I grabbed two coffees, my third of the day, and made my way back to Gem. The caffeine palpitations, combined with my general level of excitement, had me very much on the edge.
‘Hiiiii,’ I said, turning the handle with my elbow. ‘I’m back and ready to go!’
‘Ah, brilliant.’ Gem took her coffee with a grateful smile and shut the door. ‘OK, so we’ve got three in for the awards ceremony – Eva and two of her close friends – and this year it’s a masked ball, so we’ll be building individual masks from scratch and layering them on with make-up. The way Faye and I normally do it, is that I work on the client, and she grabs whatever I need as I need it. Then once I’m finished, she takes them through to wardrobe and does any little touch-ups, while I prep for the next person. There will be a constant stream of runners waiting to help us and I’ll walk Eva to the stage area myself in case she needs any tweaks between here and there. Does that sound good?’
‘Perfect. Like a beautiful Hollywood conveyor belt.’
‘If it goes well, yes. A very slow conveyor belt.’ Gem looked dubious. ‘Look, we haven’t worked together before, but you came highly recommended, so I’m hoping we’ll get into a flow quite quickly. Faye had a family emergency, which is why you’re only here for the tail end of the week. Sorry that it’s such a weird booking.’
‘Not at all – I’m just happy to be here. Honestly, I’m a quick learner and will work in whatever way works best for you.’
Gem nodded. ‘We have Eva in at twelve, so we’ve got a good hour to run through everything. Each of the stars will have two hours in make-up and an hour in wardrobe, which is through there.’ She lifted a curtain and there was a whole other section full of outfits – the rail of sparkles that was in the make-up room earlier had been wheeled in and a tall man with tiny dreadlocks was stood next to it, steaming a silk dress. He stopped and gave me a wave.
‘Benji – Abi,’ Gem said, introducing us. ‘Abi – Benji. Abi is assisting me today.’
‘Welcome to the team,’ Benji said, warmly.
‘Hi,’ I said, trying to stay focused. This wasunbelievable.I must not screw this up. I must not screw this up.I put my coffee down on the table. I did not need any more caffeine.
‘Benji is wardrobe for the three of them. You’ll be an extra pair of hands for him, as well as helping me.’ Gem dropped the curtain and I followed her back into make-up. ‘I’ll quickly talk you through my kit, so you know what goes where and how I do things.’
‘Great!’ I said, cheerily.
‘And just ask me anything as we go, OK?’
‘OK.’
Gem looked like a golden pixie under the lights, the sequins on her jumpsuit throwing out sparkles on the black curtains. She handed me an apron withTeam GAdiscreetly stitched into the top, and a feeling of pure pride swelled up inside me as I put it on. I’d always wanted to play Goal Attack in the netball team, but Holly always got it – and look at me now – an entirely different GA on a whole other level.
‘Thank you so much for having me here, Gem. I don’t want to be too gushing, but I’ve always been such a huge fan of your work. The prosthetics onAlien Attackwere some of the best I’ve ever seen. You totally deserved the Oscar.’
‘You’re very kind to say,’ Gem smiled, delighted.
‘I’m just so pleased to have the opportunity to work with you – especially after the mix-up onMoonmen.’
‘Moonmen…?’ Gem frowned. ‘I’ve not heard of that one – is it a film?’
‘Yes,’ I said, confused. ‘I thought you were working on it too. In London, last month?’
She shook her head. ‘Not me. I was in Australia for most of last month.’ I was starting to look like an idiot.
‘Right…’ I nodded, not sure what was going on. ‘I’d assumed Blake Thomas had recommended me for this job,’ I said, slowly. ‘FromMoonmen,’ I added, by way of explanation.
‘Sorry, no – I’ve not heard of him either,’ she said. ‘Oh, maybe I have… isn’t he the cowboy inOutlaws?’
‘Yeah, that’s the one,’ I said, shuddering at the thought of him.
‘I heard something aboutOutlawsthe other day, now you mention it. I can’t think what it was now… Blake… Thomas…’ Gem closed her eyes to summon the thought. ‘No. It’s gone.’
‘No worries, I must have misunderstood.’ Well, either I had, or Phoebe had. Someone had. My mind was a flurry of thoughts, but I didn’t have time to untangle them. Today I had to concentrate like never before and be the best possible version of my work self. The ultimate assistant for Gem. Today was a signature moment in my life and I planned to enjoy every single second of it. I sat down and Gem patiently talked me through each layer of her make-up stack. What she used and what went where, so I could grab things for her while she worked. I nodded, making notes as she went from drawer to drawer, pointing out the creams, pens, gels and sparkles. It was both similar and different to mine, with a lot of American brands in her armoury that I’d heard of, but never used.
‘So, now you know what I use and where everything is, let’s go through the client list,’ Gem said, taking a brown leather book from the table and holding it up so I could see. It was full of photos in plastic wallets. ‘First up, we have Eva Mavareaux, my star client, who needs no introduction – in fact, none of the stars we’ll be working on today do. Eva goes for a very natural skin tone, with a dark eye, lots of eyelashes and a neutral lip. Her mask will be three different shades of green to match her gown, and I’ll be using peacock feathers. The sketches for all three masks are over there on the table.’
I nodded, eyes shining, as she flicked to the next page.
‘Next up, Rosie Ganlon, the Irish actress. Ivory skin, green eyes, her colour palette is browns and golds, and she likes bright, glowing skin for the cameras. She wants an animal mask – a panther – and is bringing yellow contact lenses with her. I’ve got a few different options for the ears, which we can look at. Top shelf of the cupboard.’
‘Very cool,’ I said, trying to imagine the steps to do panther ears under pressure. I couldn’t wait to watch Gem in action.
