Olive wasn’t entirely listening; she was mostly running a tally in her head of things she needed to do to get Agatha out of the office on time. “Let me call up to Vivienne Westwood and see about getting some of the pieces of the new collection for you to take with you. I’m sure they’ll have a few dresses that will be perfect for Bali.”
Agatha wadded up a piece of paper and chucked it directly at Olive’s head.
“Earth to Olive! I can’t go! We have too much going on here with Caverns, my investors! If I took four days off to go to a wedding in a tropical paradise, the producers will lose their shit. I need you to go in my place.”
Olive fell backward and collapsed into the armchair. “Me? You want me to go to Bali? I’ve never even been to Canada, Agatha! Why don’t you just say you can’t go? Then I can stay here and help you with pre-pro!”
Agatha shook her head as she absentmindedly answered an email without even looking down at her keyboard. “Because, my darling girl, Beckett Blackthorn is going to be at that wedding, and we want him to star in our little picture. I need to stay here and get the ball rolling on production, but you need to go to Bali and convince him to be in our movie.”
“But I don’t know anyone there! Especially Beckett Blackthorn,” Olive stammered out.
Beckett Blackthorn was a hugely popular actor who starred mostly in independent films, and had been performing on the big screen since he was a kid. The year before, he was nominated for an Oscar for his role as a soldier dying from Gulf War Syndrome. Now he was in high demand, and the rumor was he was looking for a franchise to sign on with. Obviously, Agatha hoped The Euphoria of Underground Caverns would be that franchise, but Olive didn’t know how she was supposed to convince him.
In all her time working with Agatha, Olive had always been considered more useful “behind the scenes.” That meant when celebrities were on site, Olive was sent off to make copies, or fetch lunch. It wasn’t that Agatha didn’t trust her; it was just that certain things were still above Olive’s pay grade. And being involved in the deals made with performers was above and beyond. So the idea that she was being sent to an A-list wedding in a foreign country when she didn’t even have a stamp in her passport was unfathomable.
Olive started stammering again, but Agatha held up her hands and made a cutting motion, which meant she was done discussing the topic.
“Honeybun, you’re going. I’ve already called over to Stella McCartney and had a selection of clothes from the new line sent to your apartment. They should all have been altered to fit you, and based on what I’ve seen, they’re perfect for the occasion. Just get your incidentals together, make sure you have your passport, and be at the airport at six a.m. I’ve already scheduled a company car to pick you up.”
Olive’s hands were shaking as she reached across the desk and took a thick mailing envelope from Agatha’s hands. “This has everything you’ll need inside,” Agatha said. “I’ve had the plane tickets switched to your name. There wasn’t much else I could do on the wedding side of things, but you can just take care of that when you get there. So go ahead and take the rest of the day off to get packed, but I’m not playing around, Olive. Come back with Becket Blackthorn signed or don’t come back at all.”
Olive didn’t know what else to say, so with a final gulp and a barely vocal “thank you, Aggie,” she made her way back to her car, hardly an hour after she’d arrived, and began the drive across town to Jessamine’s apartment.
She only hoped her best friend hadn’t gotten that job as tomato in a commercial for Los Angeles Farmers’ Market…
Chapter Two
“Bali? Are you kidding? A free trip to Bali for Kash’s wedding? Ugh. Why do all the good things happen to you, Ollie? Just shoot me. Please!” Jessamine whined as she flopped on her bed dramatically.
Olive rolled her eyes when Jessamine used Kallie Wayy-Singer and Ash Grace’s celebrity “mash-up” name. Personally, she hated that name, and thought that particular mash-up didn’t give enough credit to Kallie, who wasn’t just an actress—she was a humanitarian who made multiple trips to Africa every year to assist in hospitals that treated infants infected with HIV. Olive wouldn’t admit it to anyone but Jess, but she was actually excited to meet Kallie. And she didn’t get jazzed about celebrities all that often.
She hadn’t been sure about telling Jessamine about the trip at all. Olive knew her best friend would go insane and give her grief about rubbing elbows with celebrities at an A-list wedding. Jess had lived in LA for eight years since she moved there from Croatia, and had been trying desperately to break into the business, to no avail. As talented and funny and beautiful as Jessamine was, getting noticed in Hollywood seemed to be more about luck than anything, and Jess just hadn’t gotten her break yet. Olive had done everything she could to help her best friend, including slipping her headshot into casting-sessions portfolios when no one was looking, but it just hadn’t happened. And now Jess was pouting on her bed, cursing her terrible luck that she didn’t get to go to Bali too.
The truth was, Olive would have happily handed the trip off to Jessamine if she could have gotten away with it. Olive loved directing, and she loved being a part of the filmmaking process. But the schmoozing portion of the business didn’t come easy to her. At the end of the day, she was hoping to forge a career as an eccentric director who did her job well, but left the parties and red carpets to people more outgoing than her. This wedding was the culmination of her greatest dream and worst nightmare: a chance to make strides in her future in Hollywood, but being forced to sell the movie to an actor voted Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine the year before.
“So what exactly do you need to borrow? If Agatha is sending a designer wardrobe to your apartment, what could you possibly need from me?” Jessamine asked as she crossed her eyes and stuck out her lip at the word “designer.”
“Well, first of all, I have no idea how much Agatha ordered for me. But I assume it’s probably just cocktail dresses and the like. I don’t know what I am supposed to wear during the day for something like this. But I suspect my usual uniform of jeans and t-shirts won’t be appropriate.”
Jessamine snorted with laughter as she propelled herself from her bed and launched into her overstuffed closet. Olive had spent many a happy hour making fun of her best friend for the disaster that was her closet, but right now she was grateful for the obscene amount of clothing Jessamine had stuffed into her walk-up’s tiny storage space. As Olive watched on in horror, dresses, shorts, bathing suits, tank tops, and skirts started flying out of the closet and landing at her feet. She hesitantly picked up a pair of khaki shorts and chuckled derisively as she held them up to her hips.
“Jessamine… None of this is going to fit me. You’re what? A size two? I’m… not. Don’t you have anything that isn’t made for a Barbie doll?”
Jess poked her head out of the closet and scowled. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not that much bigger than me. And anyway, I have some slouchy sundresses and skirts that will work. And I’m sure that Agatha sent over some resort wear. She knows you well enough to know you probably don’t have a wardrobe built for this kind of thing.”
Olive dug through the clothes at her feet and sighed.
“I hope she sends shoes too, because all I have are my sneakers and the boots I wear when I have to get remotely dressed up for a meeting.”
Jessamine began stacking clothing options in a pile with a determined look on her face, but Olive knew the expression wasn’t related to the clothes.
“What’s on your mind, Jess? You only risk those kind of forehead wrinkles when you need a favor,” Olive said with a smile as she started stealing makeup.
“Well… I know you’ve got a lot on your mind. But if Agatha is already starting to cast for The Euphoria of Underground Caverns, is there any chance you can get me in for an audition? For anything? I mean it, Ollie. Literally, anything.”
Olive and Jessamine had been having this conversation since she start
ed working for Agatha, and she felt terrible that she hadn’t been able to get her in to film yet. She didn’t really know what to say, but then she looked at her phone and realized she didn’t have time to say anything.
“Shit. Jess, I have to get back to my place to meet the delivery guy. I’m so sorry. We’ll talk about this when I get back, OK? And I promise I will see what I can do.”
Jessamine started jamming clothes and makeup into a duffel bag, gave Olive a tight hug, and walked her to the door.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, girl! But then again, you’ll be on a tropical island with handsome actors. So maybe just… do what you would do,” Jessamine said with a laugh as she shoved Olive out the front door.
As Olive hustled to her car, she couldn’t help but worry about what the next few days were going to bring. Everything about this trip was so far outside her comfort zone, she felt like she wasn’t just going on vacation…
She was going to change her life.
Chapter Three