Gaining Confidence
Chapter 3
It was a chilly, brisk morning as Adrian quickly trekked into Global Studios. Thankfully she had remembered to bring a jacket, since her typical halter neck top would do little to keep her warm. She ducked her head into the fluff inside her coat as a sharp breeze chilled her bones. The thick groups of trees at the entrance to the infamous forest swayed slightly back and forth from the wind, and a group of birds flying overhead squawked loudly. Overall, it was a cold, cloudy, and ominous day.
To make things worse, today was the day Adrian stepped back into Global Studios as a manager after a long 'vacation'. It was her first day back at work.
After what seemed like a mile, Adrian finally opened the doors and the warm inside air flushed her cheeks. Her glasses fogged up from the sudden temperature change, so she wiped them off on her jacket sleeve. The secretary at the front desk shot her a glare, so Adrian quickly made her way to her new office.
It took some searching, but eventually she reached the pale, cheep-looking wooden door to her office. When she was managing Engarde, she was privileged with a much nicer space. Working with a superstar had its perks, but now that she was back at the bottom, Adrian was stuck with a cramped room with a scratchy swivel-chair, a small stained desk, and one spare seat for her clients.
Upon closer inspection, there was a strange purple blotch on the carpet, and her small window had a thin but winding crack. Although appearing clean at a glance, the office was in heavy disrepair.
Adrian plopped rather ungracefully into her swivel chair, preparing to do some paperwork. Instead, the flimsy seat gave way from the unexpected weight with a creaky snap.
"Ompf!"
Sprawled out on the floor in a very uncomfortable position, Adrian gave a frustrated grunt. In barely ten minutes at her first day on the job, she had to battle freezing weather, suffer a harsh glare from a secretary, discover her office was a dump, and fall painfully to the floor.
Now that the pain had subsided, she prepared to pull herself up from the sweaty gray carpet.
Alright, on three Adrian. One, two, three!
Despite her attempt at standing, Adrian remained spread across the floor in a position that vaguely resembled yoga. Craning her neck to the best of her ability, she discovered that her leg was trapped by one of the armrests, along with her left arm being pinned by the back of the chair. She was completely stuck.
Adrian mentally added this catastrophe to her previous list of disasters.
As the minutes dragged on, her limbs became more cramped and sore, and her mind became more unsure about what to do. She attempted a few more escapes, but the cursed chair had captured her in its clutch. There were a few options as to what she could do, but they all seemed utterly horrible. She could call for help, but it would be too humiliating for Adrian to handle if her boss found her unable to deal with simple chair. If she waited long enough, somebody might visit her office, but the chance of that seemed unlikely.
The stress increased and Adrian started to panic. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and glasses started to fog up once again.
What if nobody comes to help and I get stuck here for the night? Even if somebody does help me get out, what if they have to take me to the hospital? Maybe my arm will have lost so much blood a doctor there will have to amputate it! Oh no, what if-
With a high-pitched creak, somebody opened the door.
"Excuse me, um, is this the, uh, office of Ms. Andrews?"
The sudden appearance of another person startled her, but then a wave of relief washed over here.
"Um, if you don't mind... do you think you could give me a hand?"
She wasn't sure how to approach the situation, but luckily Adrian had managed to stutter out something comprehensible. The unknown man carefully walked into the office, and seemed to falter when he presumably noticed her predicament. She couldn't see his face because the desk blocked her view, but Adrian assumed he must have had a pretty comical expression.
"Um, just a second, if you could move your leg to the right just a tad... there!"
Adrian was successfully untangled from the chair's evil grasp and her savior had a proud and triumphant smile on his face. Now standing, she shuffled awkwardly, waiting for the mysterious person to speak. But he just kept standing there smiling. The man looked awfully familiar, and Adrian assumed he must be one of the actors that she vaguely remembered from her original managing days. Suddenly, the man opened his eyes, uncrossed his arms, and gained a serious look on his face, as if he was done celebrating his heroism.
"So, uh, as I was saying earlier, is the office of Ms. Andrews?"
Adrian nodded her head.
"Yes, I am Ms. Adrian Andrews. What can I help you with?"
She offered her hand in a greeting, and the ensuing handshake had so much force that he almost lifted her off the ground.
"Well, I was told that we were supposed to be meeting today..."
Out of habit, Adrian went to grab her card so she could fiddle with it. She had moved her hand halfway there before she remembered that calling card was long gone, and that case was long over.
"Oh, is that so? I wasn't informed of that, Mister...?"
"Powers, Will Powers."
He offered his hand for another handshake, but Adrian pretended she didn't notice it, not wanting to be victim to his strength again.
"It's nice to meet you Mr. Powers. Actually, I haven't even started up my computer yet, so let me see if somebody sent me an email about a meeting."
Mr. Powers dropped heavily into the extra chair in the corner, which was much too small for a man of his size. He squirmed a bit, trying to get more comfortable, but gave up after a few moments when that proved impossible. A short melody played while the computer turned out, and soon after Adrian began quickly typing on her keyboard.
Once her work inbox had been opened, Adrian started scanning an email from her boss. The purpose for the meeting made her give a slight gasp.
"Well, Mr. Powers, it seems that I am to be your new manager."
Mr. Powers seemed to be surprised at this too.
"Really? Yesterday the boss said I would be getting assigned to a manager, but I didn't think that it would be you. Well, I guess we should get to know each other a little better, it that's alright..."
Adrian pondered what she could share with her new client. Her life really wasn't all that interesting in her opinion. There just wasn't anything out of the ordinary, or anything that made her radically different than other people.
"Um..."
She was really searching her brain now.
Come, just think of something!
"Well, I guess you could say that I enjoy managing, for the most part."
Adrian would've left out the last four words, had it not been for Matt.
Mr. Powers let out a small laugh.
"In that case, I guess you could say that I enjoy being an actor. For the most part."
She smiled softly at his gibe.
"Really, Ms. Andrews. What do you like to do for fun?"
Fun? Oh gee, I really don't do anything enjoyable...
"Well, I don't really do anything fun to be honest..."
Her sentence trailed off as much as Ron DeLite, the defendant in her last legal escapade.
Mr. Powers let out another small laugh.
"That's alright, Ms. Andrews. I don't actually do anything fun either... say, maybe we should go do something together, so then we'll both get out and have fun!"
Adrian was quite unprepared for his suggestion. Social instances really weren't her thing, but if he was her client...
"That sounds nice Mr. Powers."
"Great! We can also get to know each other better since we'll be working together a lot. Speaking of which, we should probably get back to work, huh?"
Adrian was still baffled by the whole incident. What exactly would his idea of fun be?
Oh god, why did I agree to this?
"Yes, we probably should. I'll meet with you tomorrow morning?"
"Sounds great Ms. Andrews!"
And with that, Adrian's office was quiet once again.
Now it was light outside, but the sky was still cloudy and overcast. Adrian had successfully completed a good amount of paperwork, and one of the secretaries would be stopping by shortly. She had asked for a record of Mr. Power's acting gigs, so she could get a feel for what shows he was suited for.
There was a timid knock on the door, and Adrian called out that the door was open.
"Hello, Ms. Andrews. I have the files you asked for."
She set the manilla folder on the corner of Adrian's desk and the trotted back to her own office.
Adrian set her pen down and grabbed the folder. In the front, there was a few publicity shots of Mr. Powers, most of them taken while he was wearing the Steel Samurai costume.
So that's why he looked so familiar...
The two biggest names of his list of acting jobs were definitely The Steel Samurai and The Pink Princess. The second one was quite surprising, since Mr. Powers didn't exactly look very feminine, or the type to wear pink. A few other action shows were listed, along with an exercise show that seemed to be the outlier. Adrian was able to get simple conclusion out of the report. Mr. Powers was an action star.
Back on her computer, Adrian went to the Global Studios 'idea' page. This is where writers would list their ideas for future shows, and where managers could pick one for their client. As she scrolled through all the ideas, none of them seemed like a good fit for Mr. Powers. Of course, she didn't know him all that well, but nothing jumped out at her. There was a distinct absence of anything action-themed, which what he really needed.
She finished reading the show concepts and gave a heavy sigh. There really was nothing for Mr. Powers. This was going to make things difficult. Adrian began to subconsciously tap her pen on the desk, searching for a solution.
You could always make your own idea for a show...
Adrian stopped drumming her pen in mid tap.
Could we even do that?
She searched around on the computer, but there weren't any rules stating that they couldn't create their own show.
Adrian reminded herself that if Mr. Powers wasn't success in his next part, his career would be finished. And if she didn't have a client, so would hers.
It would be risky, and would take a ton of work and effort...
She glanced at the clock. It was just after five, and Adrian doubted that Mr. Powers was still at work. Nonetheless, she dialed his work cell, which the boss had given her earlier today.
After three rings, he picked up.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Powers, it's Mr. Andrews. I need to talk to you about your future roles. I checked all the ideas for new shows, but none seemed to be right for you."
"Well, it's okay if it's not a great fit, but I'll man-"
"No, believe me. You wouldn't want to have a part in any of them."
She heard a faint sniffle from her client.
"Then what are we going to do?"
"This is exactly why I'm calling. Mr. Powers, we need to create our own show."
Will and Adrian are gonna do something fun? -raises eyebrow- no, nothing like that. Actually, it's not intended as a date. Just as fun. And what will this new show be? (Actually, I don't even know...) And sorry, I know this is really late! Sorry! I got pretty busy, but now I'm on break, so I should be able to put another chapter up by Sunday. Hopefully... Anyways, thanks to those of you who are still reading this! Please review with any of your thoughts about the story, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!
