* * *
Wandering back towards the open-plan kitchen, her heart leaped at the sight of a dark shape hunched at the table. It took a few seconds to register Ramona sitting on a chair, gripping her knees. She was dressed in a stained T-shirt and towelling robe. Her gelled white-blonde hair was plastered flat and only the streaked remnants of her makeup from the night before were still visible. She looked virtually unrecognisable. It just showed perhaps Ramona’s fabulous public face didn’t tell the whole story.
Chapter 14
Nursing a get-your-life-back-on-track latte from her favourite oversized mug that read:IF YOU CAN DREAM IT, YOU CAN DO IT, as Walt Disney said, Cassie was setting to the task of starting her career again from scratch, when she noticed a message from Mam on her phone.
Hope all’s well, and not having too much fun without me?.
Bet she means it, Cassie thought. A part of her mum would love to be out clubbing with Ramona. She hit the call button and waited.
‘Hello, Iris’s phone, how can I help?’
Wow, they really were a couple if they were answering each other’s phones. After an initial flash of irritation, she noticed there was something about Eric’s voice that caused her shoulders to drop with relief. Perhaps he was exactly the person she needed to speak to right now.
‘Hi Eric, I don’t even know where to start .?.?.’ She poured out how overwhelmed she was feeling at the prospect of searching for a job, while trying not to sound like a needy child. ‘And the thing is, Eric, apart from acting, there really isn’t anything I’m qualified to do. I could kick myself for leaving myself in this situation.’
There was a pause at the end of the phone, which she had learned to interpret not as awkwardness but simply as Eric giving her his full attention.
‘You know, I think I know someone who just might be able to help you. He’s an old friend of mine, but don’t worry, he’s not nearly as old as me. But he’s a fabulous guy, I’ll give you his number.’
Cassie felt a glow of gratitude for his kindly manner that made everything feel manageable. Buoyed up by Eric’s optimism, she set to phoning the contact he’d given her, a Philip Ackerman, career consultant at the company Work-Shi. Now surely everything would fall into place.
‘Mr Ackerman is in a meeting. If you have an enquiry, I suggest you put it in writing with your curriculum vitae and he may get back to you.’
Cassie ended the call, feeling crushed – this chilly response from his PA was not what she’d expected, but what was she thinking? It was only realistic to have to write in and take your turn. She composed an email and hit send; Philip Ackerman suddenly felt a lot more important and less accessible than she’d been led to believe. Everything was harder in the doing than the thinking, whatever Walt Disney said.
Just then her phone buzzed.
‘Cassandra, is it? Phil Ackerman. Always a pleasure to hear from someone who knows my old friend Eric. If you’re free this afternoon after four, pop into the office and we can have a chat, you have the address.’
He sounded small and plump and twinkly – and .?.?. Phil, well, she could relate to someone called Phil.
* * *
Cassie jumped in the shower and as she stood under the jet of water, she let her mind wander. Did she secretly want to return to acting? It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, it was more that the stress of the auditioning process had played havoc with her state of mind over the years. I do love it, she mused, but I just want some stability in my life. The image of Ramona sitting hunched in the kitchen the night before haunted her for some reason. Perhaps every high had to be paid for by a low, and right now she had to get off the seesaw.
From her wardrobe she chose a pair of Calvin Klein jeans, a pale blue shirt and a light navy blazer. In fact, it was her costume from an ad she’d done the previous year as ‘working mum, mid-thirties’. She’d bought the clothes for a knock-down price at the end of the production. At last, she was getting into costume for her own life.
* * *
At the office of Work-Shi, Cassie found herself face to face with possibly the friendliest person she had ever met. Phil Ackerman, to her surprise, turned out to be not at all like his voice had led her to believe. He was tall and bookish-looking, and undeniably handsome in a priestly sort of way. He must have been in his early fifties, but he looked good for it, and had round glasses and a manner that made her feel instantly at ease, as though she’d done him the greatest possible honour by taking the trouble of coming in for a chat that was entirely for her own benefit.
He led her into his office, which had a panoramic view of the entire quays. Cassie tried to summarise in five minutes the many tentacles of her career, her recent return home and hopes of a new start.
‘By the way, I saw your ad.’ He smiled in a way that wasn’t in the least bit creepy, then straightened his face and continued, ‘I read your CV and it’s a little, shall we say, unconventional but that’s not a bad thing, not a bad thing at all.’
Bless him, thought Cassie, I’ve just found a career consultant who’d be played by Tom Hanks in the movie of my life.
‘Now, in terms of the “big five” .?.?.’ Here he raised a large, well-manicured hand in illustration. ‘Starting withopenness to experience, I’m thinking of Slime Planet, so that would need to be around .?.?. ninety-eight per cent.’
‘More that I was desperate for a job,’ she said ruefully.
Phil waved this aside and went on. ‘Conscientiousness, we’ll give it fifty-five per cent .?.?.extroversion, say sixty per cent. Sometimes I find actors like to appear more extroverted than they are inside.Neuroticism, well, now, that I wouldn’t know – you’d have to tell me that yourself.’
‘Well, I am a bit neurotic, but I can bounce back.’
‘And finally,agreeability.Well, that’s a no-brainer, if you’re a friend of Eric’s.I’ll give you a ninety-five per cent on that.’
