A Starlit Summer by Kate Frost (best manga ereader txt) 📕

actually talk to each other all day, apart from stuff related to what they were filming. They were civil and cooperative with each other then. They’d stopped for a late lunch and were driven back to the base, where they’d eaten separately, Jenna catching up with Lily, while Heidi disappeared off somewhere. The less time they spent with each other the better, at least while they were working.

When they wrapped, the tension between them in the car on the way back was palpable, to the point Jenna had no clue what to say to Heidi to even start a conversation.

Heidi broke the silence a couple of minutes away from the base. ‘Are you planning on ever talking to me again?’

Jenna studied the back of the driver’s head aware of him being able to hear everything. ‘I don’t really have much to say.’

‘You have plenty to say. We need to get this awkwardness between us out in the open and be done with it. Today’s been unbearable tiptoeing around you.’

‘Seriously? That’s how you feel? That you have to tiptoe around me?’ Jenna folded her arms. ‘I’ve done nothing today to make you believe that. Maybe it’s guilt making you feel that way.’

Heidi turned and stared out of the window. Hedges zipped by in a green blur. ‘Come over to the hotel tonight and talk. Properly talk. We can’t ignore each other forever.’

Jenna bit her lip. She’d felt stressed all day having to work together with an unbelievable amount of hatred coursing through her. ‘I want to talk but I don’t think coming over to the hotel’s a good idea.’

‘Milo won’t be there if that’s what you’re worried about – he’s got a night shoot. He’ll have left the hotel by now and won’t be back until the morning. Come on over whenever you like.’

The driver pulled into the base and stopped the car. ‘There you go, ladies. Enjoy your evening.’

Chapter Twenty-One

All Jenna really wanted to do was head back to the peace of the cottage. Finn and Gary would have left by now and she’d have the place to herself. She could make a simple meal, sit outside in the garden and listen to the birds in the trees, the sigh of the wind, the rustle of creatures in the undergrowth. She could pull up some brambles before it got dark and take out her frustration on the weeds. But the tension in her chest told her otherwise. A talk with Heidi was long overdue and it wasn’t healthy to feel so angry at someone who was once her best friend. It had been eating away at her for long enough. She needed to deal with it.

She stole a little time to herself though before she left; ten minutes sitting outside with a soothing camomile tea. She cupped her hands around the china mug and gazed across the garden, making a mental note of all the places she still needed to tackle. One of the best jobs she’d ever had was during the summer before starting drama school. A friend of her parents had put in a good word for her at a National Trust place and she got a job working in the garden for seven weeks. She’d learnt so much from the head gardener and loved the days spent digging, weeding and planting. For a week of that summer she’d also worked backstage at an amateur dramatics show. She’d been exhausted but happy; she also knew that she wanted to be on the stage rather than in the wings, but again it had been a last minute favour for a friend after one of the crew had pulled out. Thinking back on it now, sipping tea and looking over the wilderness she was trying to tame, it was the gardening she had the fondest memories of. It had been hard work physically, but less complicated with few people to deal with. Her week working for the amateur dramatics society had been full of drama both on and off stage. Big egos, big characters, lots of complicated relationships both romantic and otherwise. It would have made a good plot for a novel. She remembered being glad to escape on the show’s last night. It reminded her of how she was feeling now about wrapping on the film. She drained her tea, swept her hair into a messy ponytail and took her cup inside.

This time when she reached the hotel and parked she didn’t bottle it and head straight home. She turned the engine off and got out of the car. The hotel was bathed in the honey tones of the retreating sun. Heidi had said to meet her in the hotel bar, but Jenna took the longer more picturesque way around outside.

The terrace only had a couple of people sitting out but no one from the film, so Jenna headed inside. The bar overlooked the tropical gardens and had an incredible sea view from its floor-to-ceiling windows.

She’d only just stepped inside when someone called her name. She turned to see Lily waving to her from a table with Timothy and Ade.

‘I didn’t know you were joining us this evening?’ Lily smiled and hugged her.

‘I wasn’t; I mean I might a bit later but Heidi wanted to talk.’

‘Ah, okay.’ Lily gave her a knowing look.

‘She’s over at the bar,’ Ade said. ‘Join us after if you have time.’

Jenna left them, her feet heavy as she walked to the long sleek bar. Heidi was perched on a stool, her long blonde hair cascading down her back. She was wearing a colourful print maxi dress with a denim jacket flung casually on top. Only a year or two ago they’d have both been sitting side by side like twins, looking the same, dressed the same, giggling together. Jenna hadn’t changed out of the clothes she’d worn to work – not that it mattered as she’d been in costume all day, but she hadn’t thought about it when she pulled on skinny jeans and