Always Fraser by A. Steel (electronic reader .txt) 📕

Then last year our host announced she was pregnant and taking two years off. That was when Bridget started (aka the Dragon by the rest of our team). It's been downhill ever since. She's demanding, unorganised, and won't lift a pretty manicured finger to help with anything. I can't even count the number of times I’ve had to work through the night to play catch-up because of her. She's all about having the perfect face for TV. While the rest of us do all the work, she claims to have done it as the face of the show.

For the last few months, I’ve been fantasising about starting up my own interior styling business. I’ve been squirreling away any extra pay I have left at the end of the week, hoping that maybe in 12 months I’ll have enough to go out on my own. If I have to do all the work, I might as well be getting the credit for it.

I get to work examining our design brief and sketching up the drafts for our next project. It’s a four-bedroom, one-bathroom house in the country. The house looks quite quaint from the outside, but it’s majorly run down. Our team will have to work our magic on the interior and exterior to get it ready for sale. It's going to need a paint job throughout and a new kitchen and bathroom, then furnishings to style. Not a massive job for us, but still big enough that I need to be organised. Luckily, I have three weeks to plan and prepare for it.

Janie, my design assistant pops her head around my cubical, and she looks worried. "Elly."

"Yes, Janie? What are you hiding?”

She dumps a massive pile of tile samples on my desk. “The Dragon wants you to ring around and find the best price for one of these samples for the Roberts’ reno. We're on a tight budget and it needs to be ordered by 3pm today. They have moved our next show forward to next week. I'm so sorry, Elly, I will help however I can."

I glance at my watch. It’s 1pm now. Shit, there is no way we’re going to get this all done. I’m sure she could have had me ring around this morning when I asked what was on for today. As if she just found out now that they moved the job. But of course, this morning she was more interested in starting the day ripping into us for our bad ratings.

“Thanks, Janie,” I grumble, feeling defeated already.

She offers me a sympathetic smile before returning to her desk in the cubicle next to mine. Her long strawberry blonde ponytail bouncing as she walks. Janie's still young, she came to us fresh out of design school at the beginning of the year. But she has an amazing work ethic. I don't know what I would do without her. Her bubbly, enthusiastic personality gets me through the never-ending demands we have thrown our way.

My phone buzzes and Jessie's name lights up the screen.

“Hey, babe,” I answer excitedly. I needed to hear his voice; he will change this shitty mood I'm in.

“Hey, Elly, just checking what time you're going to be home for dinner. I can get it started if you like?”

“Think you're going to have to eat without me. We have a job that’s been moved forward to next week now. I’m really behind. I have no idea what time I’ll be home.”

“Don’t worry about it, baby. It's your job, it's important. What days will you be away?”

“It’s the whole week, Sunday till Sunday. Shit, I just remembered we have our anniversary next week and you said you had something special planned. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, we can do something for that the following week, I can move things around. I’ll have something for you to heat up when you get home. Oh, and the car repair guy has dropped in to check out what was wrong with your car. You just needed a new battery, so it's back up and running now.”

"Thanks, I don't know what I'd do without you!" The smile returns to my face, knowing no matter how shitty my day is, I have him to go home to tonight.

“See you later. Love you.”

“Love you too. I’ll message when I’m leaving.”

I don’t know what I would do without him. He’s such a thoughtful man. Always calling to check on me. I met Jessie the first week that I moved to Sydney to study. It started as a one-night stand. I was trying to get over someone else. I guess you could say, he was my rebound. But I'm not really the kind of girl who does the whole one-night-stand thing, not well, anyway... so within weeks we were dating. We have been inseparable ever since. Next week is our sixth anniversary.

A year ago, he proposed and we're getting married in three months. I’m so excited for the wedding. It’s going to be on the beach in my hometown, Byron Bay, and I’m actually taking a month off work. I don’t know what I’m more excited about, the wedding or the time away from this dungeon! Stop daydreaming about the wedding, Elly, we have a list of suppliers to start ringing.

I hang up the phone from the last tile supplier and take a deep breath. “I need coffee if I’m going to get through this afternoon—you want one?” I call out to Janie.

“Sure, thanks, Elly,” she answers, not stopping to look up from her computer.

I retreat to the break room and make two cups of coffee, inhaling the aroma as I take my first sip. God it smells good. Life is better again. Okay, Elena, you’ve got this. Smash out the rest of today's jobs as quickly as possible and get home to your man.

I hustle over to Janie’s desk with her coffee and renewed determination to smash this job out. She's not at her desk so I leave her coffee