Page 5 of Captive Hearts
Three
Ashley didn’t like the sound of her new camerawoman from the get-go. ‘Why would you get someone from a different industry? You’ve got a list of news camera ops as long as your arm you could call,’ she said down the phone. She was on the train, hanging from a strap like a stressed-out chimp.
‘I know that,’ Bernie said. ‘I called them. They’re all busy.’
‘Allof them are busy?’ Ashley smelt pungent bullshit. ‘No one wanted to work with me, did they?’ she asked him plainly.
‘No, no, no!’ Bernie cried, horrified. ‘I’m telling you; everyone was booked up!’
Ashley frowned. ‘You know I’m not buying that, right?’
‘I know.’
‘So this woman’s my only choice?’
‘Pretty much. She’s due in an hour, come up, and I’ll do introductions. I think you’ll like her.’
When Ashley walked into Bernie’s office, she knew immediately that wasn’t going to be the case.
It wasn’t an appearance thing. In general, camera operators weren’t an attractive subset of humankind, but Gina? Gina was a real exception. She was a very wholesome-looking blonde in her late twenties with sparkly blue eyes and her shiny hair up in a ponytail. She was small and lithe, except for the arms that popped out of her t-shirt. They were a serious set of biceps. Ashley thought they looked like the arms of a country girl raised tossing bales of hay for fun. All in all, she was easy on the eye.
What boiled Ashley’s piss from the outset, however, was her lazy slouch in that chair. Who the hell slobbed out like that on their first day of a job? She was clearly one of those absurdly laid-back types. Ashley had never understood people like that, and she certainly didn’t want to work with one. How was she going to get this woman to run with her pace? Ashley liked a certain energy to the day. She liked momentum. Gina didn’t look like she had any drive at all.
But she took Ashley’s interrogation on the chin, which was something. Maybe she’d just do as she was told and not make a fuss. Not like Mac. Ashley had been arguing the toss with him all day, every day. It was tiring. Maybe Gina would just roll with whatever Ashley needed?
She took Gina downstairs in the lift. It was a quiet ride. She’d never been good at small talk. She could make the words come out of her mouth alright, she knew what people asked. ‘How are you, did you have a nice weekend, what did you get up to?’ Not so hard. The part Ashley struggled with was making her face look like it gave a shit about the reply. Usually, it was better not to try and fake things than to do it badly. It tended to antagonise people even more than ignoring them.
So she kept her face shut and waited until they were in the control room, where the way too-young line producer, Shelly, was straight on them. ‘This the new cam person?’ the frazzled kid asked. Before anyone could answer she said, ‘OK, great, I need you to go to a church in Easton, interview the vicar. Apparently, his bring-and-buy sale is really kicking off this year. I’ve already emailed you the details.’
‘Electric news, as usual, Shelly,’ Ashley muttered.
‘You should have been here earlier. There was a protest at the town hall you could have covered.’
‘I didn’t have a cam person then, thanks to Mac. So, unless you wanted me to stick the camera on my own shoulder…’ Ashley began. Shelly faked a laugh, saying, ‘Ha, yeah. Good one. So, Gina? You got your own cam, or do you need something from us?’
‘I’ve got my own rig, it’s in my car, thanks.’
‘Great, so you’re set?’ She was gone before anyone could answer.
‘Right, then. To the church,’ Ashley said.
***
Ashley watched Gina drag a series of equipment boxes out of her busted up SUV. ‘Big car,’ she noted.
‘Has to be. Needs to hold a lot of stuff,’ Gina puffed.
‘Not great for the environment, though,’ Ashley couldn’t help but say.
Gina didn’t look at her, but her mouth hitched up at one side. ‘I’d buy an electric if I had the money. I presume that’s what you drive?’
‘I take the train to work, actually,’ Ashley told Gina flatly.
‘You can’t drive?’
‘I can drive. I just don’t.’
‘Good for you,’ Gina said distractedly, slowly transferring the equipment into a van marked with the station’s logo.
