Page 79 of Act Like You Don't Care
She sighed dramatically. “Another hope blighted. Well, I’ll tell you what I’ll agree to.”
“Oh, you’ll tell me, will you? That’s always worked well,” I interrupted sarcastically.
“Hush, now, and listen. I’ll stay here, but I’m going to let my manager know I may have to leave on very short notice. In the meantime, will you keep me updated? And save me space on your couch for when the baby comes. I’ll take my time off and come to help out around the house for the first couple of weeks while you get settled in and you can send me home whenever you don’t need me anymore.”
I felt a tear start in my eye and I quickly wiped it away, taking a deep breath to steady my voice before I spoke again. “You know I’ll always need you. The Two Musketeers, right?”
“Soon to be three,” she answered and I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Soon to be three,” I agreed. “I can’t wait to see you again.”
“Me too,” she said.
We talked for a little while longer, and then her lunch break was over and she had to go back to work. But right before she hung up, she said, “I believe in you, Tam. Whatever happens now, I know you’ll find some way to make it work and turn it into a success. It just might not look like what you’d always pictured it as. Love you.”
“Love you too,” I replied, then sank back on the couch and fought until the urge to cry like an omega passed.
* * *
Summer called me again,just before five o’clock. “What did you do?” she demanded in a strained voice.
It didn’t take a lot of thought to figure out what she was talking about. “I went and talked to Margaret Grant.”
Her voice shook with some strong emotion and I felt my stomach churn. “You can’t be doing things like that. You’ve already got a reputation as a bit of a diva. You start running around demanding things personally from producers, you’re going to get yourself blackballed.”
I’d fucked up, I could tell. If Margaret’s response had been positive, Summer would have told me straight out, wouldn’t she? The nausea I’d been fighting all day surged back up to the forefront and I lost track of the conversation for a bit.
A little meditation breathing settled my stomach enough that I could focus on something other than bringing up my last meal. I came back to the real world to hear “Tam? Tam!” issuing thinly from the phone now lying in my lap. I snatched it up and hastily answered Summer’s increasingly frantic yelling. “I’m here, I’m here! Sorry, I don’t know why they call it morning sickness.”
“Is that going to be a problem while you’re working? If it is, we need to get you something for it right away.”
“While I’m working? Did you find something?” I felt like someone had picked me up and dropped me in another timeline.
“Where were you just now? Margaret sent over another contract and an updated shooting schedule. I’m not sure about some of these stipulations, but you were never one to put on a lot of weight anyway, so she may have a point. I’m not crazy about her dropping your payout by twenty percent either.”
“Twenty? What—Summer, could you start at the beginning again?” Definitely in the middle of a bad sci-fi movie. As long as it wasn’t horror, though, I was okay.
“Margaret sent you an updated contract. It’s mostly the same, but with some extra clauses. Biweekly reports from your obstetrician giving you the okay to continue working, working with a nutritionist to avoid too much weight gain during the filming, no stunts except for running and some mild fight scenes and falls as long as the doctor approves it. Along with this, you’ll take a twenty percent cut in pay, but if you successfully complete the filming, she’s added in a clause that you’ll get a very small cut of the box office receipts. Successfully completed being defined as you’ve completed all your required scenes and any post-production necessary to wrap the film up.”
I felt like I’d graduated somehow. Yes, I was going to be short money up front, but box office receipts… That could easily pay out much more than the initial contract. I’d never had a contract that paid out on box office receipts. My head spun, lights flashing in the edges of my vision and I didn’t know whether I wanted to scream with excitement or cry with happiness, and in that moment I didn’t even care that it was a totally omega reaction to it all. “I can be there in half an hour.”
“You haven’t seen the shooting schedule yet. It’s… heavy. Really heavy, especially at the beginning. And they wanted a nude scene.”
It felt like Margaret testing me, to see if I was as tough as I seemed. I thought about that, but the way I felt at the moment, I would have done a full frontal for Margaret if she’d asked. Good thing I had Summer there to stop me going crazy with gratitude. “I’d agree to a little ass cheek if it locks down the contract at those terms,” I said carefully.
“But at twenty percent less?” she demanded, incredulous. “And you have to look at the schedule before I’ll do anything with this.”
“Get the nude scene cut,” I told her. “Are you going to be in the office for a while?”
“I am now, I guess,” she said doubtfully. “Are you sure you want to do this? It isn’t going to be easy.”
I sighed. “Summer, you’re an alpha. Everything an omega does is hard, it’s just a matter of how hard. This will make everything that comes after so much easier. And it’s only for three months, right? Maybe four. I can do this. YouknowI can do this.” I jumped up from the couch and began pacing the room, too excited to sit still. “Hold on until I get there, okay? We can look at the schedule if you want, but there’s a lot I’d do for this chance.”
“Okay,” she said, very much in the tone of someone letting a silly omega who wouldn’t listen, learn from experience. “I’ll get the nude scene dealt with while you’re on the way. And don’t ever say I didn’t warn you.”
It annoyed me, but I wasn’t just any omega. “I won’t,” I promised, then hung up and raced for the car.
* * *
