Laying Low in Hollywood by Jean Marie Stanberry Read Free Book Online

air.
     
       “Excellent!” cried Jorge, standing and shaking my hand.  “Oh, I forgot to tell you, if your team wins, you get a bonus!” he said, smiling at me.
     
       I gave him a weak smile in return.  I couldn’t get too excited about a bonus yet.  Especially, when I had no idea what my “team” would be like.  I truly had no idea who any of these people were.
     
       Jorge and I went to work signing contracts and working out details.  I would fly home to Colorado Springs to tie up loose ends there, then I would return to Los Angeles in five weeks to begin my new project.  As exciting as all this seemed, I was scared.  Justin had been right.  Thi s wa s something out of my comfort zone.

 
                                        CHAPTER 6
     
     
       In the weeks before I arrived, I had been worrying about my upcoming move to Los Angeles.  For the next, more than four months of my life, I would be stuck in Los Angeles, where I essentially knew no one, with the exception of Jorge, and the few other network executives I had met.
     
       I was worried about lots of things, where I would stay, how I would get around.  Luckily my worries had been for nothing, the network had taken care of everything.  They had provided me with a very nice condo not far from the studio, and a rental car, a stunning red convertible.  I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.  I was quite pleased that I was being so spoiled.
     
       It wasn’t until I was introduced to my “team”, that I began to have second thoughts about this entire fiasco.  When I met my “team” it was obvious that I would have my work cut out for me.  I realized that every show had an angle, and unfortunately, I was feeling like I was the butt of a huge joke that the network had constructed at my expense.  As soon as I met my team, I was convinced that the angle for this reality series would be that, my couple was pretty much a hopeless cause!
     
       The couple I had been assigned to work with, who had supposedly been assigned to me completely at random, seemed more like fodder for a situation comedy than an athletic competition!  I suddenly had my doubts that this pair had truly been assigned to me randomly, and I was feeling a bit set up.  I feared the network executives were all secretly snickering at me, as I met my team.  It just seemed to me, that my team was destined to be the long shot of the entire competition.
     
       My athlete was retired football star, Ron Brannon.  I didn’t really follow football at all, but Jorge told me that Ron had been a star quarterback, a fan favorite, and Jorge was quite pleased to have recruited him.  I, on the other hand, wasn’t as excited about his presence as Jorge was.  Just looking at this man, I had serious doubts that I could ever teach him to skate.  I couldn’t get that old saying out of my head.  “The bigger they are, the harder they fall”.
     
       Ron Brannon definitely looked like a football player, he   was huge!  He was tall, probably six foot three or six foot four, and he was a broad shouldered, mass of muscle.  I wasn’t sure how old he was, but I was guessing that he was probably close to forty, and he walked with a bit of a limp, apparently, from an old hip injury, he had sustained on the football field. 
     
       I was grimacing at the very thought of this man getting on the ice, I worried that he would most likely finish off his hip the first time out on the ice.  I was looking around the room at the rest of the producers, biting my lower lip anxiously, waiting for someone to tell me that this was a huge joke.
     
       Regrettably, the punch line never came.  No one burst into laughter and told me this was a joke, like I had hoped.  Jorge was gushing on and on about how fabulous Ron Brannon was, and how he was going to grab spectacular ratings for the show. 
     
       I sighed miserably, of