Part 7 (1/2)
”You don't mind all the rumours going round about us, then?” I asked, wanting to move the subject away from Robbie. I got up from the sofa and wandered towards the kitchen. ”Coffee?”
”Nope,” Elise replied, getting up and following me, her feet padding softly on the carpet. ”But yes to coffee.” She leant against the breakfast bar and watched as I fetched mugs and coffee, then filled the coffee machine and flicked the switch on the side of it. ”Like I'd be dumb enough to date a co-star anyway,” she said. ”Let alone a girl.”
One of the mugs slipped from my hand as I was lifting it and fell with a clatter onto the sideboard.
”So you'd never date Robbie because you work with him?” I asked, my face burning as I hastily picked up the fallen mug.
”Total nail in the coffin for any actor, that,” Elise said matter-of-factly. ”I learnt that out in LA.” She pulled herself up and sat on my breakfast bar. ”I mean, for a start, the press would have a blast, wouldn't they? Actors confusing their art with real life? C'mon!”
”And that would bother you?” I asked. ”The press?”
”Big time,” she said. ”Wouldn't it you?”
”No,” I said truthfully. ”It wouldn't.” I thought for a moment. ”Maybe when I was younger, but not now.”
As I filled our mugs with the freshly made coffee, I thought about what she'd said. Was I really okay about all the supposition about us? I'd answered her question far too readily, but underneath it all, did I mind total strangers discussing my s.e.xuality? An image of Grace suddenly entered my head. I could see her perfectly as if it had only been yesterday since I'd last seen her, rather than the two long years since she'd walked out of my life.
”The questions of whether we're getting it on in real life...” I suddenly said, sipping at my coffee.
”What about them?” Elise watched me over her mug, her face expressionless.
When I saw the look on her face I immediately thought that I'd annoyed her by mentioning it, so I replied quickly to try to explain myself.
”Well, they're funny,” I mumbled. ”That's what I meant.”
”Mm.”
Elise's blunt reply and her earlier comments about never dating co-stars suggested that she didn't think it at all funny, making me wonder if she was lying to me when she said she was okay about it. Maybe she really was uncomfortable with all the speculation after all. I mean, some of the comments had been very forthright, saying that Elise and I must be getting it on because of the suggestive stills released by the publicity people at PR. In a lot of fans' eyes, that had to make us a couple in real life, too.
I smiled to myself, thinking that if only the fans that had written those comments knew how much Elise had annoyed me in those first few days, they'd never think anything of the sort. But now? I looked at her, sitting on my breakfast bar, and my smile instinctively widened.
”You look happy.” Elise's voice roused me from my thoughts.
”I was just thinking how much I enjoy working with you,” I replied, shrugging sheepishly.
Elise stared down into her coffee. ”We get on okay, don't we?” she said, looking slowly up at me. ”Last night was a blast.”
”We were wasted last night!” I said, putting my coffee cup down and folding my arms across my chest.
”Indeed,” Elise said slowly. She carried on looking at me, almost as if she wanted to say something else, but instead she tore her eyes away and glanced at the clock on my kitchen wall, then hopped down from the breakfast bar.
”I better go,” she said with a sigh, walking back to the sofa to collect her bag.
”You don't want to read some more of that magazine article with me?” I asked, following her and pointing down to the magazine, still on my coffee table.
”No,” she replied. ”I've read it. You keep it.” She walked to the door and paused before turning round and looking me straight in the eye for a few seconds. She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something else, just like she had in the kitchen earlier, then closed it again. ”See you, then,” she said, opening the door and closing it tight behind her, leaving me bewildered and hurt at her rush to get away from me. After all, it had been her that had wanted to come and see me in the first place, hadn't it?
Chapter Eight.
Around a week after our night out at Bobby's, Jasmine and Casey's confession scenes finally aired. The TV channel we went out on had given PR an hour's special that evening, with them both featuring extensively throughout the programme, and I was stoked that we'd been given so much airtime and publicity, both for me and Elise-and for Jasmine and Casey.
Once these intimate and heartfelt scenes had gone out, and it was clear to the viewers that Jasmine and Casey were definitely going to get together as a couple, interest in both the story and in me and Elise as actresses absolutely rocketed. I figured they'd rocket even more when the next ones-Jasmine and Casey's first kiss-finally went out.
Ah, their first kiss.
Filming on PR was always out of sequence, and I'd known for days, of course, that Jasey's first kiss was ready to be filmed the morning after the confession scenes had aired, and now I was absolutely bricking it.
We'd received the scripts for The Kiss a few days before, and I'll be honest and tell you that I'd read them with a certain amount of trepidation, even though I knew I was being ridiculous. I was worried about making them seem realistic; these would be the first making-out scenes I'd filmed since Jasmine's ill-fated and very short relations.h.i.+p with the boy down the road-whom she'd briefly run away to Scotland with-when she was sixteen, and I wanted to do them justice.
The scene was being shot in Jasmine's bedroom. Elise hadn't arrived on the set yet, so I found myself pacing up and down, playing with my phone and chatting with the cameraman while I waited for her-anything to take my mind off the b.u.t.terflies that were swirling around inside me. Kevin and Stuart were busy discussing the lighting in the corner of the set when Elise finally arrived from make-up, looking slightly fl.u.s.tered. The sight of her looking flushed and hurried struck me as strange; Elise didn't ever get fl.u.s.tered, right?
”Sorry I'm late,” she called over to Kevin, coming over to join me. She sat down on Jasmine's bed and looked up at me, puffing out her cheeks.
”You're not late,” Kevin called back. ”Don't worry.”
”You okay?” I laughed.
”Thought I was going to be late, that's all,” Elise replied, kind of tightly I thought.
”You ready for this?” I asked.
”Yeah,” Elise replied. ”You?”
”Yeah.”
”Nervous?”
”A bit, yeah. You?”
Elise thought for a while before answering me. ”Very,” she finally said.
Elise was nervous? And there was me, thinking she had nerves of steel.
”I hope you haven't eaten garlic or anything.” I laughed, cringing at my feeble attempt at a joke, and came to join her on the bed.
She glanced at me quickly then looked away again, staring down at her feet. ”I hope you haven't either,” she said nervously.
I wanted to say something else but didn't know what. I hated the stiltedness of our conversation, especially after we'd been getting on so well just lately, but I honestly couldn't think of a single word to say to her, so we didn't speak again until Stuart finally-after what seemed like ages-called us to our markers.
We'd already filmed some other scenes in Jasmine's bedroom that morning, where Jasmine and Casey had continued their heart-to-heart about their growing feelings for each other, and the kiss we were about to film now was going to happen immediately after they'd both admitted they liked each other.
These particular scenes were going to be aired as a two-part special, with each programme going out either side of the evening news, so that the kiss would fade out the end of the first episode, and the second episode would then pick up where the first one had ended and have us both still kissing as the opening credits rolled. It was all going to be very technical, as it was important that the continuity was just right and that the kiss lasted the required amount of time to go through one set of closing credits and one set of opening credits.
It was also all going to be very chaste, of course. Portobello Road went out before the watershed, so it was important that the kiss could in no way upset the viewers. The script had Casey kissing Jasmine first, and then Jasmine would reciprocate; I'd read it over and over, and although Elise and I had talked the scene over together, discussing how we would both play it, I was still nervous.