“Something wrong?” Maxine interrupted her thought.
“What? … No … why would you ask me that?” Charlie replied.
Maxine sat back in her office chair, tapped her pen on her finger, “You seemed … distracted … Did something happen over the weekend?”
It was already Tuesday and she was caught daydreaming a lot since Monday.
“Oh … nothing … it’s school project … I think I’m falling behind,” she lied.
“Hmm … well … you’re leaving early today for that project, aren’t you? Has my nephew been giving you a hard time at school?”
“Oh, no, he’s been great … I really enjoy my classes, I just … sometimes don’t have enough time in a day … you know?”
“I know the feeling … that’s what I’ve been going through for the longest time … well … I told you it won’t be easy, you need to manage your time better.”
Charlie smiled, “You’re right, this is a great opportunity for me, I should take advantage of it as best I can.”
A wide smile spread across Maxine’s face, “Speaking of taking advantage … I want to offer you a rare opportunity to meet with the top names in the industry, to learn more about the business … I know how passionate you are to learn, I’m talking about owners of the biggest studios, top producers, the Goldstone money makers … people who can give you an instant career boost if you’re really serious in pursuing this for a future.”
Charlie swallowed hard, this was what Brad warned her about. “You mean … go to your meeting with them?”
Maxine lifted a shoulder, “With me … or privately … it can be arranged, it’ll be like an interview, you can ask them anything you want.”
Her hands sweated, “I don’t really have the time right now … school is very demanding, I have a lot of assignments, and an exam is coming up … besides, I’ve been learning about the business from you, and you’re the best in the field.”
Maxine laughed, there was a glow of pride on her face, “That’s true … but I would open myself for opportunities if I were you … everyone has something different to offer.”
“Maybe when I’m not so busy with school, there’s just too many things going on right now,” she politely declined.
“Of course …” Maxine clasped her hands together on her desk. “The offer is open for you any time … just let me know when you’re ready.”
The twinkle in Maxine’s eyes scared her that time. After what she learned in a single weekend, she could see Maxine in a whole different light.
**********
Brad had instructed the Night Film team to go out on their own to get their footage while he set up a studio where they will gather and learn the editing process of their films. He specifically said to Charlie to not go alone on her night stroll considering how reckless she had been before.
Tommy was working, so she went to the next best thing … Jeremy. He didn’t have a gig that night, they went to a Burger King drive thru and had their dinner in his car. They parked in the back alley of The Silver Tongue, she wanted to get footage of the Chippendale show that night.
“So you guys finally made up? I saw him all smiles again since Saturday,” Jeremy said, eating his burger.
“Yeah … he told me everything …” she munched on her fries while playing with her handycam. She showed him the footage she took with Brad and kept him up to speed with the latest development.
“I don’t know how long I can hold it … she’ll try and get me to those meetings again soon, and I have to be in the same room with her everyday … I just noticed the way she looked at me sometimes … it feels different now that I know things about her.”
“What do you think she’ll do when you tell her you want to cancel the contract?”
Charlie gazed out of the window, “I don’t know … I guess we’ll find out … I’m just gonna stall for the time being, I want to get my grades up at school first, and hope it’s enough to keep me there.”
Jeremy nodded in agreement, then he stopped cold and reached for her hand.
“What?” Charlie searched for what he was looking at.
“Isn’t that Amber?” he pointed to a pedestrian that walked past his car towards the main road.
They watched the woman in a brown sweater and blue jeans. It was dark but her features were quite distinctive, they were almost convinced it was indeed Amber Stewart.
“I think we should follow her,” Charlie said.
“What? What about your project?”
Charlie took a new blank tape from her bag and put it inside her handycam, “It can wait, we’ll come back after,” she glanced at the clock, it was only 10 PM.
They kept their eyes on Amber who stood at the edge of the alleyway, right on the side of the main road.
“You think she’s waiting for someone?” Jeremy asked and turned his car engine.
“Move closer … just slowly, we’ll follow her … see where she’s going, she might have the tape with her.”
“You want to take the tape from her tonight?”
Charlie turned to look at him, it’s not such a bad idea, “We’ll see … if we get the chance, why not?”
So they followed Amber’s taxi on a stroll around the city. It wasn’t clear where it was going at first until it went further out to the edges of Goldstone, to the quieter part, the ruins of abandoned buildings where she had gone to with the Night Film crew on their first night.
“What is she doing here?” Charlie muttered.
“Don’t know … it doesn’t look like the kind of neighborhood for people like her … to buy drugs … maybe?”
Charlie thought for a moment, “Could be … ” she turned on her camera and pressed some buttons on it.
When the cab turned to the darkest corner of the neighborhood, they kept their distance. It was literally the place where nobody goes to, they didn’t want to be seen following her. They saw her stepped outside of the cab, and the yellow taxi made a turn to leave the area.
She went into one of the buildings.
“We have to follow her,” Charlie said and got out of the car.
“What? Wait! I think we should just wait here until she comes out,” Jeremy was reluctant.
“No … I need to get her on tape … if anything’s worth filming, it’s going to take place inside … let’s go … we’ll be quiet, she won’t notice we’re there,” Charlie squatted on the pavement to keep her head low.
“Okay,” he exhaled. “Fine … this better be good,” he mumbled to himself and got out of the car.
They tip toed to the building where Amber had entered. There was no one around. They took careful steps, every move echoed among the ruins.
When they walked into the place, they saw a car, a small sedan that looked familiar. She checked her camera’s battery, it was full, she turned on the infrared mode and made sure there was no light coming out of the camera. She pointed up, it was all hand signals from then on.
They waited a few minutes before going upstairs through the fire escape stairwell. Their expressions were tense, adrenaline rush had drained all colors from their faces. Their hearts pounded hard, they could hear it in their own heads.
Amber kept going up, until she reached door number 5. Fifth floor, that’s where she stopped and went into the dark ruins illuminated by the city lights from across the city, the street lamps outside and the moon over Goldstone. A figure was standing near the edge of what should’ve been a window looking out the streets. In black sweat pants and black hoodie, the silver hair unmistakably belonged to Maxine Roberts.