ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE

ANISHA'S POV

"And…cut!" the director wailed for the hundredth time, failing to show his irritation. "Are you ever going to get this right?" he asked.

Gwen, the girl who was acting, bit her lower lip and looked upset that she was shouted at in public. I approached the director and asked if we could take a break, to which he readily agreed.

"Gwen, I've seen you acting before. What's the problem? You seem to have a problem of some sort?" I tried to reach out to her.

"I don't know, Mrs de Milo. I've been acting for years, but somehow this scene is making me sweat." She appeared to be on the verge of tears.

"Don't cry, let's talk about this. Are you having any personal problems, perhaps?" I asked.

"I…I don't know. The problem is, I think I am already shaken, and I might never be able to make it right. I fear to lose this job. Some of us are depending fully on this. You're lucky you have everything you need," she said the last sentence in a very low tone.

I chose to ignore the last sentence and proceeded, "Where do you think the problem is? Is it the script itself, or something to do with you personally?"

Gwen just shook her head and her eyes were soon swimming in tears. I took her in for a big comforting embrace, and we sat on our own to talk. After listening to what she had to say, I told her that I thought it was best to try a role switch, and allow Gwen to act as the villain.

"Villain? Me? I've always acted as the good girl, Mrs de Milo.!" She sounded so shocked that her voice was raised sharply.

"Let's just try it out and see," I said as I motioned for her to follow me back to the set.

"Right, let's take that scene again. We will switch roles. Gwen is the villain."

"Ahh!"

"What?"

"Is this a joke!"

"Since when did the CEO got involved in the actors' roles?"

Various responses came from colleagues and fellow actors and actresses. Some of them started laughing out loudly.

"With all due respect, Mrs de Milo, Gwen has always acted as the good girl. There is no way she can tackle that role."

"We won't know until we try it out, can we?" I stood my ground, despite the fact that I could hear murmurs of complaints and mockery from people.

"If Mr Octavia was here, he would have never agreed to that," one young actor, Juan said in a mocking tone.

"Well, he's not here, and I am the one in charge. We're doing this. Gwen, get ready to show your talent!"

As per the script, Gwen and the other actress went up on stage. She looked scared, looked at me, and I smiled with a nod. The acting started. Gwen, the bad employer in the film, was shredding to pieces the report that her subordinate had spent the whole night working on.

"Rubbish! Nonsense! What is this? Do I pay you to produce such nonsense?" she screamed in great anger. I was loving what I was seeing.

"But ma'am, did you look through all the pages. I…" the actress who was taking the role of employee said.

"I saw enough! That first page is bad enough!" Gwen screamed and she threw the pieces of paper in the subordinate's face.

"Wow!" I heard one colleague saying.

"Wow!" the producer could not help but say. "Who knew that Gwen could act as a villain?" The director clapped his hands, and many others followed suit.

"Do we need to take that again," I asked the director, just to make sure.

"The first shot was perfect," he smiled brightly. "Gwen, I need you to take the next scene. In this one, you're even much tougher. Show your ruthlessness, be very mean. You've got this!"

Everything proceeded smoothly, with Gwen shocking herself. Never in her life had she ever thought she could do well as a villain. But she was surprised that she nailed the role.

"Oh, Mrs de Milo. I bet you managed to see what no one else could see in Gwen. I'm sorry for doubting you at first," Juan said to me.

"It's ok. I believe that a good actor should be able to play well in any role," I smiled at him.

"Yah, but it seems like for Gwen, she is better as a villain!" he said, and a number of people around us agreed to that.

***.

I was swamped with work; literally. On some nights, Dylan would come to sit with me at the office, and he carried his laptop along. We would both work until we dropped; and then we would be off. We ordered our dinner and ate it together in the office. There just was a lot of work to be accomplished; and too little time for it.

Twice a week, I gave reports to KJ. The man had taken was starting to recover, for he had started to become very close friends with Valentina. Val updated me religiously, telling me in great detail each and every thing that KJ ever did or said for or to her. She always reminded me never to tell anyone, but I obviously told Dylan about it. Valentina was in cloud nine. I had known her all my life; but had never seen her that happy. She was very happy. She narrated to me that, during the time that he was hardest hit, KJ used to use shopping as a way of bringing sanity to himself. The comfort buying led him to the House of Ani-Lan almost every day, and that was when he and Valentina met and clicked.

I asked her if she was in love with the man, and she insisted it was just friendship. With Valentina, there was no secret. She told me later on, that she believed she herself had begun to have feelings for the man, but she was waiting patiently for him to say something in those lines.

Each time I met up with KJ to give him work updates, I realised that he was slowly uncoiling; coming out of his shell. He had begun to laugh and joke a bit, and the constant frown on his face had started to disappear. I guessed my friend must have been doing something right…

I was working so hard at K JNR PRODUCTIONS that I started to earn a lot of respect from the employees. I was doing it purely out of a heart to help, not that I needed the money or anything. KJ was still employed at the place, but he had taken a break from leading positions. Although he had significantly recovered; I did not want to leave K JNR PRODUCTIONS yet. I needed to bring home the medals and awards. I had worked too hard to leave the place half way. My aim had always been to bring the gold home; so I stayed. I needed to prove myself. No. I was not just a pretty face married to a billionaire. Neither was I just a number, as my mother in law loved to say. I was capable of great things too.

Some who had resigned started to reapply; although they were just but a few. Most of the actors and actresses chose to watch and wait.

One day I needed to pass by KJ's office to inform him of some highly potential jobs that we had lined up. It was way after the normal working hours. When I opened knocked and opened the door, I heard a very loud voice that I knew so well, saying,

"I'm not lying! It's the truth!"

"I need to see some evidence before I can believe you, Val." KJ laughed heartily.

What! KJ laughing? OK; it was not like the man never laughed at all, but it was rare. He hardly ever laughed. At least not that loud.

I entered into the office.

"Anisha!" Valentina ran to meet with me.

When she greeted me, she winked at me. I knew my friend well enough to know that she had lot to tell me later on.

"I have to go, I don't want to disturb you at work," she said as she disappeared off.

"No, Val. Please wait, I am not staying for long!" I felt bad that she was leaving because of me, but she was already gone.

"Let her go. She was about to go anyway," KJ said to me.

The situation was very tense, but I proceeded to inform KJ about the reason for my visit, and then I left.

Of course I went to meet with Valentina, and she went on and on, telling me everything about him and her. My friend was madly in love with the man.