Movie marathon - Let's talk mission

1- Close, but no cigar

"How can you say that to me?" I gasp and cover my mouth with a hand, waiting for his answer.

A minute goes by but no answer comes out of his mouth. Or anyone's mouth.

"Erm, excuse me, but can you please just say the next line for me? It'll make it easier for everyone to understand." I politely ask the guy standing next to me.

"That is not necessary. Just continue with your line." A small grumpy man, sitting in a chair at the front says angrily.

Lightning fast, I rush towards a guy across the room holding the script. I grab the papers from his hands. He yells a 'hey!' as I hand the papers over to the grumpy man.

"Why don't you read it? I can assure you this role fits you the most. Right here, see? Just one line. And you even sound manly, just like the role requires." I point at the lines and after patting him on the head, I happily make my way back to my spot.

I don't know what everyone's deal is, but most of the people in the room have their mouths left open after a gasp, while the people sitting in the chairs just give me death glares.

Not letting this take a toll on me, I encourage the little guy with a shake of my hand, "Well? Go on."

He finally decides to help when he sighs exasperatedly. He's definitely shy and I can bet my entire fortune on it.

"Aww, thanks. You're so cute." I blow him a kiss, after all, he is helping me right now isn't he.

"ACTION"

"How can you say that to me?" I gasp again.

"You deserve whatever's coming to you Angelina. So I guess this is it. If only all of this was real." The little guy says his line in the most monotonous way he can find, but I don't let that get the best of me.

"Oh no. No, Joseph, no... You cannot leave me alone like this. Nooo.." And I fall down fainting with an arm on my eyes.

"CUT"

"Ahem, that was very good. We'll give you a call if you get the role. Next." The casting director in the chair tells me before focusing on the next guy.

I remove my arm from my eyes and peek at the director, "You will call me right? You're not going to get a better actress, and I can assure you, I will work hard."

"That's nice." He points at the camera that's recording everything and continues, "We'll look at the tape together and give the deserved ones a call. Make sure you leave your name, number and your agent's number outside before leaving. Now, next please."

I look at the casting director pleadingly when a guy above me coughs to get my attention.

"Oh, yeah. sorry." I stand up straight and smile at him. I hadn't realized he was the next one to audition and he couldn't because I had fallen in his arms while acting. Oopsies!

With a little nod to the director I leave the room, once again feeling defeated.

This is me and my daily life. People think that being an actress is easy. If you look pretty and you know how to act, you can get any job you want and you somehow have no feelings or 'emotions' by the time you start working seriously on your career. Which is pretty stupid because by the end of the day you don't just stop being 'human'.

Leaving my details with the assistant, like the casting director instructed, I head outside calling my good for nothing agent. Today is the first day of the carnival, and since this is Rio De Janeiro, it's going to be celebrated nationwide for five freaking days. Don't get me wrong it's not like I hate it, it's just that the streets are so busy around this time and people are so happy, that some of them like us feel even more desperate.

"What the hell Cintia, I thought you said this was a done deal. Instead.. Ooff... Sorry," I stumble into a fat man and then almost fall onto a guy in a wheelchair, "Instead, there was only the casting director and tons of other extra actors for audition. I cannot believe I fell for that."

"Woah woah slow down there will ya?" She says in her usual nasal voice, "They told me there were going to be only seven people for audition and none for the main lead?"

"Na-ah, there were more. And none of them were helpful, let me tell you that. Do you know how hard it is when you're fighting and no one's answering? It's a good thing there was a little grumpy man there who helped me by saying the male lead's line for me while I made my last dramatic scene."

"Hello? Cintiaaa? You there?"

"Of course I'm here stop shouting in my ear for the love of..." Cintia sighs and continues, "Please Nina, don't tell me this little grumpy man had a moustache?"

"Why yes. He did, how did you know?" I ask her gleefully and hear a loud thump on the other end.

"Because I just received a message that certain someone made the casting director's brother, and the producer's partner read the script for them."

"Oh."

"Oh indeed."

While we're both lost in silence, I manage to get past the whole human traffic and enter the street that luckily is less crowded.

"My life, is ruined!" I manage to tell her as my eyes start getting blurry with the unshed tears.

"Hey, hey listen to me, don't you dare start crying on me again. I mean, what's the worst that can happen? You're already jobless. It's not like they can make you even more jobless? Huh? Besides, I think you probably nailed it. You're a great actress, one of these days they're all going to realize that and fight over who gets to cast you in their next movie."

"Well of course I know that, but what do you propose I'm supposed to do in the meantime? I wanted this one, I mean I'm still wearing the pants I bought during my last gig and it's the carnival for God's sake and aaaah..."

I lose my phone as I fall down on the hard pavement after bumping into a huge wall.

"What the..." Grabbing my bag and sunglasses, I look up to cuss the wall and the man who decided to make a wall in the middle of a pavement. But instead, I am dumbfounded to see, instead of a wall, a very solid well built lean back in a sexy dark suit standing there.

"Well, I'm sorry for standing in the way." I mock the back angrily and get up from the dirty pavement. I dust off my butt and grab my phone from a few feet away and moan desperately as I see a huge crack on the front screen of my brand new, only a few years old, phone, still on call with the old woman screaming from the other side.

I'm about to hold the phone to my ear, when I stop dead in my track, as a very masculine voice whispers in my ear, "You're here on time. I was waiting for you..."