall with his girlfriend and two kids. Pretty sure they're shopping together.
The attached photograph showed four figures moving through one of the mall entrances. Jack wore dark sunglasses and carried several folded papers in one hand, while Haley walked beside him. Manny was visible slightly behind them, and Luke appeared to be eating something from a paper bag despite having apparently eaten breakfast less than an hour earlier.
Sheldon straightened with renewed purpose. "We have reacquired the target." He smiled.
Amy immediately disliked his choice of words. "Please stop calling Jack Preston the target."
Sheldon tapped the location attached to the post and opened the map application. "Westfield Mall is approximately fifteen minutes from our current location under moderate traffic conditions. If we leave immediately, there's a reasonable probability that they'll still be there when we arrive."
Amy stared at him. "Sheldon, that mall is enormous."
"Yes, Amy, I'm familiar with the architectural concept of a shopping mall."
"I don't think you understand what I'm saying," Amy replied as Sheldon started walking toward the car. "There are hundreds of stores, several floors, restaurants, parking structures, and probably thousands of people inside. How exactly are we supposed to find one person in a place that large?"
Sheldon stopped beside the car's door and turned toward her with an expression that suggested the answer was painfully obvious. "Jack Preston is a young internationally famous actor traveling through a public shopping center. Someone will photograph him again."
Amy stared at him. "So your plan is to follow strangers who are following Jack."
"I prefer to describe it as crowdsourced location intelligence."
Sheldon got in the car.
Amy sighed and took the driver's seat.
--
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