Page 32 of Only One Bed: Anthology Vol. 1
Uplift
Renee Dahlia
“You can’t be serious?” Anvita clenched her teeth together, held back a curse, and imagined sacking her PA. They’d messed up one time too many. She eased a tight long breath out between pinched lips. Logan tried so hard, and was incredibly diligent, but so often they missed the point of what she wanted them to do.
“I’m terribly sorry. We have only one room booked under your name.”
“One room. For myself, my crew, and the contestant we are filming?” Anvita couldn’t believe Logan could get this so wrong. Usually their screw ups involved booking flights in the morning instead of the afternoon—am vs pm was tricky—or booking a hotel too far from where she needed to work.
Tomorrow the crew would shoot the first episode of Uplift at the luxury estate owned by the show’s celebrity host, Aston Lee. He’d built his business from nothing, and now was going to host Uplift, where he advised small business owners on how to grow and improve their businesses. It was the type of heart-warming show Anvita had always wanted to produce, a way to help people help themselves move upwards. Aston was already at his house in rural Western Australia in the pretty Margaret River region, but he didn’t have room for the crew or the contestants. Didn’t have room, or didn’t want to play host? Either way, the outcome was the same. He’d recommended this hotel. Surely, she’d specified more rooms when she sent Logan the email. She opened her phone.
Logan,
I need a hotel booked for next weekend. We are shooting the opening scenes for Uplift.
Anvita
Okay…
This was her fault. Logan had been her PA for nearly six months now. She knew they needed details if they were going to do what she wanted, and she’d sent them a rushed email and expected Logan would be able to work out what she meant. Damned silly mistake, and not Logan’s fault.
“I’ll be needing at least one more room.” Anvita had to make it right. She knew why she’d avoided putting her time into this.
Shazza.
The overly bogan name of her first contestant for Uplift had been part of the appeal when she’d read her application because the concept of Uplift was to help small business owners become successful. A bogan name equalled potentially great television. But she hadn’t been prepared for meeting her.
Shazza should’ve been everything that was mediocre; medium height, light brown hair, slightly sun-kissed white skin, and amber brown eyes with tired shadows under them. To complete the picture of Shazza the tradie, her jeans had dirty hand smears across her ass. But Shazza had the perfect shape of a plump woman, with a fat round ass, thick thighs, and large breasts that strained against her work shirt. Anvita shouldn’t want to bury her face between those tits until she couldn’t breathe. She really shouldn’t.
But it was Shazza’s smile that really did Anvita in.
Shazza had sauntered into the studio for her interview and grinned at the camera with such joy and hope and a little bit of underlying nervous stress that Anvita had needed to clear her throat before speaking. And so, she’d fobbed the organisation of tonight onto Logan and was now paying the price for her inability to manage their need for clear information. Fuck she missed Molly. Her previous PA had been a law student who’d been brilliant at anticipating what Anvita had needed. The problem with Molly was that she was aspirational and had left as soon as a better opportunity came about. This job was the perfect one for Logan’s level of capability. Anvita just had to get better at working with them.
“Sorry, we are fully booked. It’s the cherry festival this weekend.”
Just her luck. Besides, none of her introspection was going to solve this problem.
“Give me a moment, will you?” Anvita walked out of the hotel to breath in some fresh air. The hot dry wind blowing from inland dried her eyes and she blinked. A grubby ute turned into the driveway, and parked. Shazza leapt out.
“Anvita. How’s it?”
“Yeah, not great.”
Shazza frowned. “Oh. Can I help?”
“The hotel is full, and my PA only booked one room.”
Shazza shrugged one shoulder. “It’s cool. We’ll top and tail.”
A shiver of desire raced down Anvita’s spine. “Um.” She coughed. “It’s slightly more complicated than that. There’s only one room for everyone. The camera crew too.”
Shazza screwed up her nose. “Hmm. I suppose the crew could have the room and we’ll sleep in the back of my ute. It’s not going to rain, and I have a couple of jackets in the back we could use as bedding.”
Yeah, that was not going to happen.
“I’ll talk to the hotel.”
“Be brave. It’ll be an adventure.” Shazza’s optimism rubbed Anvita the wrong way. But after a couple of breaths, a night in a ute under the stars compared to hanging out with the leery glances of her cameraman, Brooklyn, sounded bloody good. She’d better go and sort out their dinner tab and make sure they knew how to get to Aston’s house for the morning’s shoot. Brooklyn might be a bit of a creep, but he was magic behind the lens.
