Another Chance
Longline:
A charming and carefree emotional intelligence professor pursues love at first sight, chasing a reserved investment analyst during an adventure filled courtship of extravagant and thrilling dates, only to wake up and realize he’s been married to her for a decade but can’t figure out why he can’t remember.
By John Fay
Characters
Professor David Stone teaches drama, preaches positivity and lives for today through extravagant spending sprees. He mentors at risk youth, shatters glass baseballs for fun then rebuilds them to teach resilience.
Conservative investor Veronica Rodriguez is a veracious reader who enjoys solitude and remaining guarded about her mysterious past. She avoids risks, prefers deep thinking and learning quantum physics while deliberating if life is meaningless.
Kevin is a 71 y/o highly successful investment guru who guides Veronica towards financial and personal health through stoic logic and a wealth of experience.
Melinda is a 73 y/o partially retired psychiatrist who provides David with insights to a woman’s emotions, behaviors, strengths and vulnerabilities.
Trevor – an orphan fighting anger issues, racism and a bad attitude, who relies on David’s advice as a Big Brother to help him escape his reality.
Plot
David courts Veronica with humor, wit and patience, inspiring her to overcome fears during a skydiving date. His persistence leads to her craving dangerous situations, and making impulse decisions which draws them together, leading to multiple adventurous and passionate dates.
Romance grows during a star gazing campfire getaway, trust is established after a mountain climbing adventure, and attraction piques during a chivalrous scuba dive when David protects Veronica from a rogue shark attack.
After David mentors Trevor, talking him down from a rage, Veronica begins to imagine the three of them as a family.
David wakes up from a nightmare to realize he and Veronica are already married, struggling through the death of their child from a school shooting.
Flashbacks reveal that Melinda recommended they intentionally separate to start new lives, new careers in a new city, hoping to become changed people. The couple agreed, Desperate to fall in love again, hoping for yet another chance to start over and save their marriage.
David blamed himself for his daughter’s death, having shown up later than usual to pick her up from school. Now he is determined to spend his portion of the multi-million dollar death benefit, not wanting to benefit from the tragedy. Veronica views the money as the lost child’s legacy.
Life will tear them apart but strong advisors Melinda and Kevin will convince them to pursue another chance.
When David and Veronica realize they’ve saved their marriage they decide to adopt Trevor and start a family again, the adoption agency discovers the couples’ tumultuous past and unconventional exercise and challenges the adoption, calling for a hearing.
To save the day, Melinda testifies on behalf of the couple, revealing the exercise was her prescription, AND reveals she is Veronica’s mother, and both are mentally sound.
Melinda describes how David and Veronica had opposite jobs and personalities before the Another Chance exercise and were tasked with adopting their spouse’s job and personality to truly learn empathy, plus, neither had to work after the death benefit payout, so doing something completely different would be good for them both.
Kevin testifies as well, revealing to be David’s father who invested in the insurance policy that lead to David’s unwanted wealth and the reason for his extravagant spending spree.
Friends, family and acquaintances step forward to provide emotional testimony about David and Veronica’s mental and emotional strength and resilience…