When she arrived, she had to take a moment to just stand there and gape, her mouth slightly open in awe. At this point, she probably did look like a tourist; definitely someone who wasn’t used to it and hadn’t been there before. The whole place was heaving, the sidewalk teaming with people bustling around, walking this way and that, stopping and talking, taking photographs, pointing, chatting excitedly, crouching down and studying all the different stars. It was incredible, and she didn’t know which way to turn, which way to explore first.
She looked left and right, trying to make a decision about which way to approach this, although obviously she wanted to see it all. She’d just have to walk back and forth and look at every single star. She took out her phone so she could take pictures of the ones she liked the best, then something caught her attention further down the street.
It was a big crowd of people, surrounding something, or someone, with dozens of reporters and photographers around the outside, scrambling to get closer, snapping pictures, flashes going off everywhere.
Was a new star being unveiled? Was someone giving an interview?
She rushed over in that direction, as did several other people, the crowd around that area growing as more tourists and passers-by realized something was going on.
As she got a little nearer, standing on tip toes and peering around people’s heads to see what was going on, she realized with a gasp that it was Rico Fernandez himself, being photographed crouched down alongside his brand new star on the pavement.
He was all perfect Hollywood sparkling smiles, grinning and giving his thumbs up, looking around and trying to provide a good angle for every single photographer, giving them all a chance to get their shot. Some of the reporters shouted out questions and he tried his best to answer them over the general din and mayhem.
Rico was one of the biggest stars of the moment, and everyone wanted a piece of him.
“How long are you going to be in LA for, Rico?”
“Well, I’m actually filming something here at the moment,” he admitted with a small, coy smile. “I can’t reveal what it is just yet, but I’m very excited about the project and I’ll be in town for a while.”
Ashleigh nearly squealed with internal excitement. It felt great to have some insider knowledge. She’d seen the cast and crew list for Dangerous Existence, and knew full well that Rico Fernandez was the leading male actor.
She didn’t know how closely she’d personally be working with him in her role as runner, but she hoped she’d at least get to bring him a cup of coffee or a magazine or something. Regardless, it still felt amazing to be working with someone so famous.
And so good-looking.
She’d never really thought about it too much before, but he was gorgeous. One of those pinup actors that all the girls dreamed about. Swarthy, handsome, smooth; a real dreamboat.
She stayed and watched the whole scene for a little while longer, until a car arrived to pick him up and he waved goodbye to everyone. There were clearly some of his fans there too, as a general scream of excitement went up as he jumped into the car, people calling out, “goodbye, Rico!” and “we love you, Rico!”
Ashleigh bit her lip and smiled to herself, then turned and headed off in the opposite direction, wandering along the Walk of Fame for the next half an hour, taking pictures of some of the stars.
After the crowd had dispersed, she returned to the brand new Rico Fernandez star and snapped a picture of that too.
Then she headed back to her hotel, stopping to grab herself a bagel and a drink along the way, her thoughts still on Rico Fernandez. He was even more good-looking in person than he was in his movies.
Chapter Four
She spent the rest of the evening just chilling in her hotel room, sitting in the window and watching the world go by, and before long, it was starting to get dark and she was beginning to think about bed. It wasn’t particularly late, but she was tired from her flight and her long afternoon of walking around LA. Besides, she had a very early start in the morning and wanted to feel fresh.
Having had a bite to eat and finished the rest of her unpacking, she decided she’d better figure out what to wear for her first day as a runner.
She’d done a bit of research into the job online and found a couple of advice websites from people who’d done it before, and they apparently recommended comfortable trainers, jeans or shorts, and easily removable layers, so that she could adapt to all weather conditions. The last one didn’t really apply at the moment, however, since the first three weeks of filming would all be done inside the studio, then they’d be going out on-location for the outside shots. They would probably have air-conditioning though, which could sometimes get a little chilly, so she opted for a pair of jeans, a T-shirt and a little leather jacket on top, which could easily be taken on or off.
That done, she watched a bit of TV for a while, lying on her small, uncomfortable bed in her tiny, stuffy room, until she felt her eyes going weary.
Then she got changed into her nightclothes, turned off the lights and slipped in between the sheets.
Despite her tired eyes and exhausted body from all the walking earlier, she still found herself awake half an hour later and unable to get to sleep, her mind running through all the possible scenarios of her first day as a runner, wondering what the people she’d be working with would be like. Rico Fernandez… the producer, Francis Romero… Sally… and everyone else she was so excited to meet. She kept tossing and turning, unable to get comfortable and settle, her mind wired and hyped into overdrive.
Eventually, she got bored of her attempts at sleep and reached for her phone off the bedside table, yawning a little as she opened it up and decided to scroll through the pictures she’d taken earlier on that day on the Walk of Fame.
She smiled to herself at all the different stars, and finally settled on Rico’s, staring at it for a while longer than all the others.
Frowning slightly to herself as if deep in thought, she pulled up her browser and typed in ‘Rico Fernandez,’ curious and wanting to find out a little bit more about the man she would be working with.
She, of course, knew his name and had seen a few of his movies, but other than that she was rather clueless.
She pulled up a couple of articles and interviews about him and read through them, fascinated, for the next half an hour or so.
The most recent interview she found had taken place only two weeks ago. There was a picture of him smiling, with those sparkling eyes and teeth. He was talking about his latest movie, which had come out earlier in the year and done massively well. None of this was news to Ashleigh, especially now she’d read a handful of his interviews, but as the conversation went on, the reporter delved a little deeper into Rico’s personal life, asking him about his recent breakup with his girlfriend.
Ashleigh raised both her eyebrows at that, and re-read his answer a couple of times.
“Clarissa and I had been seeing each other for about a month. We met on the set of An Orange Barbados and there were definitely immediate sparks. I normally try to avoid mixing work and dating but in this case, we both couldn’t help each other. It was more of a whirlwind romance. It started quickly and ended quickly. We’re both still on good terms as friends and hope to work with each other again in the future. It’s just that neither of us is ready for a relationship right now.”
“It ended amicably then?” the interviewer asked for conformation.
“Yes, it did,” Rico replied.
For some reason, this entire section of the article made Ashleigh blush. Just thinking about Rico in a whirlwind romance with someone he met on the set of a film. And now he was apparently single.
Stop! she internally chastised herself. She wasn’t sure where her thought process was going with this, but she knew it probably wasn’t a good idea to go there.
Still, she couldn’t help herself looking up the girl he’d previously been dating – Clarissa Holton. She was a Hollywood actress, not as famous as
Rico, but had been his co-star in An Orange Barbados.
Ashleigh immediately felt inadequate and stupid when she saw her picture. Clarissa was classically attractive and stunning. She had long, blonde hair; she was tanned, and had striking blue eyes. She looked tall and confident, not to mention the big breasts.
It was like she was the exact opposite to Ashleigh.
Ashleigh was pale, petite, and had smaller breasts, dark hair, green cat eyes, short hair; she was more unusual looking, although pretty. Everyone told her she was pretty, although she found that hard to believe a lot of the time.
She sighed and put her phone away, telling herself to stop overthinking and being stupid, and definitely not to get a crush on someone she was going to be working with. She wasn’t a teenager; she was going to be professional about this.
She determinedly closed her eyes and forced her breathing to slow down, trying to empty her mind of all thoughts and lull herself off into a dream world.
It still took some time, but eventually, she drifted into a restless sleep.
Chapter Five
She woke up feeling less refreshed than she would have hoped, and wishing she’d gone to bed earlier, but after a shower and a cup of coffee in her room, she was dressed, refreshed, and ready to start the day, staring into the mirror and giving herself a mental pep talk. She was nervous as hell now, of course, and didn’t have a clue what to expect. She’d woken herself up with plenty of time so that she could get ready, and now all she had to do was wait.
Eventually, she wandered down to the lobby for her ride, which arrived promptly at 7:30am, which was her call time according to the schedule she’d been given. She hadn’t had time to eat, so she hoped she’d be able to get breakfast on set.
“I’m Tim,” the driver smiled as he leaned over and opened the passenger door for her to jump inside.
“I’m Ashleigh,” she smiled back as she got in, the two of them shaking hands.
“Yes, you are our new runner.” He grinned as they set off, immediately hitting some LA traffic, which wasn’t exactly a surprise. “Welcome to the team.”
“Thank you very much. I’m really excited.”
“It should be a good shoot,” he nodded. “We did have a runner initially but he found out his girlfriend was pregnant and quit, that’s why we advertised for a new one last-minute.”
“Ah, I see. Well, it’s a great opportunity for me, I’m thankful for it,” gushed Ashleigh.
Tim seemed like a nice enough guy, and the two of them chatted for most of the journey to the studio. He asked her where she was from, whether she’d done this kind of thing before, and in turn answered a lot of her questions about his work.
It turned out he was a permanent employer of Romero Films and one of their unit drivers for all the shoots. As such, he spent a lot of his time behind a wheel, ferrying people back and forth.
“Ah, I did wonder if I’d be doing that kind of thing,” smiled Ashleigh.
“Well, you might be once we start on the location shoots. We’ll need all hands on deck then, getting the actors to and from the locations. Guys like me normally move to transporting gear and equipment at that stage, and leave the actor liaisons to the runners.”
Ashleigh nodded along with interest, taking it all on board and feeling like she was learning so much already.
It took them about thirty minutes to reach the studio what with all the traffic. Tim rolled down the window, leaned out, and flashed his pass, then the large electronic doors were opened by the security guy who gave them both a little wave as they rode on past, finding a space to park over by the main entrance.
“Follow me,” Tim said as he got out. “I’ll walk you inside and introduce you to Sally, then she’ll take over. I gotta go pick up someone else.”
Ashleigh followed him, clutching at her shooting schedule nervously and looking around her as they stepped inside the studio.
It just looked look like a long, endless corridor with rooms on either side.
As they walked past each room, she heard the hum of activity from inside behind the closed doors, and noticed all the doors had labels – Studio A, Studio B, makeup, costume, special FX, dressing room A, dressing room B, C, and D, kitchen, green room, office A, office B, then finally, Production Office.
It was this door they stopped at, and Tim raised his hand to knock.
“Come in,” someone called from inside.
It was a brightly lit, large room with a big window overlooking the parking lot, and included five large desks, three of which were currently empty.
The two occupants of the room, one male, one female, both looked up as she and Tim walked in, the woman standing with a smile on her face and stepping forward, offering out her hand in greeting.
“You must be Ashleigh.”
Ashleigh smiled and clasped her hand. “Yeah, I am.”
“I’m Sally, 3rd assistant director. The one who you’ve been e-mailing.”
“That’s right. So nice to meet you in person, finally.” Ashleigh felt her heart race with nerves, but everyone seemed really nice so far, and it was helping her relax a little.
“You too. And this is Julio, 2nd AD,” she indicated the man sat down, who raised his hand and waved.
“Hi there,” he grinned.
“Hey,” replied Ashleigh.
“Right, I’m off,” interjected Tim, giving a quick nod to everyone in the room. “See you all in a bit.” And with that, he disappeared down the corridor again, leaving Ashleigh alone with Sally and Julio.
“This is the Production Office,” Sally explained, pointing out the different desks for the 1st AD, director, and producer. Then she led her out into the corridor and gave her a full tour of the whole interior, then taking her outside into the little courtyard area where there were several trailers set up, a catering van, and a large double decker ‘dining bus.’
“Those are the lead actors’ trailers. The supporting artists and background artists share dressing rooms inside the main building…the ones we walked past. And we get our meals over there by the bus.”
Ashleigh nodded. She was fairly sure she was going to get lost at some point but she’d soon get used to it.
“And what are my main jobs and responsibilities?” she asked.
“Well, that just depends what we need you to do on the day,” answered Sally. “The cool thing about your job is…you’ll get to do loads of different things. I promise you, you’ll never be bored, and you’ll never be short of something to do. They’re long days, and they’re tiring, but it’ll be worth it.” She gave her a reassuring smile.
“I’m excited to start.”
“Good. Well, the first thing you can start with is getting yourself some breakfast, then come see me back at the office; there’re some phone calls you can make for me, and some scripts I need you to print out and stamp together.”
“Great. Thank you so much.”
And so began Ashleigh’s first day as a runner.
As it happened, she spent most of that first day inside, in one of the offices –not the main production office but a separate one away from everyone else– printing off scripts, stapling them together, making phone calls, cello-taping and preparing envelopes, and doing a load of other admin work. Sally would call in to check on her every hour or so and collect the work that she had done, but other than that she was mostly left to her own devices. When there was something specific or new to be done, Sally would come and tell her. A few times she was asked to go and collect various supporting actors and escort them to their makeup and costume calls, which was fun, as she got to meet them and chat with them about their work and how they’d got into acting, albeit briefly.
At lunchtime, she could go and help herself to food from the catering van whenever she liked, then sit and eat it on the bus. Due to the hectic schedule of filming, Sally hadn’t had a chance to introduce Ashleigh to every single member of the cast and crew, but she had at least met the 2nd AD and 1st AD, the makeup and
costume team, the caterers, a couple of the drivers, and some minor cast members.
She initially sat on her own for lunch, but then Marlow and Liz from makeup invited her to join their table and she was grateful of the company, answering much the same questions that Tim had asked her in the car that morning, about her background and how she got into doing this. They both had lots of advice for her, and told her they were sure she’d have a great time working on the movie.
In the evening, there wasn’t an official meal from the van, but cakes and sandwiches were served and passed around all the various offices and departments, then the day’s filming finished at around 7pm.
By the time she was dropped back off at her hotel, it was closer to 8, and Ashleigh was far too exhausted to do anything other than get changed into her PJs and lie on her bed, chilling. She looked at the schedule for the following day and made it an early night. This time, she didn’t have any trouble sleeping.
Her second day on set started much the same as the first. She woke herself up with her alarm, had a shower, made coffee, got dressed, and was picked up by Tim and driven to the set. She spent the morning knocking on dressing rooms to collect actors for their costume and makeup calls. It all got pretty hectic and at one point she was literally running, living up to her job title, dashing from one place to the next, her heart pounding. She was a little stressed, but she was loving every second.
Unfortunately though, she also wasn’t really looking where she was going and neither was the person who was striding down the corridor just as she was dashing out of the costume department.
The two of them collided blindly, and Ashleigh gasped as she felt a sudden scalding warmth.
She glanced down at herself to find her white shirt was covered in a hot, brown liquid.
“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. Are you alright?” someone was saying. She felt a hand on her shoulder.
She was still in a bit of shock by the whole experience and more embarrassed by anything, looking up to see who it was she’d bumped into.
PRIZE: An MMA Fighter Secret Baby Romance Page 37