BLOG TOUR: Searching for Moore by Julie A. Richman

 Attended by reality TV star wannabes and Southern California social climbers, Schooner Moore knows the party his wife is throwing for his forty-third birthday has little to do with him and everything to do with her social standing in Orange County. The evening turns out to hold more surprises than just his wife's Botoxed friends groping at his privates, when a conversation with his old college roommate, Beau, reveals the biggest surprise of the night.

Beau has had contact on Facebook with Mia Silver. Just hearing her name sends Schooner into a tailspin, as he is now just a Friend Request away from the one who got away when she disappeared without a goodbye, leaving him wondering why she left.

A serial failure at romance, Manhattan boutique ad agency owner, Mia, gets a blindside of her own when a Facebook Friend Request from first love, Schooner, appears in her email. Going with her gut reaction, Mia hits accept, propelling her past to catch up with her in a New York minute, as a forceful Schooner is determined to understand what tore them apart and to explore the possibility of a second chance at love.

From a 1980's Southern California college campus and a devastating first love to present day New York City, Searching for Moore explores how technology has eradicated the divide between our past and our present, and asks whether you would give up everything to reconnect with The One in a single keystroke?

Arrival in New York

My host for the day - Seth

As I am in my town car heading towards the Chelsea/Village area of Manhattan, I am going over my notes for my interview with Schooner Moore and Mia Shivers assistants Seth and Yoli. I'm headed towards the new L9 Celebrity Sports Center that just opened this past fall. Seeing that Schooner now makes New York his home base, I am really hoping for a small glimpse of him while I am there.

As I look ahead, I see Seth pacing at the curb ahead in front of L9. I look at my watch. I’m not late. Wonder what he is up to? Just as my car pulls up, he looks up with a huge smile, clapping his hands and running towards the car. The car door swings open and I am instantly grabbed and pulled out of the car into a hug with air kisses.

 “Geez Seth! Are you happy to see me or what?” 

“Girl, I have been waiting for you the past 15 minutes!”

“I’m not late Seth! In fact I am early.” He takes my hand as I sling my satchel over my shoulder and am being pulled towards the entrance to L9. 

“It’s just that we don’t have too much time!” I pull back and come to a stop

“Time for what?” OK, he is starting to scare me a little.

“You cannot tell me that you flew all this way just to interview me and Yoli?”

“Well of course, I did” That was mostly the truth…right? Seth turns and gives me his breath taking smile.

“He’s here. Now. We have to go!”

“Who Seth? You mean Schooner?” 

“YES! Now let’s move it!” The butterflies are taking flight in my stomach. Do I look ok to meet Schooner? I mean, I know he is engaged to Mia and all – hell, I’m married – but this Schooner Freaking Moore!

We rush through the check in table upfront, and then Seth continues to drag me along up the stars talking a mile a minute. “Honey, I work for the boy and still get excited seeing him on an almost daily basis! I couldn’t let you come to the club and at least not get a peek at the Adonis! Yoli is in a meeting with him right now, so we will make the excuse of butting in so we can steal her away for the interview.”

“Oh My Gawd Seth! I totally owe you one!” He turns before knocking on the door

“Did you want me to try and steal a pair of his boxers for you?”

Trying not to snort out a laugh “No I think I’m good”

“Well if you change your mind, I have a whole collection at home” as he spins to tap on the door.

View from Schooner's Office

We hear Yoli as she yells “Come In!” As we enter the room, Yoli greats me with a smile, but is still seated in front of Schooner’s desk taking notes. She holds her finger up to silence us and then shoots the evil eye at Seth with the classic two finger “I’m watching you” signal. Schooner is on the phone, pacing in front of the floor to ceiling window overlooking Lower Manhattan. You can see the newly constructed Freedom Tower in the background rising on the horizon.

I stand there, a little stunned, watching him move back and forth.  With those deliciously long legs, his pace is lithe and fast. I can totally see him as a tennis star, such grace and fluidity. He all of a sudden stops and stares at me. Oh, maybe I’m not supposed to be in here? He motions for me to have a seat next to Yoli and with a huge blinding white smile; he greets me as his hand reaches out to grasp my hand. Oh My! He’s going to touch my hand! I quickly wipe the sweat off of my hand and extend my hand towards him. He lowers the headset for a moment “Please excuse me, I didn’t know I had company. I won’t be long.”  He lets go of my hand and I thank god that I am in a chair already, otherwise they would be picking me up off the floor! I signal for Seth to come over. As he bends down so I can whisper in his ear “I changed my mind. Get me those boxers!” Seth lets out a laugh and stifles it as much as he can. With a wink, he turns around to take a seat on the loveseat near the back of the galley office.

Yoli looks over at me with a smile of her own and mouths “BREATHE”. Ok yes, I need to remember to breathe!

Schooner ends his call and takes a seat back at his desk, looking to me “So who is this lovely young lady you have pulled into my office Seth?”

I stand and extend my hand once again (I GET TO TOUCH HIM TWICE!!) “Becca Manuel, sir. I am with Becca the Bibliophile Book Blog and I am actually here to interview Seth and Yoli” As I say Yoli’s name a groan comes from her, like she wasn’t expecting this.

“Seth! You told me she was here to interview just you. No offense Becca, but I don’t do well with talking about myself.”

“Oh, I’m not really here to talk about you but to ask questions about Schooner and Mia and get your take on them.” Yoli’s eyes light up a little.

“Really? So I could spill some dirt on my ole’ friend here?” As I glance over to Schooner, he is sitting back with his arms folded across his muscular chest. (Focus Becca).

“Well, that doesn’t sound too bad, does it Yoli?” Schooner replies with a smirk. “I guess I can answer a few question about Mr. Gorgeous over here…although I don’t see what all the fuss is over this big dork!”

Schooner shines a bright smile my way and winks at me. Holy hell, how am I going to get through this interview if he keeps doing things like that!

Yoli

As Yoli stands “Well then, let’s move to the conference room and get this moving along. I have a training session.”

“Oh Hell no! We are staying in here. Schooner you will just need to move along and do something else for a while.” Seth interjects.

Schooner smiles, “Stay here then. In fact I think I might hang around a little myself. I want to hear what the two of you say about me and Mia!”

“Ok but you are asking for it!” Yoli states as we moved over to the comfortable couches arranged at the rear of the office. As we all settle in and I am just about to start my questioning, a phone goes off. We all look to Schooner as he looks at the caller ID and holds up a finger to stall us. “What do you want?”

Yoli rolls her eyes “It must be the wicked witch of the West! She is the only one he talks to that way.”

 Schooner stands and puts his hand over the receiver. “I am so sorry Becca, but I need to take this call. Let me make it up to you and we will go get Mia after your interview and do dinner?”

“Umm.. (as I look to Seth who is vigorously nodding his head in agreement) Sure I would love that.”

“Yoli, you know where to make us a reservation. I will be back.” Then with two large strides, Schooner is gone.

“OH thank god he is gone!” Yoli exhales. I give a small sigh of agreement, knowing there was no way I could have survived the interview with Schooner smiling at me the whole time.

”Thank gawd he left!” Seth exhaled as Schooner’s door shuts behind him. “There was no way in hell I was going to answer anything with him staring at us. (Yoli just smiles and shakes her head) Number one the boy is too beautiful and too much of a distraction and number two, I am up for a raise soon and I didn’t want my answers to influence him in any way” (Seth winks at me).

Yoli looks down at her watch, “Don’t mean to be rude Becs but I really do need to get this show on the road.”

“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting Yoli. OK here goes nothing!”

THE INTERVIEW

Yoli, how did you and Schooner meet and what were your first Impressions of Schooner?

Schooner and I used to work out at the same gym and I swear the membership in that place tripled when he joined.  These OC bitches would follow him around the gym.  It was positively nauseating. I just thought he was another actor-wannabe pretty boy and clearly, I could clear less about him.  Well, one day I was working out, lifting free weights and he took the bench next to me and said, “Is that all you can lift? I thought you could do better than that.”  To which I replied, “Challenge on, Mofo!”  After that we became work out partners and friends and I was blown away at what a good guy he was and not at all what I thought he would be.

Seth, how did you and Mia meet and what were your first Impressions of Mia?

Mia and I worked for the same Ad Agency on Madison Ave.  I was an assistant to an Account Supervisor and Mia was a copywriter.  I used to see her in staff meetings and in the hall and think she’s cute but what a hot mess!  I need to get ahold of her and fix her.  So, I did.  We’ve actually got her down to Levi’s two days a week.  It’s been a long process.

What do you think are Schooner's weaknesses and strong points?

<laughing> Let’s start with the positive - if Schooner loves you, he loves you. The man will move heaven and earth for you. He is so incredibly loyal to the people who are loyal to him.  He’s very creative in a visionary type of way – he revolutionized the health club experience.  The guy has spot on business acumen and what most people don’t see is, he can be incredibly funny.

Weaknesses <pauses as she thinks> Three things immediately pop into my head – don’t piss him off, his need to control everything around him and not being true to who he really is to make others happy.  Big problem of his.

  

Yoli do you think if you had meet Schooner in college you would still be friends with him?

If I’d met him during his Mia time – yeah, we would have been buddies for life.  If I’d met him during his CJ time, I doubt we would have even said hello to one another.

What are you real thoughts on CJ?

<looks at Seth and smirks> She gave birth to a wonderful daughter.  Next question?

Did you know about Schooner before the famous FB Message?

No – I did not.  And I thought I knew everything about Mia.  When I look back though, I can now see the clues I missed.  I knew there was someone way in her past that – well, that she was looking to feel again what she felt with that person.  There was definitely something that held her back in relationships or caused her to get into less than healthy situations.  Had I known, I would have found him years before and dragged his ass to New York. …. And then back to my apartment <self-satisfied look>

Yoli, what did you think when he told you he wanted to sign up for Facebook?

<Laughs>  I knew something was up.  He is not the type of man who gives a crap about things like Facebook and when he wanted to know if other people could see his messages – I knew at that point that something had happened and something was up and that he wanted to find somebody and talk to them privately. I had no idea he was going to tell me anything like he told me that day. I was just really glad he confided in me.

Seth do you think Schooner is good for Mia? Are there any fall backs?

He adores her, but he calls her on her shit, which is great.  He’s very protective of Mia and I think the fall back there is Mia is so used to doing it all on her own that sometimes you can see that she really doesn’t get where he’s coming from and it makes me just want to slap her!

What is the biggest change you have seen in Schooner since he is back with Mia?

Uhhh, he’s happy.  <Seth interrupts … “Of course he’s happy!  He’s getting laid” They both laugh> He is whole lot less moody than he was.  And it’s nice to see him really connected to somebody.  She walks into a room and it’s like he can sense it.  You can feel the energy.  They have a very interesting and intense connection, those two.

Seth, do you believe in a soul mate?

Yes and I think Schooner is mine.

Yoli first impressions of Seth?

<laughs> Over the top Queen! <Seth turns to her and sneers “Bitch”>.  Actually, Seth and I are very much alike – we are both anal as all hell and make sure shit gets done and don’t deal well with bullshit or excuses. 

Has Seth ever tried to give you a makeover?

<Snorts> Make over? Why would he want to make over perfection. <Seth rolls his eyes>

If you could give Yoli a makeover, would you do it and what would you do?

In a New York fucking second … well the first thing I’d do is blonde her!  <turns to Yoli> You need to blonde.  Get rid of that red shit.  So blonde base and highlights. Ok now clothes, we would go for more of an Ellen DeGeneres style – so that SoCal chic look – with designers like Dolce & Gabana and Gucci and I would burn every last pair of your fucking cargo pants!

Where did BBC come from and who is the biggest BBC here?

It came from when Mia and I used to go out dancing in clubs when we were younger, we would just always snark on the bridge and tunnel bitches (girls from Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx with big hair and bad, overdone make-up) and there would always be 1-2 bitches per night who thought they were “all that” and would end up making fools out of themselves and we would watch them and laugh at them and every night someone would get a BBC award.

So – who’s the biggest BBC here? <they turn to each other and simultaneously announce>  CJ! <evil laughter from both of them> ok, well she’s not here, thank God!  So, it would have to be Mia – she likes to blame it on the pregnancy hormones … but we all know the Bitch Be Crazy.  Love you, Boss … kiss, kiss.

Last question, Can you take me for a makeover?

Of course, Sweetheart – what did you think we had planned for this afternoon?  You have a 2:30 appointment at Brocato Salon with … none other than the man himself, Sam Brocato!

Yoli shakes her head and gets up from her chair. I stand to shake her hand. “It was a pleasure meeting you Becs. If you have time, make sure to come back up here to work out while you are in town. Oh and I will send a text to Seth to let him know about dinner tonight with Schooner and Mia. (As she peers at Seth) Don’t be late!”

“Darling you know I always have to make an entrance!” I snort out a laugh and say good bye to Yoli. “Now off we go to look beautiful for Mr. Gorgeous and my baby girl!” I can’t wait!

Author Julie A. Richman is a native New Yorker living deep in the heart of Texas.  A creative writing major in college, reading and writing fiction has always been a passion.  Julie began her corporate career in publishing in NYC and writing played a major role throughout her career as she created and wrote marketing, advertising, direct mail and fundraising materials for Fortune 500 corporations, advertising agencies and non-profit organizations.  She is an award winning nature photographer plagued with insatiable wanderlust.  Julie and her husband have one son and a white German Shepherd named Juneau.

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