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“Come in!”
The door opened and at the saainst the inside of it
“Maddie?”
I saw Susan as I looked up from my script She closed the door behind her and it clicked shut “Hey Got a second?”
“Yes” I replied, as I stood froestured towards the kitchenette “You want so to eat or drink?”
Susan waved my invitation off as she walked in my direction and instead, sat down across fro tables
My director was a slied brunette A former bit-part actress, she’d worked her way up in the industry over the years and was just now co her on board hadn’t been easy I’d heard she turned doo other projects to work on this picture because she loved the script soif I said I wasn’t a little bit intimidated by her But until noay, she’d been terrific and ether, she’d never come to my trailer like this before
“Maddie, how are you feeling?” Susan said, as she placed her hands on the table, interlacing her fingers as she did Lifting her chin up at me in a pose of suspicion she continued, “Do you think you’ll be ready for your scene tonight?”
The tang froered in my mouth as I sed hard and opened le word out, she raised the index finger of her right hand
“Maddie,” she began “I have a job to do As do you But you see, I’m not able to do my job if I can’t rely on you to be here and when you are here, to be well Now, I think you’re a talented actress but talent only gets you so far in this town To succeed, you’ve got to be consistent and dedicated Do you agree?”
Unsure of where she was headed with her statements, I nodded “Yes, of course Iwell and I’m sorry for that but you have my word I’m dedicated to this project All I’ve ever wanted to do is act This is a dream come true for me”
Susan nodded her head as I spoke “And I believe you Maddie, which is why this conversation is all the more difficult for me to have”
I straightened up in my seat “Um, okay What do you mean?”
Lifting her right aran to speak “Now, of course, your personal life is none ofto intrude It’s the last thing I want”
Uh oh
“No,” I replied, shaking my head “Of course not”
Susan nodded and after folding her hands together on the table once o when I was a young woh when I hadhere is, if you haven’t done so already, perhaps you should consider getting a pregnancy test done”
I blinked at her in disbelief Was I being that obvious? No one in the production knew about the relationship between Grey and , even though when he was on the set, he spent a good bit of tioing around or not
Downplaying it, I shrugged and put on the best poker face I could muster
“Susan,” I began “I’ is that I’ That’s what the doctors told me”
I sed “It’s just stress Really Susan, you’ve got this all wrong I anant”
“All right,” she replied with a nod “Then you won’t have any objections to getting tested Correct?”
Twirling ht hand, I broke eye contact with her as she finished her thought
“Maddie?”
I looked back in her direction again “Susan, no disrespect but this is crazy”
“Well, youon the success of this movie besides yourself, and as the person responsible for putting it together, I can’t allow one of my stars to behave like you have been”
She pressed her hands flat on the surface of the table and after sliding out of the booth, she stood and continued, “I’ to have to insist you have a test performed Otherwise, I can’t allow you to continue on in your current condition”
I chewed my lip and with frantic effort searched my le one to counter her suspicions
“Maddie, look, it’s not the end of the world Even if you are, we can rework a nu quite as h I’ve never worked for Mr Sinclair before, he seeh and…”
Horrified, I snapped my head up towards her “Oh no, no, no Please Susan, I don’t want him to know about any of this Please”
Susan wrinkled her forehead in confusion “Well, Maddie, I don’t see how I have much choice here This is the ht to knohat’s going on with his employees That’s especially the case if his lead actress is pregnant Don’t you agree?”