Aurora and Mia reached the meeting room a few minutes later.
Leon was already inside.
Ethan sat on one side of the table, while Richard was still standing, talking to Marcus.
On the other side sat a man Aurora had crossed paths with several times around the offices, but had never worked with directly.
Thomas Reed.
Aurora knew him mostly by reputation.
Production.
One of those people you rarely saw without something in his hands: a phone, a report, a cost breakdown.
Thomas looked up when they entered.
"Good morning."
"Good morning," Mia replied.
Aurora did the same.
They took their seats.
For a moment, Aurora's gaze drifted to the other side of the table.
Leon was reading through some documents.
He didn't look up.
Richard waited until everyone was seated.
Then he took his seat as well.
"Good."
He closed the folder in front of him.
"The agreement has been approved. I'd say we can begin."
He gestured toward Marcus.
"Marcus will continue to oversee the creative side."
Then he looked at Mia.
"Mia Brooks will handle the adaptation."
Mia nodded.
"Thomas Reed, production."
Thomas looked up from his tablet.
"Budget, planning, resources."
Richard moved on.
"And Aurora Winters will direct."
Thomas looked at Aurora.
"As lead director?"
"Yes," Marcus replied.
"It's her first series."
"The first one entirely her own."
Thomas remained silent.
Marcus continued calmly.
"Aurora has worked with me for two years. She's directed scenes, worked with actors, coordinated departments, and managed shooting days. But it's not just what I've given her the opportunity to do."
Aurora looked at him.
"She's spent these two years studying things that weren't even part of her role. Scripts, preparation, editing, the work of other departments. More than once, she stayed on productions she wasn't involved in just to understand how they were managed."
Aurora lowered her eyes slightly.
She hadn't thought he knew that.
Marcus looked at her for a moment.
"She's been preparing to direct something of her own for a long time."
Thomas looked back at Aurora.
"An entire series is still a significant step."
"It is," Marcus said.
Nothing else.
Thomas nodded.
It was an observation, not an objection.
Leon turned the last page of the profiles.
Then he closed the folder.
"Fine by me."
Thomas shifted his gaze to him.
"No questions?"
"They were chosen by Richard and Marcus."
Leon rested one hand on the folder.
"They've worked with them for years. If they chose them for the project, they know their capabilities better than I do."
Richard gave a faint smile.
"I expected a few more questions."
"I'll ask them when I have something to ask."
Leon's phone vibrated.
He glanced down at the screen and answered.
"Yes."
He listened.
"You're here?"
A brief pause.
"Come in."
He ended the call.
A moment later, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," Richard said.
A woman entered with a folder tucked under her arm.
She stopped just inside the doorway.
"Sorry I'm late."
Leon gestured toward the empty seat on the other side.
"Sit."
The woman took her seat.
Then she looked at the others.
"Rachel Morgan."
The introductions were quick.
When it was Aurora's turn, Rachel gave her a nod.
"Aurora Winters."
"Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you."
Leon waited until they were finished.
"Rachel will work on the editorial side and narrative structure."
Thomas looked toward her.
Leon continued.
"She worked with me on The Space Between Us."
Mia raised her eyes slightly.
"For how long?"
This time Rachel answered.
"Since it started gaining traction online."
She set the folder on the table.
"I was already reading The Space Between Us before that. When the story started getting significant numbers, I tried to contact him to propose a collaboration."
She gestured slightly toward Ethan.
"I got to him."
Ethan nodded.
"She sent me her work and a presentation. I forwarded them to Leon."
Rachel looked at Leon.
"And he made me wait."
Leon looked up.
"Two days."
"Three."
"Two and a half."
For a moment, Ethan smiled.
Rachel shook her head slightly.
"Anyway, he answered."
Aurora watched them without saying anything.
There was nothing particular about the way they spoke.
Just familiarity.
The kind shared by people who had worked together long enough to know certain habits about each other.
Leon turned back to the others.
"Rachel reviewed the material while it was being published. Structure, continuity, pacing. She didn't write the story. I needed someone to look at it from the outside."
Rachel nodded.
"My job was mostly to tell him when something wasn't working."
Leon didn't react.
"She knows the material. That's why I want her to stay on the project during the adaptation."
Richard looked at Mia.
"I imagine the two of you will be working together quite a bit."
"I'd say so," Mia replied.
Rachel turned toward her.
"I've already seen some of your productions."
Mia raised an eyebrow.
"Is that a threat?"
"Not yet."
Mia smiled.
"Then we'll get along."
Richard shook his head slightly.
"Perfect."
Leon picked up the phone he had left on the table.
"There's one more thing."
Everyone looked back at him.
"Yesterday, after the meeting, I checked the available spaces in the building."
Richard watched him.
"Here?"
"In the same building."
Leon nodded.
"There was an empty floor."
Thomas looked up from his tablet.
"And?"
"I put it on hold."
A brief pause.
"When Richard confirmed the agreement last night, I finalized the lease."
Richard stared at him for a few seconds.
"You've already leased an entire floor?"
"Yesterday I checked the availability and terms. When you confirmed the agreement, I finalized the lease."
Richard gave a faint smile.
"You don't waste time."
"I don't see a reason to."
Thomas lowered his gaze, almost amused.
Leon continued.
"It's already usable. For now, we'll work from there."
It wasn't an enormous space.
But it was enough.
Offices, workstations, a room where they could work together, another for meetings, and everything the project's initial core team would need.
Mondo Fantasia would have its own space.
Hale Studios would have its own.
Close enough to work together.
Separate enough to remain two different companies.
"That saves us from moving people back and forth between buildings," Thomas said.
"That was the point," Leon replied.
Richard nodded.
"Makes sense."
Mia opened the folder in front of her.
The title was printed on the first page.
THE SPACE BETWEEN US
"So," she said, "where do we start?"
Leon looked at the folder.
"With the structure."
Mia flipped through a few pages.
"Actually, we're already pretty far ahead."
Leon looked at her.
"What do you mean?"
"It's very visual."
Aurora looked up.
Mia continued.
"A lot of the scenes are already built around actions, silences, environments. We don't have a novel full of pages of internal thoughts that we have to figure out how to show."
Rachel nodded.
"That was one of the things that already worked during publication."
Mia turned another page.
"And the structure lends itself well to an episodic format. That doesn't mean we can just take the book and film it exactly as it is."
"Obviously," Leon said.
"But we don't have to tear it apart and build a series from scratch."
Aurora looked at the title.
This was where she would truly come into it too.
Not just deciding what to keep.
Understanding how to show it.
How to turn a pause into a shot.
A silence into something the audience could feel.
A page into a scene.
Mia closed the folder.
"I'd say we have a good foundation."
"Then we'll start from there," Leon said.
For the first time since she had entered the room, Aurora lowered her eyes to her own folder without thinking about the person sitting across the table.
At the top was the title.
THE SPACE BETWEEN US
Right below it, her name.
Aurora Winters — Director
Her smile returned.
This time, she didn't even try to hide it.