The Road to Her (4 page)

“So you live close to here?” Elise asked, jolting me from my thoughts of her legs.

“South Bank,” I replied. “Near The Eye.”

“Nice.” Elise nodded her head approvingly. “I’m renting myself a place further up the Piccadilly line. Guess it’ll be a while before I can afford something on the South Bank, huh?” She grinned lazily at me, crossing her legs at the ankle.

“I’ve not been there long,” I mumbled, suddenly embarrassed.

“You live alone?” Elise asked. “Or with someone?”

“Alone,” I replied simply. “You?”

“Alone as well.” She paused. “No boyfriend, then?”

My face coloured, either from the question or from her sexy eyebrow—I wasn’t sure which. “No boyfriend, no,” I said lightly. “You?”

I saw Elise’s face cloud slightly. “No,” she said firmly. She thought for a moment. “Better that way, I always say,” she said.

“You think?” I asked.

“I know,” she said, hauling her legs over the side of the chair and sitting upright. “Weren’t we supposed to be going over our lines for tomorrow?”

Her sudden change in attitude surprised me, our conversation about boyfriends apparently over.

“Lines, yes,” I said, slightly flummoxed. “How do you think it went this morning, by the way?”

“I thought it was great,” Elise said slowly. “You?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m very happy with what we did.”

“Although…” Elise hesitated.

“Although?” I asked.

She looked thoughtful. “Sometimes you seemed a bit, um, stilted, y’know?”

I put my head to one side and frowned. “Really?” I laughed. “That’s a new one on me, I have to say!”

“Like, you didn’t get it.” Elise shifted in her chair.

“Didn’t get what?”

“The vibe.”

“Jasmine and Casey’s vibe, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

What the…? How had this gone from polite conversation to a criticism in ten seconds?

“Of course I get their vibe,” I said tersely. “I’m so into this storyline, you’ve no idea! I’ve known about Jasmine and Casey for ages. I’ve been living and breathing them for weeks now. I go to bed thinking about them, I wake up thinking about them.”

Elise nodded. “But sometimes this morning I thought you were a bit hesitant in the delivery of your lines,” she said carefully. “That’s all I meant.”

“Hesitant?” I heard my voice rise an octave.

“Hesitant,” Elise repeated. “But that might just be your technique, I don’t know.” She shrugged, almost dismissively.

“Well, I thought I did a good job with it, if I’m honest.” I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

Brilliant! So one minute we’re being friendly, talking about apartments and boyfriends, and the next she’s slating my acting ability. Exactly who was this girl again?

“I wasn’t being critical,” Elise said, as if reading my mind. “You asked me how I thought it went, so I told you.” She looked cautiously at me.

“You said I can’t act.” I looked at her incredulously, immediately thinking about Googling Elise again. Sod trying to find out what work she’d done—now I wanted to find some reviews of her work, and I just wanted to read the crap ones.

“No, I didn’t,” Elise said.

“Yes, you did. You said I was stilted,” I said, trying not to sound hurt.

“You were sometimes,” Elise replied bluntly. “I didn’t say you couldn’t act, though. That’s totally different.”

“And hesitant.” I cleared my throat. “You said I was hesitant.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“No one’s ever complained before,” I said, folding my arms across my chest defensively.

“What, not once in eight years?” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m not complaining, Holly.” Regret flickered across her face. “Sorry if it sounded that way.”

“How else was it supposed to sound?” I stared at her, open-mouthed.

“I just said you were a little stilted when it comes to acting opposite Casey.” Elise started inspecting her nails. “But if you say you’re not like that with other characters, then maybe it’s just Casey.” She looked at me, head to one side. “But I never said that you couldn’t act.”

“You so did!” I smiled tightly. Inside I was fuming.

“I so did not.” Elise slowly raised her eyebrow again, totally throwing me.

“And…and…as for not getting the so-called
vibe
,” I blustered, dropping my eyes, “well, I think we bounce really well off each other, to be fair.”

I wanted to let it go. I did. I just couldn’t seem to. An actor’s worst criticism is for stilted acting. I’d never—
never
—been accused of such a thing, and it stung. I paused and stared down at my feet, not wanting to make any more eye contact with her. I was unsure how to answer her now, the hurt making me tearful, and I desperately didn’t want to cry in front of Elise.

I waited for her to reply but she didn’t.

“Well, I guess I’d better go work on that, then, rather than going over tomorrow’s lines, huh?” I finally said, when it was clear she wasn’t going to respond. I lifted myself away from her sofa and made for the door, regretting that I’d even bothered to come and try to be nice to her.

Elise, to my annoyance, still didn’t reply straight away. Instead, she picked her magazine up from her lap and started flicking through it again.

“Okay,” she finally said.

Nothing else.

Just…okay.

I figured that was her way of letting me know the conversation was over, so with a final look her way, I left her room. Outside in the corridor, I wandered a little way down towards my own room, then stopped and leant against the wall, thinking about everything she’d just said.

The cheek of it! So she thought I was stilted, did she? Didn’t she realise if I was—
which I wasn’t
—then it had to be because of her. I’d never been stilted with Bella or anyone else I’d ever acted with, so then it had to be Elise’s fault, didn’t it? I clenched and unclenched my jaw, replaying our conversation, saying her words over and over. Yes, that was it. It was Elise. Her superior attitude, unfriendliness, and detachment from me, right from day one, were making any opportunity I had to connect with her virtually impossible.

I turned to return to her room to tell her just that, but something held me back.

And
hesitant
? How could she call me hesitant? What did that mean, anyway? Was she suggesting I was unsure of how to deliver my lines or that I didn’t know how to act? Of course I knew how to act!

I stared at her closed door a while longer, imagining her sitting so smugly behind it and, still bristling, quickly walked away from her dressing room and back down the corridor before I changed my mind and barged back in there to give her a piece of my mind. While I walked away from the studios, away from Elise, I vowed to myself that I would have tomorrow’s scenes so damn perfected she wouldn’t have another chance to tell me she thought I was stilted. Or hesitant. Or a bad actor.

Just who the hell did Elise bloody Manford think she was, anyway?

Chapter Four

I went straight to my dressing room when I arrived back at the studios the next day, pleased that Bella hadn’t arrived yet, and sat down at my table, looking in the mirror. I stared hard at myself—at Jasmine—suddenly dreading having to see Elise again and getting angry all over again, despite calming down overnight after giving myself another talking-to. How dare she suggest I wasn’t a good actress? She’d only been working with me for a day, and she thought she knew me well enough to be so disparaging? How
fucking
dare she.

I glared at my reflection, detesting Elise and everything about her. So she’d been in America for fifteen months? Big deal. So she was confident and beautiful? Big deal. I was the established one here, not her. I was the one who lived and breathed
PR
, not her.

How was it that someone I didn’t even know two weeks ago could have the ability to make me feel so insecure about everything, all of a sudden? Would she analyse every little detail of my acting now, trying to find fault with the way I said certain lines or the way I stood when I delivered those lines? If that wouldn’t make me hesitant, then what would?

I breathed in slowly, staring at my face looking back at me in the mirror.

Just listen to me!

What was it about her that wound me up so much?

Okay, so she was not terribly communicative, and had—I thought—so far been damned rude to me, but there was something else niggling away at me that suggested there was more to it than just that. I wished I could put my finger on it, but I couldn’t. Was I jealous of her? Did I secretly want to be just like her? Perhaps it was because she was everything I thought I wasn’t—oozing with confidence and sassiness—and didn’t appear to give a damn about anything or anyone as long as she was okay.

But, I figured, as long as Kevin and Susie and anyone else who had a say in my acting was happy, then Elise and her stupid comments could just go and bugger off. I also figured her attitude and rudeness were her lookout, not mine. We’d both had our new scripts for the coming weeks delivered to our rooms that morning, and now I was more determined than ever not to let her get to me anymore. Jasmine and Casey had to work, and so Holly and Elise had to work, too, despite all the negative feelings I had towards her.

If only it was that easy…

*

“Okay, scene four, take one.” Our director Stuart Grant pulled his pen out from behind his ear and pointed it at Elise. “And action.”

“So, Jasmine.” Elise picked up her empty prop cup and drank from it. “You up for it?”

“The gig?” I circled my finger round the edge of my own prop cup. “If you’re going, then I might go, yeah.”

“For real?” Elise looked over her cup at me. “I’d like it if you did.”

It was Wednesday; three workdays since Elise had joined us. Now here we were, filming Jasmine and Casey scenes on the set that doubled as their university, talking over coffee and offering viewers subtle hints that the pair were growing closer.

“For real,” I repeated. “Yes.” I opened my mouth to say my next line but stopped as Elise held her hand up.

“Cut.” Stuart jerked his head towards Elise. “Problem?”

“She said
yes
,” Elise said. “
Yeah
would have been better.”

“You think?” I asked, frowning.

“I do think,” Elise said. “Yeah.” She emphasised the yeah.

“Okay, from Casey’s
I’d like it if you did
, please.” Stuart made a winding motion with his hand. “Action.”

I stared at Elise and spoke my lines, adding my
yeah
without taking my eyes from hers.

“I’m glad, Jas,” Elise said, not taking her eyes from mine, either. “I like hanging out with you, you know?”

“Well that’s fortunate,” I replied, suddenly forgetting my lines. “I…I like…”

I sat back as Elise held her hand up again.

“Cut.” Stuart’s voice was quiet. “
Fortunate
, Holly?”

“No one says fortunate unless they want to sound like the Queen.” Elise leant back and ran her hands through her hair. “The line was
That’s awesome. I like hanging out with you, too
.”

“I know what the line was,” I said. “I just had a mental block.”

“So try to unblock it,” she offered unhelpfully. She leant over the table towards me. “And maybe when Jasmine’s talking to Casey, she could maintain a bit more eye contact.”

“I thought I just was.”

“Only briefly,” Elise said. “I think there needs to be more eye contact throughout, to be honest.”

“Okay,” I replied sarcastically. “Anything else, while we’re at it?”

“Maybe lighten up a little.” Elise shrugged. “Jasmine
is
supposed to fancy Casey, after all. It’s not all coming from Casey by now.”

“From Casey’s last line, please.” Stuart tapped his pen on his clipboard. “Say your line, Holly, then push your plate over to offer Casey the fries.”

On my cue, I delivered my line perfectly, pushing my plate over towards Elise until Stuart indicated that the scene had been shot successfully.

“Okay, that’s a wrap, thank you, ladies.” He grabbed his portfolio and gestured to Louis, his assistant, to follow him from this set to the next one. “Back just after lunch, please,” he called to Elise and me over his shoulder as he left. “If we could get the kitchen scenes filmed before the day’s out, that would be good.”

I jerked my head in acknowledgement, but my heart sank. An afternoon full of scenes with Elise didn’t exactly fill me with excited anticipation, especially after all of that.

With Stuart gone and everyone else on set dispersing, I got up from the table and walked away, brushing past Elise on my way out, bristling with irritation and indignation.

“That took longer than I thought it would,” Elise said breezily, following me as I headed for the door to the main corridor.

Without answering, I yanked the door open, not bothering to hold it open for Elise. I got a certain satisfaction at hearing it close and open again a second later, knowing that I’d achieved my goal of letting it shut in her face.

I’d been nothing but nice to her all morning, despite still being annoyed with her for Monday’s comments, but all she seemed to want to do was bring me down. I’d had enough of it—and of her.

I headed down the corridor towards the canteen for lunch, just wanting to get away from her. I was aware of Elise’s footsteps just behind me and tried to speed up, but however fast I walked, she just kept walking right behind me.

“Something bothering you, Holly?” Elise’s voice rang out down the corridor.

“Really? You think?” I said over my shoulder, turning the corner and practically smashing my way through the fire door that separated corridors. Again, I didn’t bother holding the door open for Elise, and yes, again I was pleased when I heard it slam and immediately open again.

“Wanna talk about it?” Elise was still behind me.

“Nope.”

“I think we should.”

I stopped in the middle of the corridor and swung round to face her. “Okay. Did you have to be so condescending?” I hissed.