Page 13 of The Bride Bet
She stopped beside the driver’s door and answered. “Tell me.”
“They love you.” His voice was bright and clipped, the way it always was when he was trying not to oversell. “They want to shortlist you. Final two. The director’s already told the producers it’s you.”
For a moment she couldn’t breathe right. She gripped the hot door handle.
“Marco. Marco, are you serious?”
“I am serious.”
“Oh my God.”
“There’s one thing.”
She heard the small change in his voice and her stomach moved.
“Tell me.”
“It’s a required physical. And a fitness test. Stamina, strength, agility — they’ve been clear that the lead has to clear it before they finalize. Insurance and the stunt load. Everyone does it. It’s nothing personal. They want you in next Thursday. A doctor of their choosing and a trainer they’ve hired to run the test.”
Jasmine’s smile slid off her face. Marco didn’t know about her diagnosis. No one she worked with did, and she wasn’t sure yet if she would share it with him.
“Okay,” she said through tight teeth.
“It’s nothing. You’ll fly through it.” He was already past it, already on to the rest of the call. “I just wanted to tell you the second I knew. Champagne when it’s official, sweetheart. This is the one.”
She made some sound back at him. She agreed to the time. She told him she’d be there. She hung up, and she got into her car.
Stamina. Strength. Agility.
She’d had a flare two weeks ago so bad she hadn’t been able to stand long enough to wash her own hair. At the time, she hadn’t known what it was, but now she did.
She’d put off meeting with a physical therapist because she didn’t want it in any file anywhere. She had no idea, from one day to the next, what her body would give her. Some mornings she was fine. Some mornings her hips and her shoulders ached so deeply that nothing touched the pain.
A doctor of their choosing. A trainer they had hired. People who would be looking for the exact kind of weakness she’d spent years learning to hide.
She thought about calling Marco back. Asking what would happen if she had to disclose a condition. But she knew what would happen. Disclosure meant insurance complications, which meant a different actress, which meant a quiet, polite no. There was no path that ran through telling them the truth.
She put her head back against the headrest and closed her eyes. How cruel it was that the universe had finally given her the role of her life when she was the least equipped, in her whole career, to take it.
She would do the test. Of course she would. She would prepare for it, she would manage her symptoms, she would walk in next Thursday and lie to a doctor and a trainer with her whole body. She would pass it, or she wouldn’t, and there was nothing else to do.
Jasmine started the car and tried her hardest not to cry.
CHAPTER 10
NATE
“You need anything?” Nate arched an eyebrow as Jasmine, who hadn’t stopped fidgeting with her dress since she’d arrived at his back patio ten minutes earlier.
“No.” She frowned.
“Does this have anything to do with your audition yesterday?” he asked, not really caring, his attention drifting to the sparkling infinity pool. He was busy thinking about tomorrow’s work schedule and didn’t have time for Jasmine’s moodiness, but if a simple concerned question would chill her out, that would be wonderful.
She was quiet. So quiet that he looked over at her.
She was staring at the lawn. “It went… well.”
He suspected there was more to the story, but if she didn’t feel like giving it up, he certainly wouldn’t pry. Nothing in their contract said that they needed to be friends, and even though he held nothing against her, she clearly hated him.
