Topic: The Devil Drinks Macchiato

Olivia Storm

Date: 2012-01-16 11:31 EST
Back to work, it seemed. Not that Liv had really had any time off; even when Lelah was on holiday, there had been a stream of texts and emails everyday until someone - Liv assumed Daniel - cut off the woman's access to the wider world. Left to her own devices, Liv had still spent most of her time in the offices at the studios, setting everything to rights and getting the various departments on board with the next proposed project. And, of course, there had been Oscar to consider. As much as the dog seemed to delight in making Liv's life hell on earth, they'd actually started to get along during Lelah's little holiday.

The holiday was over now, though. Back to the grind - to picking up the first edition of the Post on her way into work in the mornings, together with a caramel macchiato and a lemon-poppy seed muffin; to wheedling freebies out of designers so she could distract Lelah every time her boss tried to start talking about Liv's lack of fashion sense; to scheduling meetings every day and taking minutes; to passing on information and occasionally taking the initiative to avoid a temper tantrum in the seat of power.

And this week, she was shouldering more than usual. While Lelah was auditioning for the cast of 'Getting Over Alyson', Liv was arranging the press release - names to be inserted when confirmed - and rehearsal schedule, liaising with the heads of departments to be able to provide Lelah with a timeline as to when sets, costumes, designs, and everything else would be ready for her to proceed with shooting, as well as somehow having been talked into doing the location manager's job when it came to Rhy'Din Elementary.

"... I'm afraid Ms Rivka is unavailable until next Monday," she apologised to the headmaster, balancing her phone between shoulder and ear as she signed off on the wage packets that had been left by Accounts. "Of course, Mr Bowen, I am not asking you to give me an answer right this minute. Please do consult with your board of governors; we wouldn't want to proceed without the agreement of the entire education authority. Yes, we will be submitting our request to film at your school through the Governor's Office. Of course, Mr Bowen, I will ensure that Ms Rivka gets in contact with you personally sometime next week. Thank you very much for speaking with me. Goodbye."

Down went the phone, out came the diary, and yet another number and name for Lelah to make use of was squeezed into today's little square of space. Looking up, Liv's eyes found the clock on the wall. Half past twelve ... Lelah would be wrapping up auditions for lunch and coming back here to find out what else she'd been signed up for in the last five hours.

Rising to her feet, Liv went to the fridge where she habitually kept Lelah's lunches and snacks for when she herself worked late, which was far too often, really. Not that she minded; keeping busy was good for her. Out came a couple of packets, from which she constructed a salad type affair that included cucumber, apple, spinach, and curried pecans on a designer plate she'd located at a car boot sale over Christmas. Into a little pot went the lemon coriander dressing, and a glass of watermelon juice was set with them both on a tray which Liv carefully took into Lelah's office.

A few minutes of fussing presented the studio owner with a meal she could tuck straight into when she arrived, along with the midday edition of the Post and her newly rearranged schedule. Messages were also left beside the tray for Lelah to peruse ... wait. Liv frowned, noticing a message that had her name on it. Lifting the little note from the table, she scanned it, and groaned.

"Moving? She chooses now to move house? Does she want to drive me insane?" For all her complaining, however, Liv wasn't all that upset about it. She knew she'd have to arrange the moving men and vans, and probably the sale of Lelah's current abode, but anything that kept her boss in the calming circle of Daniel Tej's influence could only be a good thing.

Her Blackberry beeped from where she'd left it on her own desk in the other room, and she quickly left the office, moving to check her own messages. Yes, it was a daily grind, but Lelah had got lucky when she'd hired Liv. She actually had a P.A. who enjoyed her job, even if there were days when she was absolutely certain the Devil was wearing Chanel and slurping coffee from a BonBon Boutique cup.

Olivia Storm

Date: 2012-01-25 17:16 EST
Another day, another dollar. With Lelah back in the saddle and pulling hard on the reins to get everything in order before she began her rehearsal schedule, Liv was still carrying a fair amount of weight on her shoulders. Not that she minded; she'd finally learned to delegate, and even to hold her ground in the face of excuses. Although ... she might have gone a little too far with that new-found confidence this morning.

The destruction in the Marketplace had been all over the news for over a week now, filled with speculation on the reasons why certain members of Rhy'Din society had been specifically targeted by this Ravenlock character on his vengeful vendetta. And, of course, hidden away in a corner of the Post only days before it's final issue had been the sobering announcement of the death of Frank Granger, Jon's cousin. Liv hadn't even needed to be told to clear Lelah's afternoon when they'd found that out, hoping her boss had managed to get the time to go and see Jon as she had hoped to.

Unfortunately, though, Liv had not tied together the connection between Jon and Vicki, and how that might impact on the preparations for the upcoming project. To her credit, the Art Director had been in work on time for a week after the announcement, but oddly, had begun to call in and work from home shortly after. It wasn't that the work wasn't being done, not at all; just that Liv felt that Vicki had a duty to be at the studios while the conceptual design work was in progress. Utterly failing to realise that Jon was the reason, Liv had just concluded a rather snippy conversation with Vicki that might or might not result in a word being spoken straight into Lelah's ear.

Feeling slightly dejected herself now at the way she'd spoken to the redhead, Liv sat heavily in the chair behind her desk, playing with the string of her tea bag as it steeped in her mug. For once, she'd managed to totally clear her decks, leaving herself free for any new crisis that might rear its ugly head in the next hour. Sure enough, just as she was lifting her mug to her lips, the telephone rang.

"Lelah Rivka's office, Liv speaking."

"Hello, I'm Peril Fitzwilliam, a junior reporter with Rhy'Din Entertainment Tonight," a nervous voice spoke up on the other end. "I was wondering if Ms Rivka has any comments on the announcement of the Oscar Nominations list yesterday."

"Not as far as I am aware," Liv frowned to herself, hurriedly rifling through her notes to make sure this was the case. "May I ask why you thought to ask for Ms Rivka's opinion?"

"Well, I thought it was only natural, seeing as A Murder of Crowes is up for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, and Ms Rivka herself is up for Best Director," the reporter said, sounding bemused by the question.

Liv's jaw dropped, her mouth working silently as she tried to get over the shock of this information. Mustn't give away any hint that you didn't know about this one, Liv, she thought firmly to herself, hastily recovering her voice before the reporter could work it out for herself.

"I believe Ms Rivka is in the process of putting together a press package, which will be released to all relevant parties," she heard herself say, hoping like hell Lelah would agree to this. And that the temperamental Ms Rivka wouldn't scalp her for not knowing about the nominations in the first place. "I'm sure you understand, Ms Rivka is very busy with the preparations for her next project, but we will make certain to release full details of her reaction to the nominations within the next two days."

"Thank you very much for your time."

As the dialling tone blared into her ear, Liv stared into space. How the hell had she managed to drop the ball on that one? But then, was it really so odd? Crowes hadn't even been acknowledged by the Golden Globes, and they were usually a good indicator as to what was going to happen with the Academy Awards.

Hurriedly, she tapped out a message to Lelah on her Blackberry, simultaneously dialling the number for the PR department. The ball needed to be picked up and hurled back before anyone else found out how behind the times Lelah's P.A. had let herself get.

Olivia Storm

Date: 2012-04-23 09:25 EST
April 2012

What a difference two weeks can make. Olivia had never taken so much time off for sickness in her life before, and despite being thoroughly recuperated at every opportunity by her boyfriend (and she still had to resist the urge to squeal delightedly everytime she even thought of Johnny that way), she'd begun to feel desperately guilty about being away from the studio toward the end of that time. So much so, in fact, that Lucy had finally given in and signed her as fit to return to work.

Bright and early this Monday morning - too early for most sane people, as it turned out - Liv let herself into her little office on the lot, and stared in shock at the state of her desk. The temp who had obviously been hired in her absence had been efficient, yes, but didn't seem to have gotten his head around the filing system. Still, at least Lelah hadn't been left entirely high and dry by Liv's absence - the temporary P.A.'s notes suggested that Liv herself had been outclassed.

Still, she was here now. Setting her alarm to go off when it was time to go and fetch the ritual caramel macchiato and lemon poppy-seed muffin, she turned her attention to tidying the office itself, filing away everything that had been dealt with and setting up her to-do list for the day. With any luck, no one would even notice she was back; the plan was for everything to move as smoothly as ever without even a bump to declare the changeover of staff. Notes, memos, addresses and phone numbers - these were all tapped into her brand new Blackberry, picked up from Jenny's desk on her way in where it had been waiting for her, thanks to a quick panic of a phone call on Friday. The new number for her was put into Lelah's in-tray, together with the cast and crew pay packages, which were due to be signed off and cashed.

So much to do, but not exactly unexpected. Liv couldn't help feeling torn between relief and disappointment. Relief, that she hadn't had a two week backlog of apologies and running around to do, that she hadn't been the cause of a major foul up of the studio's workings; disappointment, that she obviously wasn't as invaluable and irreplaceable as she would like to believe. Still, she was back now. Hopefully things could continue on course without a hitch from here on in.