“Sounds like I’m already gaining points on that husband of yours.”
She waves me off. “The last thing you want is an old lady like me.” Marilyn is almost thirty years older than my twenty-six years of age.
She looks at her watch. “You’re early. Michael and the others haven’t shown up yet,” she says of Michael Keith, the director of the film of which I’m playing the leading role.
I hold up my cell phone. “Early call with my manager. Is there a meeting room I can use? I prefer not to take the call in my car.”
“Of course.” She immediately turns to business mode, but then frowns as she checks her computer screen. “The conference rooms are booked for breakfast meetings and the main room …”
“Is already swarming with people for the fitting,” I finish for her.
She looks at me regretfully.
“I can take it downstairs. I doubt there’s much happening down there.” The ground floor of the building is mainly used as a storage closet for extra clothes and equipment used by the studio’s design team.
“Are you sure? I think there are a couple of our staff down there now, but it’ll be much quieter than anything on the other floors.”
“Don’t worry about it.” I nod before heading toward the stairwell. Marilyn holds up her coffee and croissant, a silent thanks before the door closes behind me.
My phone rings as soon as my foot hits the bottom stair of the ground floor. I hear voices in the distance, but they’re not a distraction.
“Morning, sunshine,” I tease my manager, knowing he’s not a morning person.
“Yeah, morning,” Stan grumbles.
I chuckle.
Stan Donovan has been my manager since I turned twenty-one, and he’s helped lead my career as I transitioned from the actor of the hit teen seriesHeartbreak Academyto an adult actor.
“How are you feeling about today’s fitting?” he asks.
“A fitting is a fitting,” I say, glancing around as I start walking toward the opened door at the other end of the hallway. “It’s not the fitting I’m thinking about.”
“The first day of shooting starts in next week. Are you ready for it?” Stan asks.
“I am,” I tell him confidently. I’m extremely aware of how pivotal this role is for my career. The movie, titledLate Nights, is an original screenplay written by Michael Keith himself.
At the center of the film is a twenty-seven-year-old man coming out of a decade long addiction and learning how to live and form relationships without the comfort of his drug of choice.
The story is gritty and emotional.
It’s a role unlike anything I’ve played before. And it’s exactly what I’ve been wanting to sink my teeth into.
So yeah, I’m ready for it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand all that rests on my shoulders to deliver what the film is asking.
“I have classes scheduled with Victor to go over that one scene in the coming weeks.” Victor Rivez, my acting coach, is one of the most successful in the business.
“That’s excellent. I know you’re going to kill it,” Stan reiterates. “That is one of the things I wanted to speak with you about this morning. I’m aware you’re heading out of town in a few days for work before you begin filming next Monday, so I wanted to catch you now.”
I listen to Stan, but another, slightly husky voice captures my attention. I’m standing just outside of the opened door of the room known as “the closet.”
Throughout the room there are rolling racks full of clothes, shoes, and accessories strewn on the various tables and chairs. None of that holds my attention as much as the woman wearing a pair of white jeans with a leopard print, button-down top tucked in at the waist, and light brown heels.
When she turns, my heartbeat quickens.
“It’s her.”
“Yes, her. Amber Jones. She’s perfect,” Stan says, making me remember we’re still on the phone.
