Instinct makes me click the side button so he can’t see my design program. “Yep.”
“Jimmy Dean!”
“Go on, Engineer Boy,” I tell him. “I’m sure whatever he needs you for is way above my training.”
Resigned, James stands with a groan and passes Melissa as she emerges from the bathroom.
“Is James having some sort of issue I should be aware of?” she asks once he’s gone, slipping into the booth across from me at the small table. Her body is so tiny, honed from years with a trainer and a steady diet of cotton balls and water. I’m just kidding—she also stores my tears in a jar. It keeps her hair blond and her crow’s-feet at bay.
Rusty’s cheer carries above the baseball game when James finally steps into the little back room.
“Just your husband,” I say.
“Well then, we have the same issue.” Melly wakes up her computer, and I’m sure she’s immediately on all the retail sites, reading reviews of the book, checking its ranking. I’m torn between keeping this quiet moment of peace and wanting to say something about this trip and how it will be so much easier for all of us if they can just set aside what’s going on until they get back to the privacy of their own home.
I think of what Debbie would tell me: Make the decision to assert yourself and follow through. Decide what you want and be honest in your communication. Don’t sugarcoat, don’t apologize, and listen to the response. Stay calm. Use I whenever possible. Practice in your head if you have to.
I think of what I want to say, but when I look at her face—tight, controlled, no-nonsense—the words dry up in my throat.
“Show me what you’ve got,” she says, and points to my iPad.
I slide it across the table and she inspects my work.
“This is really good,” she says, scrolling through the different computer-generated images. “I’m not sure about that desk.”
I glance at the screen. The space allotted is minimal. “How would you change it?”
She purses her lips as she considers. “It’s just not working as is. I want it to be more, more …”
Silence stretches between us, and I come to her rescue.
“I could make it vertical?” I suggest, clicking through and zooming in on the area. “Two-tiered instead of a single flat surface? Nobody would expect a two-storied workspace like that.”
“Yes,” she says with a firm nod. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Inside, I’m beaming. Melissa isn’t exactly sparing with her compliments, but you have to earn them. She’s never apologetic about that, and it’s something I’ve always admired. But outwardly, I just nod once, keeping my smile in check. Melly doesn’t like gloating at compliments, either.
“Finish that up and send it to me,” she says, sliding it back. “Ted asked for a couple of early schematics they can use in promo shots. I’d like to send them to him before we get back.” She stops and looks down at my hands. “Unless you need a break.”
I have to be honest when it matters. “Maybe a small one.”
With her eyes back on her computer, she asks, “When’s your next appointment?”
“A few weeks.”
She nods. “It’s on my calendar?”
I’m about to answer when a voice rises up from the back of the bus—the unmistakable drawl of Russell Tripp after a couple of beers. “There something going on there with you and Carey-girl?”
I keep my head down, noisily shuffling through my bag like I haven’t heard a thing.
“Uh, absolutely not,” James says with zero hesitation.
Heeeey. I mean, I’m not interested in James, either, but he didn’t have to sound so horrified. I frown down at my Dolly shirt and brush away a few lingering Funyun crumbs.
When I look back up at my iPad, I feel Melissa watching me shrewdly and make the mistake of meeting her gaze. With a roll of her eyes she goes back to her screen. “As if you and I have time for a personal life, anyway.”
Something about the flippant way she dismisses the possibility rubs me the wrong way.
You and I?
It’s true; I don’t have time for a personal life. But that’s because I’m sacrificing everything for the brand. I handle her schedules, her kids’ occasional promotional appearances. I answer her emails and deal with Robyn, Ted, and the Tripps’ editor. On top of all that, I do most of the designs. I spend more time on Melly’s life than on my own.
I glance down to my bag and all the work I just put together for her. I don’t have time for a personal life, but because of everything I do for her, Melissa Tripp certainly should.
LA WEEKLY BOOK PICK:
THE TRIPPS’ NEW LIFE, OLD LOVE IS
A MUST-READ FOR SUMMER
LA Weekly’s Book Picks is your look at the hottest new releases this week—from biographies, how-tos, and reissued classics to romantic summer blockbusters and new voices garnering buzz. Check here every week before you make your next weekend-read plans.
New Life, Old Love is an ambitious project for the lighthearted home-renovation power couple Melissa and Rusty Tripp. Their two previous books, New York Times bestsellers The Tripp Guide to Home Décor and Small Spaces: DIY Projects to Make Any Size Home the Perfectly Sized Home, were exactly what fans of their breakout show, New Spaces, were hoping to get from the pair. But instead of remaining in the arguably safer world of home renovations, their new book, New Life, Old Love (out this week; $24.95), focuses on the couple’s twenty-five-year relationship, with honest and poignant looks at how they met, the sacrifices they made to open their home décor storefront in Jackson, Wyoming, and the various hurdles that endangered their relationship while they were building their careers.
Coming out of these obstacles, the couple writes, they always emerge stronger and with more proverbial tools in their belt. They claim they don’t fight—they negotiate. Their breakneck schedules aren’t new—Melly has always written detailed lists of goals she hopes they both achieve each week. And they don’t need breaks from each other; instead they’ve found that spending time together fuels the creative spark they need to keep their business ideas fresh.
But rather than being a book that only applies to their marriage in their circumstances, New Life, Old Love is a more powerful guide to what it means to be a partner, how to turn differences into complementary strengths, and when to listen rather than push. It’s an optimistic and engrossing read that perfectly ties in their trademark phrase—Be flexible!—with genuine advice for how to accomplish just that.
The Tripps have embarked on a West Coast tour to launch the new book, with their first stop at Barnes & Noble at the Grove. The room was packed with bloggers and VIPs, a few of them wearing Be Flexible! T-shirts and waiting for up to three hours in line to get their books signed. Playfully teasing throughout, the couple truly appeared to practice what they preach: Melissa laughed with loving exasperation at Rusty’s slew of dad jokes. Rusty gazed adoringly at his wife as she fielded questions from the audience. It was everything that megafans of the couple wanted to see, and we were able to cap off the evening with a quick Q&A with the pair.
LAW: For those out there who haven’t read your book yet, how did you get your start?