Waiting for Perfect

By Riley Smith

Maddy Gramm is enjoying her simple, secure life, until she's shaken up by layoffs at work. After finding a diary from her adventurous grandmother that Maddy never read before, Maddy decides to use the time off to “find herself.” Too scared to travel too far, so she heads into Los Angeles to try comedy classes — she's always had a good sense of humor, and improv sounds fun. At first, Maddy is paralyzed with fear, but the friendliness and wildness of the actors in her class help her to get better onstage… especially the kind words and advice of her hot Texan classmate, Alex Daniels.

Alex, meanwhile, is struggling with his career and hiding his own feelings of self-doubt. Alex was encouraged to become an actor by his twin sister. She used to perform with him in high school, until personal difficulties made it impossible for her to keep performing. Maddy and Alex, naturally, develop feelings for each other, — but can the shy Maddy and the career-focused Alex do anything about it offstage?

Waiting for Perfect is a Hollywood-flavored romance about the perils and power of breaking out of your shell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Shorts
• Release date: Nov 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781094434940

Riley Smith

N/A

Book preview

Chapter One: Maddy

With a click of the TV remote, Maddy Gramm’s life was finally perfect. It had been a long week at the office, with a number of challenging projects hitting their deadlines, but she’d smacked them all out of the park. Now, the dog was walked and sleeping, Maddy was in her comfiest pj’s, and she had enough snacks and drinks on the TV tray in front of her to last her a week.

It was time to indulge in a well-deserved Netflix binge. Before pressing play on the latest sitcom she’d been putting off watching, she said with a stylish flourish of the remote, Benji, hold all my calls.

Benji, being both a dog and asleep, didn’t respond. Maddy pulled out her phone. It was unlikely anybody but work would call her (who calls nowadays?), but she put it on silent all the same.

It was the principle of the thing. She was in for a relaxing, veg-out, recharge weekend.

Except right as she looked at her phone, she noticed her boss’s phone number. She groaned. Her boss, Mike, was good about not calling on weekends. He had a strict rule about it being family time. If he was calling, that meant it really was an emergency.

She put down the remote and picked up the call. Hey, Mike. What’s up? The roof on fire?

Not exactly. Listen, Maddy, are you sitting down?

Sitting down was an understatement. Maddy was halfway to slug mode before she’d been interrupted. She didn’t tell her boss that, though. Yeah, I’m sitting. What is it?

As her boss shared his bad news, Maddy very quickly tuned out. She only needed to catch one word before she knew all his other fluff was meaningless. Layoffs.

She stared at her condo, the spacious two-bedroom in Pasadena that she’d inherited from her grandmother. It was funny, but her first thought was to thank her nana that she didn’t have to pay rent.

Her second thought was What the hell am I going to do?

Panic welled up. She wondered where it was coming from. She had money saved. She always did. She could do the standard three-month job search, no problem.

So what made her voice crack when she interrupted Mike’s vague apologies? You’re saying I’m fired.

Mike insisted, No. Not fired. Laid off. The whole company’s taking a hit. I think I’m next.

Maddy managed to tell him, Sorry about that. She was, after all. She knew Mike had a lot more on the line than she did.

And yet, he had something to come home to. Someone to spend time with on the days he didn’t go to work. She looked at the pile of snack food and sugary drinks in front of her. What had looked so delicious just a few minutes ago now made her stomach gurgle.

It wasn’t a reward anymore or a way to recharge after a hard work week and before the next week. She was unemployed.

Mike said, Eh, don’t worry. I’ll be okay. Are you going to be okay?

Maddy said, I guess. Not much of a choice. Might as well be okay.

He chuckled. You’ve got the weirdest sense of humor, Maddy. Listen, if you need anything, call me, okay? And I promise, I let them know what a big mistake they’re making by laying you off at all. When they rehire, you’ll be first on the list.

Somehow, that didn’t make Maddy feel any better. Maybe that was because she gave all her life and energy to this company, and they felt like they could put her in a box in the cupboard to take out and wear in the summer again, when things were shiny.

Maybe it was because she didn’t really like the job but had never taken time to think about it.

She said, I’ll be fine, Mike. Only I do have one question. I’d appreciate it if you could answer it for me.

Mike said, Of course. Shoot. He sounded relieved that she wasn’t crying or threatening to sue. She wondered how the other phone calls with their twelve-person team had gone.

She asked, What does our company do?

Silence on the other end of the line. You know that. We’re a logistics consulting firm.

She said, I get that. I’ve heard that before. But what does that mean?

Mike was quiet for a long time. Then he said, We provide logistical analysis that revolutionizes our client’s synergy, energy savings, and financial savings.

Maddy insisted, Sure, sure. I’ve also read the PowerPoints. Hell, I make the PowerPoints. But once we win the client, once we get in there, what the hell do we do?

Mike said, We’re sales, Maddy. The doing is not our department.

She wanted to push him more. She realized this was something that had bothered her the whole eight years she’d worked for MKL. There were so many buzzwords, so much talk about innovation, partnership, and future-seeking (the three main tenets of MKL), that nobody ever talked about what the company did.

But Mike sounded tired. In fact, his voice dropped its usual chipper facade so much that Maddy felt a little guilty for trying to have this conversation right that second. After all, Mike had to be the bearer of bad news for twelve people, and then later, he was probably getting thrown out, too.

She said, Yeah, you’re right. Sorry about all this, Mike.

Mike said honestly, Not your fault. You did everything you could.

He and Maddy said their goodbyes. Maddy thought over his parting words. Yes, she had done everything she could. But it still wasn’t enough.

She lay back on her couch. Eight years of dedication out the window in one phone call. Ever since she’d graduated from college, she’d been a sales analyst. When people asked her what she did, she had something to say, even though it wasn’t very well defined. Nothing about her job was, except the money, the hours, and the benefits.

At least it had been something. Now, when people asked what she did, what would she say?

She looked at Benji, who had rolled over so his big, warm belly was sticking straight up in the air. She leaned down to give him some belly scratches, but he growled in his dreams, and she left him alone.

Oh, what do I do? I walk Benji. The room responded with only silence. There wasn’t even an echo to add a bit more noise. She grabbed her remote, but somehow, binge-watching didn’t feel so satisfying.

She did it anyway, though. It sure is hard to stop once you’ve started.

Chapter Two: Alex

Alex Daniels knew that refreshing his email wasn’t going to make a message come from his agent any faster. He knew this not only logically but from the past few days of experience. Every time he hit that refresh button, nothing happened.

Correction. Occasionally, a bill or spam offer would pop up unread, giving him a jolt of excitement and then a letdown. This really wasn’t healthy.

Still, he took a deep breath and pressed refresh. He waited while his shitty internet connection buffered.

Nothing. Feeling like a guy sending a fifth unanswered text after a lukewarm date, he shot a quick email to his agent, asking if she’d come across any new auditions, a casting call, background work, anything at all. He was definitely not picky anymore.

He sighed and sat back on the sofa that served as his bed. When he’d first come out to LA from Texas, his agent had been all excitement. She called every day with updates or just to check in. She assured him that after a few commercial spots, his big break was right around the corner. At least a medium-to-small break.

He swiped his floppy blond hair out of his face. His agent had suggested growing it out. She said it gave him a rakish, boyish look that went well with his chiseled, tan features. Alex worried that the haircut was a bit too LA. After all, if he looked like every other hot young guy here, how the hell was he going to get a part in anything?

Alex had long ago stopped wondering if he was attractive. The effect he had on both women and men was instantaneous. It wasn’t something he thought about often, except as an asset.

Sometimes, when he looked at the stars of today, he wondered if it was more of a liability. His agent billed him as Matthew McConaughey mixed with Brad Pitt. He wondered if maybe those references were too old now to draw anybody’s eye or at least if it didn’t make him seem any different than the leading men Hollywood had been pumping out for at least thirty years.

He put his arms behind his head. His roommate, Carl, bumped into the room, slamming the door open. Carl never seemed entirely aware of his surroundings, probably because he spent the majority of time high off his ass but also because he was just a kind of goofy guy.

Carl looked at Alex as if he didn’t recognize him for a while. Alex raised an eyebrow and waited for whatever Carl was finally going to say.

Carl said, You ain’t working today?

Alex shook his head and sighed. I’ve got work this afternoon. Carl didn’t mean acting work. He meant the coffee shop where Alex worked as a barista, one of his three jobs that he worked part-time to afford his apartment and also keep his schedule flexible for auditions.

Carl nodded. Then he said, You mind if I smoke?

Alex said, Yeah, man. I do.

Every day, Carl asked if he could smoke in the apartment’s living room, and every day, Alex said no. After all, Carl could go smoke in his bedroom. It was their little ritual. It had started to become vaguely comforting.

Then again, it was another reminder that Alex’s life had grown stagnant. Carl shrugged and meandered toward the kitchen.

Alex said, Eh, what the hell, man. It’s your place, too. Smoke if you want.

Carl’s eyes widened. He didn’t reach for any drug apparatus. He said, You okay, bro?

Alex shrugged. He’d been Carl’s roommate for two years, but they didn’t exactly pour their souls out to

Reviews for Waiting for Perfect

[Bill Hair · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4 Stars for me!

My rating range of this story... 3.5 - 4 Stars
If significant, why?

Main Character Ratings...
H = 6/10
h = 6/10

Narrator Rating(s)
M = 7/10
F = 8/10
If below 5/10,why?

Was cheating involved? No
Any major triggers to be aware of? No

Angst Level? Moderate
Light, Moderate, Heavy or Please Stop


Scenes with heat... No

Heat Rating... 1/10
Clean or Fade to Black - 1 or 2
Normal to Descriptive 3-5
Detailed Descriptive Sex - 6-7
Um, Wow, Beyond Descriptive Sex - 8 or above

The back story... The blurb says it all.

The Romance... Slow burn until the H finds he needs the h.

The drama explosion... The H has skipped out without a word
Did it feel Real, OK or contrived? A bit contrived
Was it OTT? No
Separation involved? Yes
Was it resolved properly or rushed? Properly

Final Notes... The was a cute story that kept me engaged. I wanted to throttle the h a few times as she was so apprehensive but lots of people are that way.

HEA or HFN? HEA