At twenty-seven, YouTube sensation Ben Leonards is married to his work. If he's not whipping up lasagna with a side of science experiments, he's running statistical analysis of bitcoin during explosive behavior periods.
When a friend asks him to org...
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"Is it possible for me to take two days off?" I pace in the kitchen, my phone to my ear.
"Next week?" asks Jaimie.
"This week."
"When?"
"The next two days."
"Oh." She pauses. "Is everything OK, Ben? Is there an emergency?" Her voice gets high-pitched, which tells me she's worried.
"Everything is OK. No emergency. Mo Ballerini wants us to film the episode."
"Hold on. What are we talking about?" She's back to her normal register.
"My video channel."
"Can't you do it on the weekend, like you always do?"
"No. He's in town the next two days. He can do it then, or the next time will be after Christmas. It's a great opportunity."
"Ben," she says, and even over the phone I recognize that as not a friendly tone of voice. It's the one she uses to reprimand people. "If you don't want to work for the company anymore, I understand. But I can't give you special treatment. I'm not your friend right now. I'm your boss and your last-minute change of plans will put a very important investment deal under unnecessary scrutiny for our client. Produce the risk assessment by the end of day Thursday and be here for the meeting with them on Friday. As long as you can deliver that, you know, I don't care what hours you work."
Not taking two days off then. I will have to do sixteen hours of work in addition to whatever time the filming takes. No gym. No cleaning. No dojang. No normal routine. It's two days. I can do two days.
***
"The light over there is too blue, let's make sure the food still looks good and add another reflector to the left side." The lighting guy tells me. Mo brought a lighting guy with him. And two camera operators. And a makeup artist. And Mo's personal assistant.
The contract with Mo Ballerini's company said one episode. It also said it would be recorded on a day that is mutually convenient for both parties at a mutually conviniet location. Both were untrue. The contract also didn't specify that Mo would turn my kitchen into a movie set.
"Let's move these vegetables off the counter." Mo motions to the mis-en-place for the Garganelli al Ragù Bolognese. I got out the pasta roller, the wooden dowel and my gnocchi board for the Garganelli. I also had every ingredient from Amelie's grandmother's recipe layed out and prepped. Amelie gave me the affirmative answer when I asked her to let me use it, but she didn't sound happy when I asked her permission to cook it without her.
Mo's assistant carries in a crate and exchanges what I have with their items. No one asks me. The people I haven't even been introduced to swarm the island. I'm a stranger in my kitchen and Mo's the queen bee in charge. Not what I was expecting from a guest on my channel.
