The office building was unusually quiet, the echo of hurried footsteps following Amanda as she climbed back up the stairs.
She had gone down to the first floor to leave, but an urgent need for the bathroom sent her back up when she found a cleaning sign blocking the way. She moved quickly, her golden ponytail swinging behind her.
She was a little distracted by the urgency, and as she came out of the stairwell she didn't notice a woman approaching silently from the other direction. She nearly walked right into her.
"Sorry," Amanda said, keeping her manners.
The woman looked at her and said rudely, "Are you blind?"
Amanda blinked, looked up at the blonde woman, rolled her eyes, and kept walking toward the restroom.
The woman followed, apparently heading the same way.
Ryan had just finished washing his hands when a familiar figure appeared at the corner of his eye.
"Hello, Mr. Anderson." Jessica stepped forward and thrust out her chest.
Ryan had a good memory. He nodded. "Hello, Miss Blake."
He assumed she was just using the restroom and didn't give it much thought. Then she took two steps closer and asked, "Can I still get that role?"
The idea of landing the female lead in a film with an announced budget of $11 million was hard to let go of.
Ryan pulled a paper towel from the dispenser, dried his hands, and said carefully, "Casting hasn't been decided yet."
That was true. The role of the eighteen-year-old daughter still hadn't been filled.
Jessica smiled. "I understand, I understand."
She took two more steps forward as she said it.
Ryan frowned. What exactly did she understand? He hadn't told her outright that she had failed. He had been trying to spare her some dignity.
She came within three feet of him and bent forward slowly.
The motion was deliberate. Her low-cut shirt fell open at the neckline, and what was underneath made itself very apparent.
Ryan wasn't a saint and glanced instinctively. 36D, he guessed. And it looked natural.
"Here?" Jessica asked, reaching for his belt with a practiced ease. "I can do it anywhere."
This kind of transaction wasn't unusual among small-time actors. With what she had going for her, it had worked every time before.
Ryan stepped back quickly. "Miss Blake, please have some self-respect."
Jessica giggled and pointed to the men's restroom behind him. "We could go in there. Lock the door. Nobody will see."
She stepped forward again and reached for his belt a second time.
She had heard Julia Roberts had gotten roles this way. There was no reason she couldn't do the same.
Out in the hallway, Amanda had turned toward the restroom entrance. She saw what was happening inside and stopped dead, instinctively pressing a hand over her mouth to keep from making a sound.
The blonde woman from earlier had also turned the corner and glanced in. Her gaze settled on Jessica's bent posture for a moment. She smiled with a knowing look.
This was Hollywood. Everyone knew what they were looking at.
Ryan pushed Jessica's hand away. His expression had gone flat and his tone left no room for interpretation. "That's enough. This is over. You can go."
Jessica stared at him, genuinely stunned.
A Hollywood producer who didn't take the bait. She couldn't quite believe it. She had everything going for her and he was actually turning her down? Unless... her expression shifted as she looked at him. Unless he didn't like women?
It was possible. There were plenty of producers in Hollywood who preferred men.
She tried one more time anyway. "I..."
Ryan wasn't interested in protecting her dignity anymore. He cut her off. "There's nothing else to say. I'll tell you right now, you didn't pass the audition. That's it."
Jessica's face curdled. She turned and walked out quickly, not even glancing at the two women standing at the entrance, one tall and one short.
Amanda watched Jessica go, then looked back at Ryan. Her opinion of this young producer had gone up considerably.
She was thirteen, but American girls that age tended to know a lot, especially one who had been doing modeling and ad work since she was young. She had already seen how some male producers behaved, and she had heard plenty of rumors about Hollywood.
This Ryan Anderson seemed different. He came across as decent.
As he walked toward the door, Amanda stepped forward. "Hello, Mr. Anderson."
Ryan stopped and looked at her. "Amanda Seyfried, right?"
"Yes," she said quickly.
"Tell your mother you passed the audition," Ryan said, matter-of-fact about it. "I won't be calling again. Have her come in tomorrow to discuss terms."
Amanda's face broke into a wide smile. "Really?" She took a breath. "That's awesome!"
He felt someone watching and looked over. It was the tall blonde woman from earlier, the one he had noticed briefly at noon. Her figure wasn't as extreme as Jessica's, but she was well-proportioned and carried herself well.
He gave her a brief glance and turned back to Amanda, who was already thanking him.
"Thank you, Mr. Anderson."
"You're welcome." Ryan waved it off and headed back to his office.
"Oh no!"
Amanda seemed to remember something, pressed her legs together, and bolted into the women's restroom.
The blonde woman watched Amanda go with a faint look of distaste, then shifted her gaze to Ryan as he disappeared down the hallway. The distaste dropped away, replaced by something more like curiosity.
'That looks like a producer. Is there really a producer that young in Hollywood? Could he be with that horror film crew on this floor?'
She had heard it was a million-dollar budget. A mid-range project. Nothing compared to a series like Roswell.
She watched until Ryan turned out of the hallway, then walked into the restroom at her own pace, stepped into an empty stall, and sat down, still turning things over in her head.
The door of a nearby stall opened. Amanda tiptoed out, glanced at the occupied stall, and let out a quiet snort through her nose.
'Are you blind?' she thought, still simmering. 'You're the one who's blind.'
She slipped to the back of the restroom, found the mop she had spotted earlier, carried it back to the stall, and threaded the handle through the metal brackets of two stall doors at once. Then she ran.
'Sit in there and enjoy the smell,' she thought cheerfully as she went. 'Try crawling out from underneath if you want.'
She had barely cleared the restroom when she heard banging from inside, followed by a muffled shout: "Damn it! Don't let me catch you..."
Amanda walked toward the stairwell like nothing had happened.
She hadn't even bumped into that woman. She had apologized anyway, and the woman had insulted her for it.
There was no reason to just swallow that.
Back in his office, Ryan thought about what had happened with Jessica and decided his approach needed a small adjustment. This wasn't the East, where things ran on subtlety. Being direct sometimes worked better.
As for what she had tried to pull, he wasn't shocked by it. The entertainment world had its similarities everywhere.
He drank a glass of water, picked up a professional book, and got back to reading. No point letting the afternoon go to waste.
Later that day, Ryan and James continued the auditions. The only role still open was the elder daughter.
They ended up casting an eighteen-year-old American actress named Michelle Williams.
After the auditions finished and he cleared the remaining paperwork, Ryan got ready to leave. The sky had gone completely dark. The building was quiet, most people already gone.
He turned into the stairwell and nearly walked into a blonde woman coming down from the third floor. He couldn't help but look.
Tall, striking, well put-together. He had seen her once at noon, but she seemed to have changed clothes since then.
They had crossed paths before, and she was objectively hard to ignore. When she looked over at him, Ryan gave her a small nod.
She nodded back and smiled. "Good evening."
Ryan smiled. "Good evening."
She said, "I'm Katherine Heigl."
T/N: I am Batman