I shouldn’t get bumped.”
“In less than a week, you’ll be chatting up Jimmy.”
“What do I talk about? What if I freeze up and that painful deer in the headlights look is on screens across America?”
She waved away her friend’s fears. “You won’t. I know you. Just go with some horror stories of our old apartment and the gang there. I’ve heard you milk that before.”
Jolene mulled over the idea. “Not bad. I used to do a bit about the drug dealers borrowing a cup of sugar and how the parking lot was a war zone.” She smiled. “I’ll start working on it.”
Cassie squeezed her friend’s hand. “You’ll be terrific. All your hard work is starting to pay off.”
“I think we’re all starting to hit our strides. How’s finding a director coming along?”
“I’m meeting with someone in half an hour.”
Jolene got to her feet. “I’ll let you get ready for your meeting then. Why don’t you and Rhett come over for dinner tonight?”
Cassie groaned. “You’ve never learned to cook, Jo. Unless you’re ordering take-out, why don’t you and Breck come here and let Mimi spoil us all?”
“You’re on.” She hugged Cassie. “Good luck with the meeting.”
She saw Jolene out and then made a stop by the kitchen to let Mimi know they’d have guests for dinner. Then she went to her office to pull some notes and file folders. She looked around, still surprised not to see the stacks of scripts that had been such a part of this room when she first came on board last December.
Things had definitely changed for Rhett in the last four months. Irv dumped him as a client after Rhett’s rounds of bad publicity. At least that’s what the canny agent said. Cassie and Rhett both knew it was because Rhett had finally pushed Irv to find him new and different roles. Irv saw his cash cow crashing and jumped ship.
Cassie offered to rep Rhett since she had experience from Manny’s office in drawing up contracts but she’d doubted anyone would take her calls, much less meet with her. She was right. Overnight, Rhett Corrigan dropped off Hollywood’s radar. Scripts dried up with the exception of bad foreign-produced action movies, the kind that went directly to video.
Rhett reassured her that he had faith in both her and Breck and the script they’d tailored for him.
Cassie wanted to reward that faith. One of Rhett’s former directors, Mac Landry, put them on to Sandy Sanderson, a recent USC film school grad who’d premiered his first movie at Sundance to good buzz. Both Rhett and Breck told her to screen the young man for them. She could hire him on the spot if she liked him and save them another round of meetings, which had been endless and gone nowhere in the last month as the three of them had interviewed seven other directors. The only time wasted today would be her own—if it was wasted.
Cassie didn’t think it would be. She had a good feeling about Sandy Sanderson. Call it woman’s intuition or a gut feeling but his film debut spoke to her. She believed Sanderson had what they needed to get their script shot and delivered and showcase Rhett in the best possible light.
Cassie returned downstairs as the doorbell chimed. She waved Mimi away and opened the door to a short, stocky man in his early twenties, with dancing green eyes and a wave of sandy blond hair.
She held out her hand. “Cassie Carroll. Won’t you come in?”
The young director shook it enthusiastically. “Sandy Sanderson. Thanks for meeting with me.”
Cassie led him into the living room off the foyer and indicated for him to have a seat. TJ sat atop the coffee table, ignoring both of them.
The director wandered around first, taking in the furniture and paintings and knickknacks around the room.
“Great room. Comfortable yet elegant. Excellent light.” Sandy sat, his boyish grin and enthusiasm already pulling Cassie in.
“Let’s start by seeing if you liked the script,” she said. “There’s no reason to keep talking if you didn’t.”
Sandy beamed. “Liked isn’t the word. It was amazing, Cassie. Fresh. Suspenseful. Erotic. It kept me guessing. I’ve never liked predictable and your script kept me off-balance the entire time.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “I liked Mushroom Jack myself. You took a sensitive subject and made it accessible and funny.”
Sandy blushed at the compliment. “Thanks. It really surprised me when Sundance selected it but it’s boomed since then.”
Cassie eyed Sandy. “You could probably do anything you want right