The Contract Signing

After making sure that she inflicted serious damage on Jeremy, Wyoming left in a huff with nary a second look back to her boyfriend of almost one year. 

There is so much anger inside of her. 

There is so much anger inside of her.  And pain. 

Wyoming brushed harshly the tears that fell from her eyes.  

Jeremy does not deserve her tears.  

She trusted him. Loved him. She had always thought that what they had was perfect. 

Jeremy, like her, is an actor. But unlike her, he was able to get major roles while she only managed to land bit parts. He was actually a big star. 

But nobody in the industry knew about them. Nobody had any idea that they were in a relationship. They had always acted appropriately in front of everyone. 

And no one suspected them of carrying on a relationship that almost ran up to a year.  

Why not?

They have the same manager and it is not unlikely that she and Jeremy would be tossed into each other’s company from time to time because of their management’s activities. 

No one suspected a thing. 

They kept their relationship under wraps because they did not want it to affect their careers, more so on Jeremy’s part. He forms half of the most popular love teams in the business today and fans are shipping for a real romance between him and his screen partner. 

It would ruin him if they knew about her. 

It was a mutual decision that they kept their relationship from the prying eyes of the public. 

Wyoming thought that it was sweet - how Jeremy was protective of her. She had this insane thought that he wanted to keep her a secret from his fans for her own good. 

He does not want her to be treated unfairly by disgruntled fans and bashed on the net.  

Wyoming smiled sarcastically at her own stupidity.

She realized that she settled for something. She banked on Jeremy’s promises. She thought that by keeping their relationship under wraps, she was being a dutiful girlfriend. 

She realized what a waste it had been. 

Wyoming smiled sardonically at herself.  

What a joke!

Now, she was asking herself how long he had been cheating her. 

Did he cheat on her with random girls or did he and his movie partner Haley a real couple as well as reel? Were the rumors about them going sweet with each other true and not fabricated as part of a marketing strategy?  

She remembered Jeremy denying the rumors as true. He even professed repeatedly how much he loved her. 

She was confused if all he ever said to her were all lies. 

At this thought, her hand started to call the one person who could enlighten her.

“Do you know that Jeremy is screwing other girls behind my back?” She asked her manager when her call came through. 

There was silence on the other end.   

Wyoming already knew what that silence meant.  

She dropped the call and started biting her nails. 

Jeremy was never faithful. He was using the fans as a guise for his philandering acts. 

At this Wyoming’s hands clenched into fists.  

That b*st*rd!

When she got inside their apartment, Wyoming went straight to the kitchen and got busy preparing for dinner. 

Her hands shook as she bustled in the kitchen dicing and cutting her ingredients. While peeling and cutting the onions, her eyes started to water. She brushed it with her hand.  

Jeremy did not deserve her tears. 

When she got hold of the meat pounder, she smashed the steak so hard with it. She pounded and pounded until the steak was reduced to becoming minced beef. 

She gasped seeing what she had done to the steak and thought of some other way to salvage the meat. Instead of pan-seared steak, they are going to have minced beef with veggies. 

At dinner, her father insisted that they dine together. It took great effort on both their parts. She helped her father transfer to a wheelchair. They were both panting right after, but they did it and she was able to wheel her father out of the bedroom and to the kitchen.

“You looked disturbed. Is something bothering you?” Her father asked at the small dining table for two. 

Wyoming shook her head. 

She tried to adopt a jolly face, but her father knew better.  

John knew that something was bothering his daughter, but he did not press. Wyoming has always kept to herself.  

She did not bother him with her problems or if she encountered any difficulty. But because he was her father, and had been her only companion when she was growing up, he could feel her sadness but chose to stay silent out of respect for his daughter’s privacy. 

“Are you worried about our finances?” John winced when he broached the subject of their finances. He knew that they spent all their savings on his hospital bills and they still have debts left to pay at the hospital.  

He was hesitating at first, but seeing the gloom on his daughter’s face, he could not stand being in the dark anymore. He wanted to know what bothered Wyoming. 

“No. It’s not that. I told you, I am as good as hired for that project. Do not stress yourself over our money problems. I can take care of it.” Wyoming cut him off with that assurance. 

But it did not in any way stop John from thinking about her daughter’s countenance. It bothered him until the wee hours of the morning. 

____

The next day, Wyoming became busy with the chores at home. She started early. She did not know if she managed to get a wink last night.  

The pain of Jeremy’s infidelity made her question things about herself - her self-worth and value as a person.  

She felt like a used doll that nobody wanted.  

She sniffed and continued with the chores. She had to leave today for the audition. 

Before she did, she made sure that her father would be taken care of. She called the help of their neighbor, a middle-aged mother of two grown-up children who lived alone in a unit adjacent to theirs - to look for her old man while she was gone. 

When that had been arranged, Wyoming left for the audition’s venue.  

She came in alone. Liz did not show up with her at the venue - robably because she thought that Wyoming was still angry about her keeping a secret about Jeremy’s cheating on her.  

But she could not blame Liz for Jeremy’s deception. She once read about an author who said that ‘Cheating is a choice.’ When Jeremy chose to cheat on her, it was his choice. Liz had nothing to do with it. She may be his manager, but she can not police him twenty-four-seven. 

Jeremy is his own man. His actions are all on his own. 

Well, what did she expect from someone who kept her existence in his life in the dark? He had been too caught up in his lying that he forgot the real from the unreal. 

While her mind was busy calling Jeremy all the vile names she could think of, her phone rang. 

She unconsciously picked it up and was surprised by the aggressive greeting she received. 

“Is this Wyoming Wilson?” The lady on the other end sounded haughty. It caught Wyoming off-guard. 

She confirmed her identity absentmindedly, without any other way of checking the identity of her caller. But it was too late now. She already provided the information that the person on the other end needed. 

She was not given any chance to inquire about who her caller was. The person on the other end started to launch into a monologue. Wyoming listened with half a mind, but she picked up bits and pieces of information about arrears and hospital debts before she was finally given an ultimatum that if she wanted to avoid things from getting messy she had to pay soon.

This made her blood boil.  

She was already seething with Jeremy’s betrayal, she does not need this woman’s threat to add to her list of anxieties. 

“I will get you the money this week.” She promised in a cold hard voice before she dropped the call and turned off her phone.  

“Wyoming Wilson?” She turned her head at the mention of her name and saw someone she knew. 

Well, they do not go around the same circle since she was only a bit actress but she knew about him. 

“Max Wyatt!” Even with her current situation, she could not help but exclaim in surprise, awestruck at the sight of the man who greeted her. 

Max Wyatt is the industry’s most renowned celebrity stylist. He was the so-called genie in his profession. He created stars with his trendsetting fashion ideas. He was known to be the best fashion influencer around. 

“Come. My crew is already waiting.” He beckoned to her. 

Without thinking, Wyoming walked toward him. When she reached him, he wrapped an arm around her waist and guided her toward a makeshift tent. They walked side by side. 

All the while, Wyoming felt conscious about being able to walk together with a person highly respected in the industry. She did not think that this project would give her this scarce opportunity. 

But she was grateful.

If she did not make the cut, she would at least take this moment as part of her experience.  

At the thought Wyoming became silent. She was faced once again with her dilemma.  

If the audition was not successful and she was not cast for the role, this may very well be the last audition. She was seriously thinking of leaving the movie industry for good. 

She had to trade practicality over her dreams.  Her dreams would not put food on their table.  She had to stop chasing her dreams and give up.  She had three years but had no luck in this industry. 

Maybe this is not where her destiny lies.  

Maybe she had been deluding herself all these years and she was not cut out to become the great actress she dreamt of becoming. 

She loved acting, but three years of struggling was enough. She had to face the fact that this industry was not for her. 

She had bills to pay and she also needed additional money for her father’s therapy. It's time to stop and seriously think about a secure and stable job.  

A sigh escaped her lips. 

“Why the long sigh?” 

Wyoming only smiled wanly at Max Wyatt’s query. Max on the other hand shrugged his shoulders at her tepid reply and proceeded to walk alongside her.

Guiding the tent’s opening were two tall, well-built men who stood in attendance at the sight of Max Wyatt. They moved to open the flap and let them pass. 

The inside of the tent was not elaborate.  

It was almost bare except for the vanity mirror, a revolving chair, and a rack of beauty paraphernalia. 

Four people were already inside - all decked in black ensembles. Wyoming looked wryly at her all-black outfit and thought that she belonged in this drab place.  

Even her mood matched her surroundings.

At once, the four people under Max’s instruction surrounded her. They fussed over her hair and face.  

Next, they assisted her to a beautiful lace-overed gown with shining crystals which she learned were real diamonds!

She balked at wearing such an expensive outfit to the audition. She argued and requested an inexpensive dress, and that was when Max blurted out that she got the major part. 

Wyoming could not contain her smile. She was so excited at the prospect that this project would at least help her with her money problems. It may not do something to heal her wounded heart, but still, it takes her mind away from her debts. 

She quickly signed the contract in her excitement, without perusing the content, confident that Liz had already worked out the details with them prior to the signing. 

She affixed her signature and Ms. Thea, the representative from Ellish Film Productions, the producer for this film, sent through her account her initial payment for this project with a promise that if she nailed this and the Ellishes were impressed with her acting, she would be given another five hundred thousand dollars as a bonus. 

Wyoming felt tears smart her eyes. 

She was so desolate this morning. She felt like she was knee-deep in her problems, that she did not know where to turn to. But this contract came. It gave her hope. 

This is too good to be true!