Young Adulting - Christina Benjamin Page 0,10

“Relax, Izzy. This is just a perk of being an intern.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Don’t tell the others because we don’t have enough tickets for everyone, but we try to make sure every intern gets an opportunity to network and enjoy the benefits of working for a production studio.”

The tension in me eased and was replaced with embarrassment at the amusement in Colin’s eyes. Of course this wasn’t a date. It was a perk. A bonus for being the first to pick a script and have a game plan.

I was fighting a crazy grin as I entered the shark tank—er, I mean the intern’s office space.

“What are you so happy about?” Taylor snapped as soon as I walked in.

“Nothing,” I murmured.

Everything.

But I resisted the urge to gloat and instead focused on the big dilemma ahead of me. What on earth was I supposed to wear to a major Hollywood premiere? I opened my texts, ignored Fallon who was definitely going to ream me out for being radio silent on the Henry-Giant Ego-Landon front. But whatever...these were officially desperate times and they called for extreme measures.

I opened the group text between me and my roommates. Usually this was reserved for sorting out who owed what in household expenses, or occasionally one of the girls—namely Carolina—giving everyone a lecture on how we weren’t allowed to touch her special cricket flour.

As if anyone could ever pay me enough to eat cricket flour.

Me: Hey guys, would one of you be able to loan me a dress? I got invited to go to a movie premiere tonight.

The response was...overwhelming.

Kendal replied with SOS! And from there the tone took on a sort of military command vibe as the team assembled.

It appeared I was in need of much more than just a borrowed dress.

Apparently, a full makeover was in order.

I turned off the sound on my phone as the texts came in rapid fire. I set it to the side because...well, it was out of my hands now.

And besides…

I clicked on the script I’d been keeping on my desktop since I’d first read it.

I had a lot of work to do.

Chapter Three

Henry

Stretching, I rolled over as the late morning sunshine streamed in through the blinds. I reached for my phone on the nightstand and grinned as I reread the email from Isabelle Ellis again.

So, this was what it felt like to have a complete stranger make my dreams come true?

I’m not gonna lie, the feeling was pretty exhilarating.

Maybe I’d been thinking about this whole celebrity thing all wrong. Because this mystery woman, whoever she was, was totally my new idol.

It was a role I was used to filling—hero, heartthrob, idol. But when it came to my script, I certainly didn’t mind relinquishing the title to let someone else champion it for a while.

I was still on top of the world after receiving Isabelle’s email yesterday. I couldn’t believe my luck. I’d literally been saved in the nick of time.

Telling my parents about my script would have completely discredited any success I might’ve achieved. But now, I’d know that whatever happened from here on out was mine and mine alone.

Well…kinda.

I wasn’t naïve enough to think making movies was a one-man show. I’d been in the biz long enough to know just how many people it took to bring a film to life. It took a village. More than a village, actually.

It took thousands of hours to produce a box office ready film. Heck, even on cheesy Hermosa Beach, we had a team of hundreds. Somehow the scripts were still awful, but that was beside the point.

The point was, I knew I had a long road ahead of me, but at least the journey had officially started. And honestly, the timing couldn’t have been better.

My father’s big movie premiere was tonight, and I was finally in the mood to celebrate.

Gold City was getting a lot of Oscar buzz and I knew attending the premiere and afterparty my parents were throwing was mandatory.

Normally, it would be the last place I’d want to be.

Hobnobbing with a bunch of fake people who only wanted to talk to me because of my last name wasn’t really my scene. And the fact that Elena was going to be there was another factor that would typically keep me away, but it was time I stopped hiding.

I’d let my ex-girlfriend keep me out of the Hollywood social scene for long enough and I no longer had the excuse of working on my