Grace farewelled her mother with a promise that she’d call again the following day. After their chat, Grace ached, missing her daughter’s little arms hugging her. But now that the project was well and truly under way, she hoped she could get an advance from MGI, and set the wheels in motion to fly Tina and Daisy to Bali.

*

‘Bali is perfect for the camera, isn’t it?’ Grace said to Steve when they were packing up after the early morning shoot. ‘The colours, the flowers and the temple offerings. Every scene you shot looked like a vivid still-life painting.’

Steve smiled at her. ‘Sure is, and the light’s great too.’ He closed the last of the camera bags. ‘Do you want to come back to my place and we’ll check we have everything planned for the filming this evening?’

At first light they’d been at the open-air food and flower markets as the vendors had set out baskets piled high with produce and plants before the first customers arrived. The Kamasan’s sous chef and an assistant had carefully chosen only the freshest produce to take back to the hotel’s kitchens. Grace knew that the chef and his team sourced special ingredients from the best producers from the area, or had them flown in as needed: fresh truffles, Australian seafood, New Zealand lamb. But most of the food was local or grown in the produce gardens at the Kamasan, which would also be a part of this particular video segment.

Mateo and Kadek, from the local production crew, were already at Steve’s place when he and Grace arrived. They were having coffee and bonding with Henry as tightknit and committed film crews did. Steve had once told Grace that he found each shoot a bit like a marriage or an intense affair for the duration of the job. The crew lived in each other’s pockets, dealing with the same dramas, highs and lows, each long day.

Steve cleared a place for Grace at the table crowded with papers, photos, diagrams and iPads. She greeted everyone and sat down. They were working on the series of vignettes that would be released weekly, leading up to the opening of the Kamasan, which focused on the key people who would be working there. And there were plenty of interesting stories to choose from.