When Samara climbed inside, she knew it was seventy-two degrees in the car, not seventy, so the moment he sat in his seat, she instructed him to lower the temperature, pulled the sunglasses that had been on her forehead down over her eyes, and closed them, needing just a few minutes of calm before the real work was set to begin.
Twenty-eight minutes later, the car slowed to a stop, and she pulled off her sunglasses. She expected to see that picnic table and not much else, so she was pleasantly surprised to find several trailers instead. Some were bigger than others, but one had a piece of paper that said, ‘Office,’ on it, in all capital letters, and they were parked right in front of it. She’d need to talk to them about security because they hadn’t had to check in with anyone prior to getting this close to where everyone would be, including herself. The car door was then opened for her, and Samara thought someone would come out of the office to greet her, but when no one did, she grabbed her purse and trudged up the three trailer stairs and knocked hard on the door.
“It’s open,” a voice said.
“Clearly, it’s closed. You meanunlocked,” she replied after opening the door and entering the trailer, which, blissfully, was sixty-eight degrees, one of her favorite temperatures.
“Samara, hey,” the executive producer, a woman by the name of Reed, said from behind a desk.
There were three desks in this trailer and not much else. A mini fridge as part of a small kitchen and a bathroom finished off the space.
“I was told to come here for a meeting. Has my assistant called you yet?”
“Kyla, yes. I just got off the phone with her about the hotel. There’s no wiggle room in the budget, I’m afraid, but if you want to change hotels or book a short-term rental for the same price, we can take care of that for you.”
Samara rolled her eyes and said, “I suppose we’ll haveto deal with that later since I’d need to see what’s available at that rate and verify if it’s any better. What did you need to talk to me about?”
“Sit. Sit,” Reed said, motioning to a chair in front of one of the desks.
Samara did and asked, “Has a smoothie been–”
“Oh, yeah,” the EP interjected. “Got here about five minutes ago. Hold on.”
Reed opened the fridge, pulled out the wheatgrass shot and the green smoothie, and handed them both to Samara.
“Thank you,” Samara said and took an immediate sip. “This will do.”
“So, we have a major hiccup that’s going to cost us big, which is why there’s no room in the budget now,” Reed began.
“Major hiccup?”
“Vanessa, your co-star, was in a car accident on the way to the airport yesterday. She was badly injured. They tell me that she’ll be all right in the long term, but she broke a few bones and is in casts because of it. It’ll be weeks before she can even begin physical therapy.”
“Oh, shit,” Samara said, pausing on downing the wheatgrass shot. “My God. I’m sorry. That’s awful. She’ll be okay, though?”
“From what they told me, she’ll be okay, yes. I haven’t spoken withheryet. She’s been in and out of it on the meds they have her on, but I’ll call her when they tell me it’s okay. For now, we’ve sent her flowers from everyone here. Unfortunately, this means we’re down one of our leading ladies.”
“Right,” Samara said and took the shot now because she didn’t know what else to do. “I’ll have my assistant send some flowers from me to the hospital. Maybe something else, too. Magazines? Books? Candy? Can she even have candy or other snacks? What would she want? I don’t know her that well.”
“I’ll have my PA coordinate with your assistant, so we’ll make sure that Vanessa is covered, but this means we’re going to be behind a bit. You’ll still take care of any last-minute fittings and stuff, but we’re flying in the second and third choicefor Bryce’s role.”
The door to the trailer opened, and as if on cue, Bryce herself walked through it.
“Can we call her what I named her in the script and not me, please?” Bryce, the screenwriter of the film, requested. “I named myself Bray because it sounded cool, and Soph liked it, too.”
“Fine.Bray’srole will have to be recast.”
“The other two women I read with were fine, but they weren’t Vanessa. She reallyhadthe role,” Samara noted.
“I know. But we’ll coach them up a bit and have them do another read with you here on location. One of them was in Austin anyway, so she’ll be here later today. I’d only bring in one, but I want to be safe because we want the right person for the role. We’ve already waited longer than we wanted to, trying to get this thing filmed.”
“Okay. What do you need me to do?”
“Go about your schedule today and wait for one of us to call and ask you to read.”
“Okay,” Samara replied. “I’ll review alternate hotels and short-term rentals as well.”
“Sure,” Reed said. “Just let me know.”
