Samantha
The motel swimming pool was a small kidney-shaped area surrounded by plastic sunloungers and a row of wilted palm trees in terracotta pots. Without any other guests using the area, Lizzie, Jaddi and Ben had taken over. Six sunloungers had been dragged together, three in the patchy shade of the trees, and three in the sun. Towels, T-shirts, sun lotion and magazines were strewn across them.
‘You’re not going to believe this,’ Samantha said, shielding her eyes from the sun as she dropped onto the lounger beside Jaddi. Ben climbed out of the pool and joined them.
Jaddi and Lizzie sat up.
‘What?’ Jaddi asked.
‘Caroline’s here,’ she hissed, glancing around the pool area for any sign of the producer.
‘Really? Where?’ Lizzie looked behind her.
‘In the motel, a second ago. She just knocked on my door looking for Ben.’
‘Ah,’ Ben said, pulling a face and reaching for his towel.
‘What does that mean? “Ah,”’ Lizzie mocked. ‘Have you been keeping something from us?’ she asked, throwing her flip-flop at him.
‘Ouch,’ he said, before picking up Lizzie’s flip-flop and throwing it into the pool.
‘You deserved that.’
‘You haven’t answered my question. If you know something, you have to tell us.’
Ben laughed and shook his head. ‘I’m sworn to secrecy.’
‘Hi, girls.’ Caroline grinned as she stepped between the plants and stood in front of them.
Two men holding cameras the same as Ben’s, and a man holding a microphone, which looked like a dead squirrel on a stick, appeared from the other side of the pool.
‘Hey, Caroline.’ Jaddi said. ‘What brings you to sunny LA?’
‘Well …’ Caroline paused and looked at Ben. ‘We have something very exciting to share with you, don’t we, Ben?’
Ben lifted his shoulders in a ‘don’t look at me’ gesture before dropping down beside Lizzie at the end of her sunlounger.
‘Channel 6 has arranged a huge surprise for the three of you in … Las Vegas!’ Caroline’s voice rose and she lifted her hands in the air. ‘You’ll need to pack your things and be down in reception in twenty minutes, where a limousine is waiting to take us all to a private airfield.’
Caroline deflated like a lilo left in the sun as they stared unfazed by her revelation. Samantha glanced at the others. Las Vegas? It wasn’t on their original itinerary. Why did she have the feeling that this wouldn’t be good?
Lizzie looked first to the cameramen, then Caroline and finally Ben. ‘Why aren’t you filming? Have you been fired?’
He opened his mouth to reply but Caroline spoke first. ‘Of course not. Ben has been working super hard over the past two months and we wanted to give him a break. He’ll still be joining you, and filming the sunsets, but let me introduce you to Sandy, Bill and Will,’ she pointed towards the new film crew, ‘who’ll be filming all of you for the next couple of days. Oh, and more good news for you, I’m sure – you won’t need to wear your microphone packs for the weekend, thanks to Bill and his blimp.’ She pointed at the dead squirrel.
‘Are you OK with this?’ Lizzie said, her eyes fixing on Ben.
‘A break from lugging the camera around will be nice.’ He rubbed his hand against his right shoulder. ‘As long as you don’t mind me tagging along?’
The frown on Lizzie’s face disappeared. ‘You’re a bit like a bad haircut, Ben. Annoying, but you get used to it.’
‘Thanks, Lizzie. You know how to make a guy feel welcome.’
‘Any time.’ She grinned.
Samantha glanced at Caroline and watched the uncontained glee spread across her face. Why did Samantha get the impression that the new camera crew were here for more than just giving Ben a break? Jaddi had shown Samantha the articles speculating a romance between Ben and Lizzie, and she had to admit, the pair were getting on well, but a relationship? Samantha wasn’t so sure. What was Caroline up to?
‘That settles it, then.’ Caroline clapped her hands together. ‘Let’s get moving.’
Samantha fought to contain the smirk twitching on her face as they remained seated.
‘Did you say twenty minutes?’ Lizzie flopped back onto the sunlounger and closed her eyes.
Caroline stood for another moment. ‘Right, well, I’ll see you out the front then.’ She stepped away and walked in the direction of the motel lobby, her heels clicking on the paving stones.
Only when she was out of earshot did Jaddi burst out laughing. ‘Lizzie, you’re too cruel.’
Lizzie grinned and sat up. ‘She makes it so easy though.’
‘What if we don’t want to go to Las Vegas?’ Samantha said. ‘It wasn’t on our original list.’
‘It’ll be great,’ Jaddi said. ‘Plus, I don’t think we’ve got a choice, so we might as well enjoy ourselves.’
Samantha stood up, casting a shadow over Lizzie. ‘What do you think, Lizzie?’
‘Um, not sure. I feel better knowing that Ben’s in on, whatever it is.’
They all turned once again to look at Ben.
Ben stood up and held his hands up in surrender. ‘I’m sworn to secrecy, so don’t even think about asking me. All I can say is that you’ll like it, I promise.’
‘Come on then,’ Jaddi said. ‘I’m sure they’ve got sunloungers at the motel in Vegas.’