Assisting Amber (female, for Likesn) part 1/2.

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

Okay, so here’s the deal. I got started on one story that ended up not working, so I had to go back and write something else. And the story worked against me. And then, when it started working for me, it decided it wanted to be way bigger than I had planned for it to be, and now I have tried like an idiot to shorten it down so I can finish it before tomorrow when NaNoWriMo starts and I have to focus on that story.

But this story doesn’t want to be shortened down.  

So here is what I’m going to do. I shall present to you part 1. And once I’m finished with my NaNoWriMo project, I will wrap up and post part 2 of this story. It’s a really weird way of doing it, I know, and I can only blame my muse for poor cooperation and myself for being the world’s worst planner.  

Here's part 1 of your fic, @Likesn! At long last! I hope you'll enjoy it, and there is obviously more to come.  

***

 

“HehGNtSh!!”

Oh no. No, no, no!

Robin pressed her hand against her mouth, almost as if she was trying to push the sneeze back in. Up until now, she had managed to tell herself that the headache and that rundown feeling was only due to stress. Being the personal assistant to one of the most prolific Hollywood actresses of today, God knew stress was part of the job.

She wanted so badly to blame the sneeze, and the subsequent congestion, on allergies, but the only problem was that she didn’t have allergies. True, you could get them at any time, and that would explain the scratchy sensation in her throat as well, but..

“Heh-ISSCHew! Aah-ISSHH!”

This double came too sudden and was too powerful for her to even consider stifling, and she caught the wet spray in her cupped hands, knowing perfectly well that if she had a cold she should do everything she could to limit the risks of contagion, but it was an automatic reaction.

No, she couldn’t afford to lie to herself; this was a cold. This was definitely a cold. And one of the most ill-timed colds in history, or at least in her life, because the day after tomorrow, her boss was going to start filming a new movie, which meant Robin would be on her feet for the same ungodly working hours.

It also meant that if she got Amber sick, there would be hell to pay.

There were worse celebrities to work for, she’d heard some real horror stories from other assistants in the know, but Amber sure wasn’t a piece of cake. She didn’t have too crazy demands, and she didn’t fire employees left and right in sudden fits of rage over stupid things like a straw bent the wrong way in her smoothie, but she could be moody as hell when she was stressed. And a new project or a big event always got her stress levels spiking. If she even suspected that her assistant had turned into a plague-carrier, she would be a bitch about it.

It’s alright, I can hide it. I can. If I get plenty of sleep tonight, drink lots of water, and take lots of cold meds, I might even be able to quell it before it really blossoms.

“HA-ISSSHHHoo!”

Her irritated, streaming nose seemed to beg to disagree, and instead of calming down, it unleashed a helpless, messy fit, capturing every spraying outburst into both hands.

“HeeISSHH! AiSSHHOo! Huhh… ahhh… ahh-ISSSHHew!”

Oh God, she feared this was going to be more of an acting challenge than what Amber did for a living.

***

Amber frowned when she caught sight of Robin that morning, and the assistant just knew that despite her heroic efforts of concealing the tell-tale signs of illness on her face with makeup, they were still visible. But Amber didn’t say anything, and that was a very good thing, because Robin was so busy trying to hold back a sneeze that she wouldn’t have been able to reply.

Amber held out her hand, and Robin gave her the cup of skimmed latte that she had picked up on her way to work, just like she did every morning. Amber took a sip and then turned around, to look at something on her phone. Robin took advantage of the moment to rub her itchy, reddening nose, a quick, insufficient rub that left her longing for more. God, she had to sneeze so badly. It felt like she was being tickled with a long, fluffy feather, down the whole length of her nose, around her quivering nostrils…

Don’t sneeze, she ordered herself silently. Just don’t. Not around Amber.

Oh, but the tickle was irresistible, she really, really wanted to give in to it, if only to make this itchy torture stop! Her heart sank when she remembered that she would be stuck on a plane with Amber the whole morning. No chance of escaping out of earshot and give in to a couple of increasingly messy sneezes or discreetly blow her nose.

The prickle in her nose only got worse, and holding in the building sneeze made her eyes water, but she was not going to…

She had to.

She quickly got a hand up to her face and pinched her nose, stifling two sneezes that gave her very little relief.

“HNNGThh! Huh-GNXT!”

“Bless you. Is everything ready for the trip?”

Amber sounded indifferent, not as if the sudden sneezes had her concerned in any way. Robin couldn’t remember if she had ever sneezed around Amber before, but she felt like she must have. She had only worked for her for about six months, but it was pretty intense work, she was almost always in Amber’s vicinity. But everybody sneezed once in a while, if she did everything she could not to look and sound like the protagonist in a cold medicine commercial for this trip, Amber would surely chalk it up to chance.

“Robin!” Amber’s indifference had morphed into slight annoyance, and Robin bounced back to reality.

“I was just mentally recapping,” she said calmly, and was in fact a bit impressed by her own regaining of composure. “Yes, everything is ready,” she reassured her boss. “A car will come and pick us up and drive us to the airport any minute now.”

She heaved an inner sigh of relief at the sound of her own voice – it wasn’t as stuffy-sounding as she had feared. Maybe there was a tiny hint of congestion, but nothing you’d notice if your mind was preoccupied with more important issues.

Amber sighed.

“I hate these on location-filming. We have perfectly good studios in L.A, why do they bother sending us to some God-forgotten backwater forest state?”

Because the movie takes place in a forest, and the director is known for wanting authenticity? Robin thought, but of course she didn’t say it out loud. Not only was this a very bad time to ruffle Amber’s feathers, but she didn’t trust her sore throat and congested nose to stay in check much longer. The cold meds she had downed before leaving home worked wonders, but the effect didn’t last forever.

She simply shrugged, and Amber seemed content with this as a reply.

The car arrived, they got in, and headed for the airport. Amber deep in thought, and Robin caught in a desperate wrestle with a looming sneeze. She had a feeling that so far, the cold was just toying with her, but any moment now, it was going to show its true colours. And she could only imagine them to be every shade of red, from inflamed bright red nostrils to a pink fever flush on her cheeks.

This was going to be the trip of hell.

***

Amber shivered as they left the plane.

“It’s so chilly here,” she muttered. It was the cue for Robin to find her a warm jacket or something, but the assistant herself felt like she was burning up.

“It’s alright, I’ll just freeze to death, take your time,” Amber said in an acid tone of sarcasm as Robin sluggishly moved to get that jacket. She didn’t bother replying; this was Amber going into her spikes-outwards stress mode.

While Robin rummaged through the luggage – she was usually so much more efficient than today, but this cold really didn’t help her focus – a bunch of fans approached Amber asking for autographs and taking selfies with her, and Robin sent a grateful thought to them for distracting her boss. Amber never took her bad mood out on her fans, so that was something that spoke in her favour, at least.

“Where’s the fucking jacket…?” Robin muttered to herself, then found it. Unfortunately, the sneezy tickle found her at that exact same moment, and with no chance of holding it back, covering, or even turning away, the sneeze came barrelling out of her – and sprayed the collar of Amber’s jacket.

Shit.

It wasn’t too visible, as the fabric absorbed the droplets fast, but oh God, she had just sneezed on her boss’s clothes!

“Robin!”

The melodic voice sounded soft enough, but there was a shrapnel of annoyance hidden within.

And that boss wanted her clothes. Now.

Please don’t get sick from my germs, Robin thought, but her rational mind told her that it was almost inevitable at this point. As much as she had tried to be discreet, she had been sniffling, blowing her nose, and stifled sneezes the entire trip. She wasn’t coughing yet, but her throat felt more and more sore, so that was only a matter of time. The only reason Amber hadn’t noticed her assistant’s discreet but frequent succumbing to the ravaging cold virus was because she had spent the whole trip listening to music, eyes closed, focused inwardly the way she always did when she prepared to get into character.

Eyeing the jacket critically, then finally deciding that the spray at least wasn’t visible any longer, although it was probably teeming with unseen viruses, Robin took it and handed it over to Amber.

“Thank you,” she said, putting it on, and then waved to her fans as she and Robin made their way to the waiting car. Robin looked back at the crowd of fans and saw several of the young women with pinkish or reddish noses, praying it was allergies but almost certain they were the results of colds. She hoped Amber hadn’t been doing her hug-and-take-selfie routine with any of the sick ladies, but then again… that hardly mattered when the actress now sat less than ten inches away from her undeniably cold-ridden assistant and all her germs.

“Your schedule whed arriving to the hotel was to visit a dearby rose garded…” Robin began, but had to get her arm up and sneeze heavily into the crook of her arm, unable to completely stifle her sneezes anymore. “Huh-mpTSCHuh! Heh-ISSHHuh!” The tickle returned, not at all appeased, and she buried her face even deeper into her sleeve to keep the next flurry of sneezes contained. “NkTSH! NktSSHH! TSSHoo! HaaMPTsshhoo!”

When she was finally able to straighten up and blink away a couple of tears, Amber was watching her with a strange look on her beautiful face.

“Bless you. I really hope that’s not something contagious.”

“Doh,” Robin lied, horrified to hear how stuffed up she sounded. “It’s just allergies. I forgot by adtihistabides today.”

Amber seemed to measure her with her eyes, lips pursing as she really took in the miserable appearance of her assistant.

“Take one of mine. You know where they are. I can’t have you following me around looking like a train wreck.”

Train wreck was a pretty accurate description for how Robin felt; no matter how much she had been sneezing, she still felt like she had to sneeze again. And she felt feverish and exhausted and wanted nothing but to collapse in a soft bed with warm blankets. Maybe having a cup of steaming hot tea, as well.

“I’m going to skip the rose garden, it’s just a thinly veiled promo thing anyway, and I have a monster headache. I want you to get me some painkillers and some bottled Pellegrino, and then I’m going to rest this afternoon. After you’re fetched me that, you can take the rest of the day off. I’ll expect you to come and fetch me at 6 am tomorrow.”

Grateful for this streak of luck, Robin did what she was told, and then went to find her own hotel room, sneezing over and over again as she went through the hotel corridors. In the depths of her own personal misery, she hadn’t even reflected over Amber being chilled, followed by a headache, but that had been exactly the way her own cold had started to make itself known. Robin had likely infected Amber even before her own symptoms started to show, maybe that morning when she had accidentally taken a sip from Amber’s coffee instead of her own, but whenever the moment of contagion had happened, wasn’t important.

Amber was getting sick, too.

[MzMental]

This is wonderful! I love how they interact with one another, and your writing style is superb! Good luck on your NaNoWriMo! Can't wait for part 2. 

[Likesn]

This........this is just fantastic!! The concept, the characters, the dialog, the plot, it's all absolutely wonderful! I feel like there isn't much more for me to write about this story, other than, of course- thank you!!!! This is really terrific, and I can definitely see why it doesn't want to be shortened down. If you ask me- it's absolutely right about that, because I think this is only the beginning of something outstanding. Good luck on your coming project, and I'll be patiently (though very eagerly) waiting for this to continue

[Chanel_no5]

20 hours ago, MzMental said:

This is wonderful! I love how they interact with one another, and your writing style is superb! Good luck on your NaNoWriMo! Can't wait for part 2. 

Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for the good luck-wishes. I sure could need them.  

16 hours ago, Likesn said:

This........this is just fantastic!! The concept, the characters, the dialog, the plot, it's all absolutely wonderful! I feel like there isn't much more for me to write about this story, other than, of course- thank you!!!! This is really terrific, and I can definitely see why it doesn't want to be shortened down. If you ask me- it's absolutely right about that, because I think this is only the beginning of something outstanding. Good luck on your coming project, and I'll be patiently (though very eagerly) waiting for this to continue

I am SO happy you liked it! I felt bad for first coming in last, and then with a two-parter, but there was no shortening this down. We've only explored ONE cold-ridden mess so far, that's not good enough, huh??  

Thank you, and I hope you'll enjoy part 2 just as much!  

 

[macrotwentytwo]

Love the start of this! 

I hope they don't have time to get any rest and have to interact closely with a bunch of people while being so sick and contagious.  It would suck to have to do interviews, go to meetings with executives, meeting fans (passing pens for signatures and phones for pictures back and forth and having hands full so you can't cover while leaning in towards each other), go to events (shake hands with everyone), go to parties (while walking around with drunk messy, careless colds) and coughing/sneezing all over everything.  It would suck if her assistant used up all the tissues first so Amber was only left with her hands.  Thanks for all the awesome ideas!

[NoV]

On 10/31/2018 at 11:49 AM, Chanel_no5 said:

Her irritated, streaming nose seemed to beg to disagree, and instead of calming down, it unleashed a helpless, messy fit, capturing every spraying outburst into both hands.

 

 

“HeeISSHH! AiSSHHOo! Huhh… ahhh… ahh-ISSSHHew!”

 Up yo your usual high standard Chanel - I look forwards to reading part two. Maybe it's the season, but contagion is doing it for me right now  

[SneezeloveronGirls]

I can't wait for Amber to get sick and see what happens next.

[RedVelvetHeart]

I love this story! I love the dynamic between the two women, can't wait to see what happens next!

[macrotwentytwo]

hoping for an update soon!