Page 2 of The Sitcom Star
“Do you have any pictures?”Sydney asked.“I want to see what little Maddie Ng looked like.”
“Grade eight yearbook.”Adrian had cracked it open for the first time in years after watching the first episode ofChu’s Restaurant.“She’s also in a few of my class photos—we were in the same class for three or four years—but my mom has those.If I show you, donotpost anything online.”
“Of course not.I promise.”Sydney crossed her fingers.“What time is it?”
“Time to relieve the babysitter,” Devon said.
“Oh, shit!”Sydney said.“I mean… Oh, damn!No, that’s still not right…Oh, dumpling!”
“You can swear around me,” Adrian said, laughing.“My ears are hardly delicate.”
“I know, but I’m trying to train myself out of it, now that Sadie is six months old.I’m starting to worry about her copying what I say.Her first word needs to be something appropriate.”
Sydney and Devon headed off, and Adrian and Noah sat on the patio for a little while longer before leaving at ten thirty, which was early compared to how late they would have once stayed out.
Adrian didn’t feel like going home yet, so he decided to walk a bit before getting on the subway.It was humid and still warm out, despite the late hour, but without the oppressive sun of earlier and…Ooh.
He stopped in front of one of the many bubble tea shops in the city, suddenly thinking that bubble tea would be the perfect companion as he ambled down the streets.
He put on his mask and stepped inside.
Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.
Those words echoed in Maddie Ng’s head as she walked down the street in downtown Toronto.She wasn’t sure who’d said that or when she’d first heard it, but whoever it was?They were a damn liar.
Maddielovedher career.She really did.She wouldn’t trade her current life for anything, but it was also hard work.
Chu’s Restauranthad been picked up in late 2019 for a thirteen-episode season.Then COVID-19 had happened, and there was the added complication of filming during the pandemic and running the writers’ room online.Earlier in 2022, there had been a week when she’d slept a grand total of twelve hours.
She got tired just thinking about it.
But Season 3 would be a little different.Jen Fu was taking full showrunner duties for the next season—at Jen’s insistence, of course.Maddie never would have suggested it herself, but Jen was getting concerned about Maddie’s lack of sleep and serious caffeine addiction.And when Maddie had mentioned that sometimes her hands started shaking for no reason and her heart started racing—also for no reason—Jen had put her foot down.
Maddie had continued to protest.She was fine.Filming a season of the show took three months, give or take, and that’s when she was the busiest.She could stockpile her sleep in the months before that.
Jen, of course, had protested that it didn’t work like that.You couldn’t just sleep twelve hours a day for three months, then not sleep at all for the next three months.
Maddie knew this, but she was used to attempting the impossible.To not listening when people told her she couldn’t do something.
Then Jen had really made her case.Chu’s Restaurantcould not afford for Maddie to collapse from exhaustion or burn out.By trying to do everything, she was risking the show.
It was Jen’s trump card.
Because Maddie would never do anything to risk the show.
So, although she didn’t like giving up some of the hats she was wearing, she conceded it was for the best, and she did trust Jen, whom she’d known since meeting her at the Toronto Fringe Festival ten years ago.
Work would soon begin on the scripts for Season 3, and Maddie wouldn’t be heavily involved.It was weird.She kept feeling like she was supposed to be doing something, but the only thing she was supposed to be doing was relaxing, as Jen had ordered.
The problem was that Maddie was used to hustling.Relaxing?What’s that?Much as she needed this break, she was having trouble adjusting.But although she was terrible at relaxing, she refused to fail, and so this morning—her third day with no commitments—she’d created a detailed list of everything she could do to relax.Take nap.Buy something useless online.Watch four hours of TV, and not as research.
She’d ended up watching several hours of nature documentaries, hoping they’d be soothing.In fact, they’d led to her second nap.So, for two of the TV-watching hours, she’d also been napping.
Yay for multi-tasking!
But she didn’t need to be multi-tasking, and maybe she shouldn’t be making lists to tell her how to relax.There was something comforting in a list, though.Maddie had made her first list at the age of five.It hadn’t been a “to do” list, but merely a list of animals at the zoo, and most of the words had been spelled wrong.She’d been so proud of it.
However, sometimes Maddie didn’t know what to do without her lists now.The made her feel safe, and they were just part of her daily life.
