New Old Love

Avery woke up that morning feeling a little sick in a way she couldn't explain why. Maybe it was a headache coming, or perhaps it was «that» time of the month. However, she decided to brush it off and start her day. She had work at ten and was very proud to say that she was never late. Not even in her worst days.

She got out of bed and slowly walked to the bathroom, thinking that a cold shower might help.

Letting her long hair out of the messy bun she slept in, got under the shower and couldn't help but shiver under the freezing water. Thankfully, it seemed to have worked because she found herself immediately opening her eyes and feeling energized.

After washing her hair, got out of the shower wrapped in two white towels and walked to her closed. Debating whether she should pick up a cute outfit, Avery laid out the pros and cons in her head.

«Cons: I'll have to change as soon as I get to work; I'll spend the whole day in my work clothes. »

«Pros: The whole team will still see me arrive in my own clothes, and I know how they like to talk...»

Keeping the second in mind, she ended up picking some cute but simple clothes: Black jeans and a white tank top. The outfit almost looked like an off-duty model look. Needless to say, it was very flattering for her tall figure. The tank top fabric hugged her waist and made her chest seem more prominent. And the skinny jeans made her look even taller. Paired with some black stilettos, she was ready to go.

Her mother was already eating when Avery walked downstairs, and looked at her when she heard the steps.

"Avery, good morning. ¿Join me for breakfast?" she offered.

"Sure, I think I have a few minutes", said Avery while sitting down in one of the chairs at the side of the table.

"She'll have a coffee, black with no sugar", said Amelia to the maid standing behind her. Then, she looked at her daughter: "Don't look at me like that. I know you have to film today. ¿Is it a sin to want you to look your best?"

"Mom, I won't look overweight because I eat one piece of bread at breakfast", Avery rolled her eyes.

"But you will", joked Amelia.

Avery was used to the way her mom was, always in a struggle to not mess up, look bad, make a mistake...

She couldn't blame her, they lived in a tough and judgy world, and her dad wasn't there to protect them anymore.

Amelia meet Aston when she was only nineteen years old. Aston not only was the heir of the Black empire, but was already taking important roles in his family's multiple companies.

His parents didn't arrange a marriage for him, like the prominent families used to do in country A. But of course, they expected him to marry a young lady from the high society as well. One that could match his powerful background.

When he was twenty-two years old, the Black family sent him to Country I to seal a crucial deal with a company from there.

During his private flight, he requested a cup of black coffee and was surprised when he didn't see Elliot, the flight attendant who has been working in the family's aircrew for the longest time. Instead, he was speechless when he saw a beautiful young lady in a modest but flattering flight attendant uniform.

"You are not Elliot", Aston couldn't help but note.

"I'm not, I'm sorry, sir. Mr. Elliot has a very strong flu and is unable to join you for this flight", informed Amelia, her voice trembled a little bit. It was her first trip out of her career training, and tried to remember all the manuals and classes on how to act with the passengers. However, she never imagined that her first flight wouldn't be in a commercial, regular plane; but in a private one, with just one passenger that she couldn't afford to offend.

When her mentor, Mr. Elliot called her and ask her if she was available to cover him, she was bursting with excitement, and said yes so fast that didn't stop to ask for details. Later that day, when he sent her the information, she thought that she should have rejected; thinking that one small mistake could end her recently started career.

After losing herself in her thoughts for a few seconds, she remembered to smile to her only passenger. And what Aston saw was a very obviously nervous but beautiful lady, smiling brightly at him.

"Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"I'm sorry sir", she apologized, again. "I just know you are a very important person. But I'm not sure who you are".

And that was enough to make Aston smile, like he hasn't been smiling in a long time.

He not only succeeded in making the needed arrangements for the business partnership, but also succeeded in falling in love at first sight. His feelings were so intense that when he got home two days later, he called Mr. Elliot. He felt that it wasn't fair replacing him, and he also knew that his parents were used to being attender by him. So, he asked him to hire a new person for the aircrew: The lady who was in his flight.

Amelia was ecstatic to receive the job offer, and it was going to be a lie to say that she didn't think that he was extremely attractive. However, she knew it was out of her league. She limited herself to small interactions, so she wouldn't fall in love.

Over years of flying together all over the world, and silently loving each other from the distance, he finally confessed his feelings.

Amelia felt on cloud nine, and was quickly to confess hers as well. Without knowing that the Black family was going to make her life hell, until proven herself to be good enough for their son.

She worked as hard as she could and did everything in her power to be appealing to her in-laws, but being an orphan without a big last name was all they needed to hate her. And only when Aston, the only heir of the Black family, stood up and told his family that he was willing to leave their business to be with Amelia, they accepted her.

Amelia and Aston lived happily, and she gave birth to Avery, a beautiful little girl, and heir of the Black empire. However, they were wrong to think that they could grow old together and watch Avery become the new head of the family because Aston passed in a tragic accident in Country F when she was only ten years old.

Since then, Amelia had to put together all the knowledge she acquired on years of watching her husband manage the companies, and step up to be the new boos. All that while trying to look up for Avery, so she would never have to go through the humiliations she went thought when she was younger.

Avery was aware of everything her mom when trough, and understood why she was so uptight.

She quickly nodded and said: "I'll be fine, mom. Is my last week of filming anyway."

"I just want you to be the star you want to be as soon as possible, so you can retire and finally step up as the new CEO of the Black Company", grumbled Amelia. Of course, being the only heir, she was expected to take on the role her dad left.

"Yes. And I just want to remind you that is not going to happen", rejected Avery.

"It Is very early, and I would rather not have this conversation", ended her mom.

"Mom... We can always sell...", Avery started.

"Isn't late for work? I thought you only had a few minutes"; Amelia interrupted her.

"Yes", sighed Avery. "I'll see you for dinner"; said before taking her car keys from the bowl on the entryway and leaving the house.

After having breakfast with her mom, Avery went to work.

Since she was little, she felt drawn to art. Taking painting lessons, theater classes at school, and other forms of expression. Her parents never limited and were always the in the front rows at her plays.

With the freedom to experiment and work her own path, Avery grew up to be interested in the film industry. And even when she could have pursued different paths like writing, directing, or producing, she decided to take advantage of her looks and became an actress.

When she started, her mom thought it was a phase, a teenage dream, but quickly realized that Avery was serious in pursuing an acting career. This made her feel many different ways. She was proud of having a beautiful daughter and never doubted that she will have what it takes to be a movie star. But she also was a bit desperate because that meant that Avery wasn't following her dad's steps on becoming the next CEO of the Black Corporation. Amelia thought she was just saving the spot for her daughter, and never imagined that she might have to look for a different successor.

In a way, she was clinging into the hope that she could go through her actress phase quick enough to still become CEO of the family's company.

...

Avery parked in her designated spot and walked to set, in the middle of the usual chaos when filming was about to start.

A production assistant walked to her immediately and handed the call sheet.

"Avery, you're late. Run to the backstage, so they can start with your makeup", scolded the girl who seemed at least five years younger than her.

"Hello to you", mocked Avery. "I'm not late. I'm actually twenty minutes earlier. My assistant is not even here. That's how early I am", responded her, not being happy about being called out for being late, which she wasn't!

But the production assistant pointed at the call sheet she just passed aggressively: "You WEREN'T late, Avery. You are now. Your scene starts in thirty minutes. ¡Check the call sheet, for god's sake!" the girl raised her voice. Avery could tell she was upset and was just taking it off on her.

Then, she checked the call sheet and realized: Her filming time was changed to be one hour earlier than before.

"What! Helen was supposed to film first!" she complained. "You can't change the schedule with such short notice".

"Correction: The schedule is already changed, and you are not allowed to complain", said the assistant. At that moment, she seemed to realize that she was mistreating Avery out of stress. "I'm sorry, Avery. Helen just informed that she won't be here for another two hours, but everything is already up and running, so someone has to go first", she sighed. "I hope you don't mind."

"I do mind", said Avery. "What If I wasn't here already? She needs to learn to be here on time. I'll tell the director if you don't want to."

"That's the problem. She is late today because she had to assist to an event with her boyfriend last night, and it was in a different city. You know that even the director is afraid of him. We only have one week of filming left; we don't intend to upset Mr. Rossi. He is our main sponsor, after all."

Avery cringed at the mention of Tom. «Mr. Rossi, ha. I never imaged people will fear him this much», she laughed to herself.

Avery decided to ignore the mention of Thomas and start working. So, she walked to the makeup room in order to get ready for her scene. They were filming a TV show where she portrayed a secondary character: The main character's best friend. And of course, the protagonist was Helen.

The story was about how Helen fell in love with a rich businessman and fought for his love. And Avery was the side-kick that was always supporting her and being her confident. In the screen, they were like sisters. In real life, they were strangers.

Avery didn't have a particularly good impression of her, but tried to ignore her because she knew that being on Helen's bad side meant trouble. Everyone was aware of the not-so secret relationship between her and Thomas Rossi, CEO of Rossi Enterprises, the giant of the Entertainment industry in Country A. That relationship sent her to stardom, and got her all the prime roles in movies and TV shows.

Avery was fine with that. She understood that the film industry wasn't fair, and was full of nepotism babies. But that didn't mean that a person with better opportunities had to act in such horrible ways, being always late, underestimating other people's work, and even throwing some drinks to the crew here and there.

Right when she got into make-up, Sara, her assistant, entered the room almost running.

"Ave, I'm so sorry!" she apologized profusely. "I didn't knew the call sheet changed! I swear no one told me until, like, half an hour. I came as fast as I could."

"Don't worry. I didn't know either. I just happened to came early today. Thank god", joked Avery.

"Can I get you something while you do your make-up?" Sara offered.

"I just had coffee. Something to eat would be nice. A Salad or something", Avery requested.

"Right away, boss", Sara left the room.

Since everything was rushing, the make-up artist and the vestuary assistant managed to have Avery ready in less than twenty minutes, and then took her to the set.

"Finally, someone is here to work", huffed Apolo, the director. He was clearly upset by the whole situation.

"I'm sorry. I didn't knew I had to go first today", mumbled Avery, starting to get frustrated as well. She did nothing wrong, yet everyone was scolding her since she arrived.

"Whatever. Let's get started. Get in position, Avery", indicated Apollo.

They had to shoot a scene where Avery was buying some coffee, and Helen called her crying, telling her that her boyfriend's family humiliated her in a big dinner. Of course, she would just talk to herself and say the lines, pretending she was talking to someone.

"Action!" screamed the director.

"Oh no, are you still there?" consoled Avery, immediately getting to work. The way she slipped into character was always fascinating to the crew. "I'll pick you up, send me your location right..."

"I'm Here", screamed Helen, suddenly interrupting her. "I had to fly to another city to join my boyfriend in an even yesterday, It was hectic!" said, walking into set. "But I'm ready to start. I'll go get my make-up done."

The crew was taken aback by her sudden arrival, and didn't knew what to say. They started looking at each other, looking for indications. The production assistants looked at the director, and Avery did the same.

"Secondary, thanks for keeping everything running while I got here. You can leave now", said Helen to Avery.

"Well...", Apolo started. "Since you are here now, Helen, let's go back to the original schedule. Avery, you are dismissed for the morning."

"What? I just got into hair and make up", objected her. She not only hated when Helen called her «secondary», but hated that she gave herself the authority to dismiss her.

"Do you have hearing problems?" mocked Helen. "I said: You can leave. Dismiss. Go. Bye bye", clapped her hands.

Avery felt her blood boil, but took a deep breath and left to her trailer.