Hannah nodded and as she settled back down into her seat, Molly headed back towards the front of the bakery.
* * *
“We can’t shoot here! The lights will completely wash me out!” There was a man’s voice still booming around the room.
Molly stepped a bit closer to him to get a better view of who was yelling at the top of their lungs.
Once the man turned around, Molly could tell that he was of medium height, medium build, with sandy, blonde hair.
He looked so familiar.
Molly could feel his name on the tip of her tongue, her own mom having so often had his cooking shows playing in the background of their living room.
“Who are you?” the man asked Molly as he glanced at her up and down. “Do you work for me? Were you supposed to bring me a coffee? I don’t see a coffee in your hand.”
“Uh, no. I don’t work for you, Mr...” Molly stalled until she could remember his name. She then startled with realization as the name popped into her head. “Mr. Tony! Tony Sherwood!”
“Ah, so you’re a fan then,” he said with a Hollywood smile. He extended his hand. “It’s always nice to meet a fan.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Tony,” Molly said, moving to shake his hand. “But I actually came to talk to you about the lighting? You were saying there’s a problem with it?”
“Oh, yes, this lighting is awful. If we were shooting this to play on TV tomorrow, things would be fine. Editing could handle all of the bad angles, but this is supposed to be a live shoot!” Mr. Tony threw his hands up with an exasperated sigh. “What will people say about me at home? That I look like I’m catching a cold? They’ll be too worried about whether or not I’m dying of the flu. They won’t really be watching our Christmas segment or the ads in-between. Which is no bueno.”
“That does sound like a problem,” Molly agreed.
Mr. Tony rolled his eyes and straightened out the bottom of his shirt. “I’ll talk with the guys. See if we can maybe just run a special from last year—”
“Wait, run a special from last year?” Molly took an anxious step towards Mr. Tony. “What happens to the segment on Sweetness & Light if you do that?”
“We postpone it until next year, or cancel the whole live thing. I have a bad feeling these lights are a permanent fixture,” Mr. Tony scoffed, shaking his head.
“No, no, no. You can’t do that. You can’t. Hannah’s worked way too hard for this,” she told him. Molly’s mind raced as she tried to think fast on her feet. “Okay, wait. What if you filmed somewhere else? Maybe somewhere with natural lighting? Maybe somewhere like...”
Molly’s fingers shook with anxiety as her thoughts flitted through the possible solutions.
Christmas Wishes was a no-go since she didn’t even know if she was allowed back into the store until the details had been finalized for the big sale.
The elementary school auditorium was a no as well, since there was so little natural light on the stage.
Molly suddenly snapped her fingers once she’d figured it out. “You can film in the town square! You can film it right down the street.”
“Outside?” Mr. Tony repeated. “It usually takes us a few days to prep the area for that. What with the necessary decorations and the fake snow—”
“You don’t need to prep. You don’t need to add any of that. We have it all. We have the snow, we have the decorations, and we have as many Christmas trees and string lights as you can possibly stand,” Molly told him excitedly. “It’s perfect! Everything’s already set up.”
“Sounds promising...” Mr. Tony clicked his tongue behind his teeth. “Tell you what? You handle the location scout duties for the shoot. Tell the other PAs there’s been a change.”
“I don’t know what any of those words mean,” Molly admitted, taking a step back from the famous chef. “But I’ll figure it out. Thank you so much! Thank you for not canceling the show.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome.” Mr. Tony then turned his attention to a crew member who was strolling behind him. “Hey! You! Were you the one who was supposed to get my coffee? Why isn’t there a coffee cup in your hand?”
Molly had already reached the back of the bakery before she could hear the crew member’s response.
* * *
Hannah and Molly stood in the middle of chaos with crew members flying right past them as they moved to set up for the segment in the middle of the town square. One of them had spotted Hannah’s parade float still assembled behind her shop, and decided that it would make the ideal makeshift stage for both Hannah and Mr. Tony to stand on and for Hannah to present her pastries to the world.
Molly watched as a different crew member crouched down in the snow with a can of white spray paint and proceeded to spray paint the snow an even whiter color. The absurdity of the paint job would’ve made Molly laugh if it wasn’t for Hannah standing beside her, her friend’s hands shaking with her nerves.