Page 17 of The Sitcom Star
“It wasn’t a date, like I told you,” Maddie said.“We were just spending time together.And it really was nice on the island.I enjoyed myself, aside from the goose incident.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“He’s teaching me how to relax.”
Jen tilted her head.“You do seem slightly more relaxed than the last time I saw you.Maybe it’s working.What did you do yesterday?”
“I taught myself to crochet and made bread that rose properly.”
“You taught yourself to crochet in one day?”
“The basics, yeah,” Maddie said.“I’m apparently better at crocheting than Frisbee.”
“And you mostly stayed off the internet?”
“Well…”
Maddie had still spent a little time online, reading that irritating review ofChu’s Restaurantand the responses, of which there had beena lot.
The review had since been taken down thanks to the backlash.
There wasn’t anything wrong with negative reviews, of course.Not everyone had to like everything.But that review, with phrases like “forced diversity” had certainly been something.
Sometimes it was hard to stay sane in this business.That was the issue with being noticed.Back when she’d had small roles in Canadian indie films and the occasional commercial, plus a few writing gigs, nobody paid a great deal of attention to her.
Now, people did.
Maddie was an Asian actress, and she’d created a series with an entirely Asian main cast…and sometimes, that made people angry.
She had to be careful not to let it get to her, and for the most part, she was too busy to dwell on it.Plus, lots of people really did love the show.Many fans had told her how much they loved the Chus, some saying it reminded them of their own families, which brought up rather complicated feelings for Maddie.The family had been partly wish fulfillment for her.She’d never known either of her grandfathers; she barely talked to her sister.
Some people even loved the show enough to write fanfiction.There were 541 works of fanfiction on AO3 forChu’s Restaurant, last she’d checked.Not that she’d read any of them, but she’d looked out of curiosity.There was lots of Waverly/Max fanfic; the next most popular pairing seemed to be Mike/Max, followed by Paula/Chelsey.
It was amazing that she got to create this kind of show.It still thrilled her to bits that she was literally being paid for the project of her dreams, a sitcom about people who looked like her.
“So,” Jen said, “back to Adrian.Do youwantto date him?”
“You know I’m not interested in dating right now.”
“You didn’t answer the question.”
Jen was smirking, and Maddie was tempted to throw an edamame bean at her friend.
“You’re not looking quite so relaxed anymore,” Jen observed.
“How’s Leena?”
“No changing the conversation by talking about my wife.We’re talking aboutyou.”
“I haven’t dated since Harley.”Maddie’s ex—who’d worked in television for longer than she had—hadn’t been able to deal with her nascent fame, the possibility of her becoming more well-known than he was, and that had discouraged her from looking for someone else.She didn’t want to deal with another man who couldn’t handle her success.Besides, she hadn’t had much time for dating.“I haven’t started a relationship since before the pandemic andChu’s Restaurant.It’s different now.I can’t just, like, going on a dating site.At least, I don’t think it’s the best idea.”
“Maybe not.That’s why Adrian is perfect.”Jen waggled her eyebrows.“Come on, have some fun.Who says you have to commit to a relationship?”
Hmm.Maybe Maddie could spend a little more time with Adrian and see what happened.She wouldn’t say anything to him yet; she could just see how things progressed.
She wasn’t usually good with a “wait and see” approach, but she’d been trying to do more of that lately.
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