A/N: Who's ready for more?
Chapter-2: The Replacement
"Hey Edward!"
The voice speaking from behind me makes me cringe. I paste a fake smile on my face and turn my head to the side. "Yes, Lauren?"
Lauren, the producer's assistant, smiles widely and says, "Mr. King requested a meeting with you this afternoon."
Suppressing a groan, I smile. "Sure, Lauren. Tell him I'll meet him after the shoot."
Her smile falters. "He... uh... wanted to meet you right away," she mumbles.
"Oh! Okay..."
Just as I'm standing up, I feel Royce King's hand drop heavily on my shoulder. "Cullen, we need to have a chat," he says rather abruptly.
"Yeah, Lauren just told me," I say, turning around to face him and shrugging his hand off of my shoulder in the process. "What's this about, Royce?"
He motions toward the corner of the room and waits for me to follow him. Once we're away from prying ears, he says, "I'm gonna get directly to the point, Cullen. Rose Hale just quit. So we're going to need a new female lead."
"What? Why would she do that?" I ask in shock. I've known Rosalie for most of my acting career and I never thought she'd back out on her word like this.
Royce rolls his eyes. "Some stupid crap about her engagement to your buddy, McCarthy. She said she's done with acting."
I open my mouth to speak, but he keeps talking. "Forget that dumb bimbo. I've found just the right girl for the job. She's new, but she's noting if not professional," he says with a satisfactory nod. "You know Isa Swan?"
A frown comes over my face as I slowly shake my head, trying to wrap my head around all this information. "I don't think I've had the pleasure," I reply finally.
He looks down at his watch and says, "She's supposed to be arriving right about now. So go and get acquainted."
He all but pushes me toward the entrance and that's when I feel someone run into me, smacking my chest with their head.
"Oomph!"
"Ow!"
Instinctively, my arms wrap around whomever ran into me. Slowly, I hold the person at arm's length and look at their face.
And then, I feel the air leave my body.
So beautiful.
A pair of dark chocolate brown eyes look back at me as I hold the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my arms.
"Ah! Isa, you're here!"
At the sound of Royce's voice, the eyes leave my face and gaze over my shoulder. "It's Isabella, Mr. King," she says in a soft voice. "You said to be here now, so I'm here."
Royce grins and nods contently at her. "See, Cullen? What did I tell you? She's very professional."
I tune him out and hold a hand out for her to shake. "Hi, I'm Edward Cullen," I say with a smile.
Her eyes drop at my outstretched hand and she murmurs, "I know." Then she looks at Royce and asks, "Are we ready for the shoot?"
"Ready when you are, Cullen," Royce responds and leads her toward the center of the room, leaving me with my hand still outstretched for hers.
All through the shoot, my eyes follow her.
Although I've never worked with her before, she seems to be a good actress.
She's beautiful, obviously, but not like Rosalie. No, Isabella's beauty is natural… more subtle and, dare I say it? More breathtaking.
The thing with newbies is that they try to replicate some other actor's footsteps, but with Isabella, that doesn't seem likely.
She doesn't act all high and mighty like most actors, she doesn't fall on her ass laughing at anything Royce throws out like most of his groupies; no, what she does is completely different.
She works and stays in her own quiet little bubble for the rest of the time.
By the time we're done for the day, I hear Lauren say to one of the stage-hands, "A ray of fucking sunshine, that one."
Following her eyes, I see Isabella walk toward a car parked a little away from the rest of ours.
Just before she gets in, she looks up and our eyes meet. She holds my gaze for a second and then ducks her head to get into the car.
As I watch her drive away, I realize that I haven't seen her smile in the whole day… not even once.
A/N: So … thoughts?
Share them with me and leave a review.
Thanks for reading.
Next one will be up in an hour.
Take care.
Ann