They moved from the dining room into the living area, and George grabbed a writing pad along with a pen. Getting his laptop booted, he ran through a list of agencies and the possibility of them scouting Rina after all the information on the internet and tabloids. Rina sat with him on the rug, going through the names one after the other and crossing them out with information they were privy to.
Since they had gone through all of the comments left on the internet, they were able to identify which of the agencies totally hated her, which of them were indifferent due to their lack of seeming interest in the news circulating the internet, and the third group was those who commented but had nothing bad to say. They were not a lot, but Rina was certain they would find.
They went through the list carefully, and each time they hit a stumbling block just when they thought they were about to get something great, Rina sighed exasperatedly and slumped down on the floor. A few seconds later, she would sit up and continue the search, intent on getting an agency that night.
“Don’t you think we should take a break?” George asked after an hour. They’d been going at it for too long and his legs had gone cramped from how they sat on the floor for that long. Rina nodded and watched George get off the floor, sauntering into the hallway presumably to bring Isaiah up to speed with what they were doing. Rina felt bad about keeping them away from each other, and she promised in her head to pay them back for the sacrifice. But in the meantime, their quest was important, and George understood that as well.
Rina didn’t want to take a break until she’d had it sorted, so she returned to the list, continuing from where they stopped. She crossed out the names as she progressed, rolling her eyes when she saw an agency that had left a particularly nasty comment. Rina remembered the words very well because she’d read through every bit of it carefully.
The agency said that when she made her first debut into the entertainment industry, courtesy of Scottsdale Entertainment, they’d known she was going to be a menace from how defiant she looked and how provocative she dressed. Rina couldn’t remember being any of those. Maybe she was defiant because she refused to let herself get stepped all over in the industry, but that was a good thing. It showed resilience and strength and it was one of the reasons she kept getting lead roles in movies and series, of both local and international standards. At some point, Scottsdale stopped accepting local roles on her behalf, only if they could afford to pay her her worth. They had taken so much pride in her and her skills, that it still baffled Rina how easily they’d let her go.
Rina scoffed as she came across the next name, and didn’t even bother bringing their comments to mind before moving on to the next. In thirty minutes, she had gone down the list, leaving only a few local agencies to go. Some international agencies had commented, and although, Rina was skeptical about writing to any of those since she didn’t want to leave the shores of her country if push came to shove, she was going to have to ply that route. The only thing she might have to do was to find a way that her works there would be recognized in her own country. Their being amazed by it was not an option, because Rina was always the best at what she did.
When George returned to the living area, Isaiah was right next to him. He padded over to the kitchen and walked back in a few minutes later with a tray containing three mugs of coffee. Rina had expected him to return his painting, but instead, he plopped down next to George and muttered, “What do we have here? Oouu! These are international agencies. You should definitely explore this route.”
“And how did you exhaust this list so fast?” George questioned, truly in awe. “I was only gone for a few minutes.”
Rina shrugged and grabbed a mug. “Now that we’re left with these names, do you think Isaiah is right? Applying to these agencies means I would have to travel most of the time. Would you be able to go on these trips with me?”
“Why don’t we start with applying first?” Isaiah suggested, grabbing the laptop to himself. “We can see what happens from there.”
His fingers worked really fast as he drafted a proposal letter that could be adjusted to fit any of the agencies, while George went through it to correct certain errors and rewrite some sentences. Last, they handed it over to Rina to peruse and decide if it was good enough. Usually, she left these things to George to handle alone, but seeing as they were starting afresh, she needed to be a hundred percent sure that she got a shot.
“This is great!” She nodded emphatically. “We have the list of agencies already, so we can start applying. I think we should send the mail to just the first two and wait for their responses. They shouldn’t think I’m desperate.”
“I also think…”
A knock sounded on their door and Isaiah looked sharply at George. They weren’t expecting anyone that late, and their neighbors weren’t exactly the friendly type. If the person had come from outside the building, those manning the desk at the lobby would have called up first to inform them.
“I will check who it is,” George said, rising from the floor. Rina and Isaiah looked at his retreating figure, waiting as he checked the spyhole first. He pushed back from the door suddenly, whipping his head around at Rina and Isaiah.
“What is it? Rina asked.
“I am confused,” he muttered. “It makes no sense.”
“What makes no sense?”
“What is Zayn Graham doing by the door of my apartment?”