“What do you think? Should we both go?” Gabriella asked, yawning.

It was their first full day in Bulgaria, and Rina had set her alarm extra early. Not only were they starting to film today, but they also had an appointment with Andrei to choose new actresses.

“Definitely not  — we need someone running the show. Filming on the Boulevard is at 11:00, and hair and makeup have to happen before then. We can’t push this off or we’ll lose an entire day.”

Gabriella nodded. “Okay. So, who’s doing what?”

Rina hesitated. She wanted to be the one directing the shoot. But she wanted to be the one to choose the extras. Seeing what happened when she left such things in someone else’s hands, no matter how professional he claimed to be, only confirmed the importance of her not relinquishing control.

Gabriella looked amused. “Wish you could clone yourself, huh?”

“You better believe it!” But she couldn’t, obviously. She eyed Gabriella. Really, she knew what she wanted to do: to be at the film shoot and send Gabriella to the agency. As the producer of this project, didn’t it make sense for her to oversee the filming and send her second-in-command to do the grunt work of choosing film extras?

It was frustrating beyond belief that she had to spend her first morning worrying about something that should have been completed weeks ago. And the fact that it wasn’t taken care of… well, whose fault was that?

She exhaled loudly. Gabriella was more than competent to oversee the filming (hah, more competent than Rina herself). And if Rina was head of this project… well, that meant the buck stopped with her. Not that she got to choose the most desirable roles for herself.

Time to grow up, my dear.

So now, an hour later, instead of shepherding the girls through their first film scenes in Sofia, she was leaning across Andrei’s desk, looking through his database of movie extras and selecting girls she thought could be appropriate. (Appropriate? If you could call all these Marijas and Violetas and Desislavas appropriate company for her precious cast. But no, she would not be resentful, not toward Gabriella, not toward Heshy.) And to top it all off, Andrei was not appreciating her presence either.

“You ask me for one hundred movie extras, I get them for you,” he said, dark eyebrows creasing. “What is wrong with these girls I find?”

She gritted her teeth. Though she couldn’t totally blame him, considering she was appropriating his computer. At last, she compiled a list of actresses for him to contact and gave him specific guidelines for how they should be dressed. (“Under the knee, above the collarbone, and please, skirts should be straight or A-lined, not too long and flowing and colorful… uh, kind of like what I’m wearing…”) She’d never quite realized how complicated it was to explain one’s culture’s fashions to another. She looked up pictures on her phone to give him an example  — mostly pictures of Huvy and Atara.

(Excerpted from Family First, Issue 630)