Page 27 of Home to Me

The director, Paul Groves, stood up and smiled warmly. "Hi, everyone," he began. "I'm sure you all know who I am, but let me just start this meeting off by introducing myself. I'm Paul and I'll be directing this pilot. I want to thank everyone for their dedication and support for this project, which is what's gotten it this far and will hopefully ensure its success far into the future. I would also like to offer our congratulations and extend a warm welcome to our new co-host, Lauren Harrison."

The room erupted in a round of enthusiastic applause, Ben's the most enthusiastic of all, Lauren was surprised to see.

When they died down, Paul continued. "We're shooting this on a tight schedule. Just three weeks. It will involve three location shoots."

At these words, a PA left his laptop and grabbed a stack of papers, which he started to hand out.

"Jimmy is passing out your itineraries. We're going to be based out of Hope Falls three days per week and on location for two—a travel day and a shoot day.

"You'll notice that your itinerary is only for the first week of shooting. When we see what kinks need to be worked out, we'll set the schedule for the second and third week. Call times are on the last sheet. Any questions?"

Paul looked around the room, as did Lauren. She was shocked to see that no one was even really paying attention at this point. They looked almost bored, as if this were all completely standard stuff. In fact, it seemed as if, to them, the invitation for questions were merely a formality, and it was a foregone conclusion that no one would be asking any. The meeting attendees were already stuffing itineraries into messenger bags and backpacks as they got up, pushing their chairs in, chatting with each other companionably, assuming that the meeting was already dismissed.

Lauren, however, had a million questions, and she raised her hand.

"Excuse me," she said, pulling out her pen and flipping open a notebook. "I have some things I'm unclear on."

The people in the room looked at her, shocked, some of them even scowling. It was clear that they had no desire to sit in a continuing meeting while she asked a bunch of rookie questions.

Ben smiled at them. "You guys go ahead and go," he said amiably. "I'll make sure that Lauren is up to speed on anything she needs to know."

The crew smiled in relief and scurried out of the room.

Lauren turned to Ben, annoyance flashing in her eyes. "Hey," she said. "What are you doing? It’s not up to you to decide whether or not I get to ask any questions."

Ben looked sincerely apologetic. "I'm sorry," he quickly explained. "I realize it must’ve come off that way. But you've got to remember, I know these people. I know them well enough to be certain that making them sit in a meeting while they hear answers to questions that they already know backwards and forwards when they have a crushing workload waiting for their attention... Well, it's just not the best way to make a good first-day impression."

Lauren opened her mouth reflexively to argue, which seemed to be her default position with Ben, but before she spoke even one syllable, she realized that he was, in fact, right.

"You've got a point," she said only slightly begrudgingly.

Ben adopted an exaggerated faux-surprised expression. "What is this?" he asked in a high voice, playing up his shocked tone for effect. "Lauren Harrison is admitting that I'm right?"

"Funny. You’re funny. Maybe you should consider a third profession as a comedian," she said dryly, but with a smile. A genuine one.

Ben chuckled warmly. "I’ll take that under consideration," he said, "but first, we have a wardrobe fitting starting in about five minutes. And if we're gonna make it on time, we'd better get going."

They stood and Lauren followed Ben up to the small cabin that production had also rented and turned into a makeshift wardrobe department.

As they made the short trek, she realized that it hadn't even occurred to her that she wouldn't just be wearing her own clothes on the shoots—although, now that she thought of it, she realized that was ridiculous. The producers would want to control every visual aspect of the show, including—and maybe especially—what the hosts were wearing.

She wondered how many other aspects there were of her new job that she had never, before this moment, given any thought to whatsoever.

When they reached the front door of the wardrobe cabin, Ben opened it and gestured for Lauren to go on in ahead of him.

She smiled. "Chivalry isn't dead," she said, impressed.

"It may be on life support," Ben laughed, "but definitely not dead yet. Especially not when I'm around. I'm an old-fashioned guy."

Lauren walked into the cabin and gasped. She couldn't believe the sheer amount of beautiful, sophisticated clothing she saw before her. She moved forward and reverently touched the garments. She was amazed; racks upon racks of clothing in her size, in her preferred style, even. Gorgeous clothing.

She was flabbergasted, honestly, that they’d been able to amass such an impressive amount of carefully selected stunning items in such a short amount of time.

"Wow," said Lauren in awe. "Am I really going to wear all of these clothes on the show?"

Just then, two cheerful, middle-aged women popped up from behind the racks. One of them said, "Hey there! You must be Lauren!"

This startled Lauren so badly that she gasped and stumbled backward, running straight into Ben.

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