11

As the director led Sophia away, Laura looked at Anna and rolled her eyes again. Anna laughed. "Have fun! I'll be over at Stage B for a bit, then I'll come back to touch her up."

"Thanks," Laura said wryly. She took a deep breath, trying to convince herself that a bad start didn't necessarily lead to a bad day, then followed behind Ricardo and Sophia. By the time she arrived at the set a few minutes later, the actors were all in place, and the lighting guys were turning on their equipment for the first scene.

"And, action!" Ricardo called.

Sophia picked up her book and crossed her legs, getting comfortable on the park bench. In the bright lights, she flipped through the pages, looking bored.

"Cut!" Ricardo yelled. "Sophia, darling," he said, approaching her so he didn't have to shout. "Let's try something different. Your character is... bookish. She likes to read. I need you to look excited about this book - it's interesting to her."

Sophia huffed and put on a pout. "But this is a boring book!" she protested, holding it up. "It's old and hard to read."

Laura was already on her way to the props people when Ricardo called out, "Can we get a new book?"

"I'm on it!" Laura called back. "What can you give me?" she asked the nearest prop technician.

"Give me a minute," he said, scrambling into the trailer behind him. A few moments later, he reemerged with a paperback book in one hand and a hardcover book in the other. The paperback was clearly a romance novel - the scantily-clad woman and the muscular man on the cover left no doubt. The hardcover book looked to be of a similar genre. It seemed likely that Sophia would appreciate either of them, at least compared to what she was reading now, but Laura wasn't sure about the character.

"Give me the hardcover," she decided. "But keep the dust jacket." The man handed it over, and without the dust jacket, the romance novel looked much more like the book that Sophia was already holding. Laura glanced at the title - "In the Garden" - and decided that it could pass as a non-fiction title, something that Sophia's character was likely to read. Hurrying back over to where Sophia waited, Laura handed her the book.

"'In the Garden'?" Sophia half-asked as she read the title. "What is this, a gardening book?"

Laura tried to hide her smile. "No, it's a romance novel, with a gardening title. Hope you like it." Before the actress could say another word, Laura hurried off with the other, boring book in her hand.

"And action!" Ricardo called, almost before Laura was out of the shot.