Page 2 of Seeking Stars
"I'm really excited, too."
"You should have received your plane ticket information to your email inbox earlier today. Can you confirm for me that you got it? That your name is spelled out correctly there?"
She had received it and her name had been fine. Seeing the information in her inbox had sparked such excitement in her, that Ana had called her best friend Ely— Elena at birth, but no one called her that— and they'd spent ten minutes listing the ways in which it marked a before and after in Ana's career. Thanks to now having Diana as an agent, Ana's work teetered on the brink of reaching multitudes.
"I did, yeah," she said. "All good."
"Excellent. We'll see you next week to sign the documents and make it official with a nice champagne toast."
"Sounds great. I will see you then."
Ana ended the call with shaking fingers. Her goal summoned her, so close; just a few more days and her future would open up. She took several deep breaths, chanting the mantra Ely had made up for her in her mind:you got it, it's yours. Nothing will ruin this. You'll rock it.
You got it. You got it. You got it.
Her phone rang again, taking her out of her hard-earned peace. She glanced at the screen and rushed to answer. The agency's name flashed on the screen.
"Yes, hello? Is something amiss?"
The briefest of silences.
"Hello," the person on the phone said. "This is John Coulton's office at Total Creatives Agency. May I speak with Ms. Lira?"
"This is her."
"Good morning, Ms. Lira. My name is Magda and I am Mr. Coulton's assistant. I would like to schedule a meeting with you to discuss an opportunity. Mr. Coulton would like to know if you have availability for this Friday morning?"
"Uhm… I'm sorry, I'm not sure— is this related to my signing with Diana?"
Diana worked for Total Creatives, too. Ana's brain tried to come up with reasons as to why another agent might want to talk to her, but it came up empty.
"No, Ms. Myers doesn't know about this yet." Magda didn't so much as clear her throat to say that. Like Diana was an afterthought. Her next words confirmed it. "Mr. Coulton wants to talk to you as soon as possible and he might not appreciate waiting until Diana can be involved. We'll arrange things with Ms. Myers, don't worry about it. Does Friday work?"
"I can do Monday," Ana decided. She needed to research this Coulton person; if they could decide things and not worry about Diana's opinion, then they were higher up than Diana. "I have a ticket for Sunday and I'll be in LA that same evening to finalize my contract with Ms. Myers."
"We'll arrange for a chartered flight for you and I'll reach out to Ms. Myers' office to clear things up. Is Friday a good day?"
Ana didn't miss the subtle change in Magda's voice. Polite words did nothing to hide the steel in her tone. "Yes."
"Excellent," the assistant said. "We'll email you the details. Thank you so much for accommodating; Mr. Coulton really appreciates it. We'll see you on Friday. Goodbye."
The call ended with a soft click. Ana hadn't even gotten a chance to say goodbye.
Why would Coulton be in a hurry to meet with Ana? She needed to be prepared for unpredictable things and she really, really needed to research this Mr. Coulton.
***
"You're nervous." Ely sat on Ana's bed, and from her spot pointed out the obvious.
Ana didn't immediately acknowledge her friend's words; she continued lining her toiletries on a shelf of her closet, mentally checking what she needed to take to her trip to LA. Three days had gone by since the mysterious call from TCA, and Ana had barely thought about anything else.
"Hard not to be," she replied, taking a couple of products and adding them to her carry-on suitcase. Reaching to it on her bed, her long hair slid down her shoulder, brushing her arm on its path. "Mr. Coulton manages some of the biggest names in Hollywood and he wants to meet with me. For reasons no one has thought to share, I might add."
"Do you think he wants to sign you?"
Ana let out an incredulous chuckle. "I doubt it. I was in the middle of signing with Diana and, yeah, I had been contacted by a couple other people but, well, none of them were that important."
"Maybe Coulton is a fan, saw you were being signed in the same agency and he decided to scoop you up for himself?"
