Claire & Theo

15.

"There you are!" Claire exhaled.

She finally felt better when she saw her personal manager, Simone Castillo. She was a woman of beauty but strict on her line of duty as a manager for Theo's company. Simone worked under Theo's company from the very beginning of Claire's career as a supermodel and actress. Claire considered her as her savior, she handled any problems that Claire accidentally involved herself in. Simone was also childhood friends with Theo with her twin brother, Peter, as Claire got to know her more as a person.

"Sorry, I was at Starbucks getting my regular and the damn line was long outside the doors... are they about to start soon?" she sighed aggravatingly staring at the people around the room.

"I think they are about to start, oh-" Claire got cut off as Mr. Williams declared to begin the table read.

He began, "Before we began, let me introduce our final lineup for the cast of 'The Stolen Locket': Our main cast involves Claire Young as Margo Felton, Christopher Maguire as Elton Cruise, Elliot Sears as Michael Depp, Tia Perez as Lily Jewels."

Then, he went on to introduce the supporting cast and their current character names associated with their role. Claire saw many actors, young and old, this reminded her of how much challenging work she had done to be here and much more she must do to proclaim a high-status future.

The Director's crew did a runover of the script and did an analysis of how it should be portrayed when giving a direct and clean-cut emotion for each scene depending on the character that the one became associated with.

"Now that our short discussions of analyzation are over, let us begin with our clean script read with Claire and Chris as Margo and Elton," Mr. Williams smiled proudly.

Claire made eye contact with Chris; he was sitting casually across the table already staring at her. She knew that stare and it was all about flirtation, it was as if she could already read his impure thoughts even if there was big distance between them. So, to intimidate him, Claire gave him a stern eyebrow raise but it completely failed because well, she was not capable of giving that look in these types of circumstances when everyone else was focusing on them.

Simone patted Claire's hand that was shivering cold and whispered lowly into her ear, "Just be calm, everything will be fine, do not worry, I am here for you."

Director Welch continued to state, "Let us start with Scene 22, Line 44. This is where Margo will let Elton know the truth about her findings on the Catalan language of 'The Poison Moon Clan' which will be the mafia group that is running the drug empire in Barcelona. Of course, as you guys are considered the protagonists of our story leading as detectives, I would like to portray Margo as a stubborn woman whilst Elton as a man who has arrogance for independence is his way of work."

"Oh, and remember this is the 1990s, give it more of a vintage vibe," the assistant director pointed out.

"Alright." Christopher spoke. He glanced at Claire once again, with the hope that she would fall for his charms.

Christopher began the scene, "Margo, you realize that we do not have time! They are catching up to us," he paused in breath and looked up to shout at her, "Oh for the love of God, could you please let go of that stupid parchment!"

Claire gulped, "You do not understand, this has answers to our questions! The answers to this whole case, damn it!" she paused, "If knowing that the parchment talks about the Ruby Locket in this language of what they speak, we can decipher the leader's name of this Poison Moon Clan who's trying to swindle the prize possession of Princess Jewels!"

"You're deciphering skills have not been proven the best based on your previous cases given..." he grunted.

"W-well that's because I just had never had the right partner!" she half-yelled.

Christopher widened his eyes and then smirked, "Are you saying that I'm potentially the right person for you, Margo?"

The script stated Claire to blush at his comment, but she could not bring herself to do that, instead she harshly spoke it out, "No, you thought wrong... I would rather say that my confidence has boosted around your presence. Do not be so full of yourself, Elton."

Director Welch spoke up, "Ok cut... that was excellent! I already can feel the chemistry between the two of you. Oh, and Ms. Young, thank you for the change in expression for the last dialogue. It must be a fault on our side for writing the statement to blush."

"Oh, you're welcome." Claire timidly said.

For the rest of the afternoon, many actors played their roles, and it involved many scenes with Claire as well. She eventually became tired of acting and told Simone that she was ready to leave, since she needed a lot of rest before she went to the film in two days' time. As she left, Theo was nowhere to be found.