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

‘He’s protecting himself by screwing around with other people’s lives, thinking he’s doing them a favour.’

‘He probably is doing Heidi a favour. She’ll be loving the attention. You wait, her agent will be getting calls just like your agent did.’

~

Despite her made-up life being played out online and in gossip magazines, Jenna’s real life continued as normal. She was back to work the next day. It was mid-August and much like her mood, the weather had turned from the blissful heat and sunshine of the earlier part of the shoot, to the usual unpredictability of a British summer. Some days it poured with rain and shooting was taken inside; the next day it could be hot and humid, causing havoc with continuity.

Jenna couldn’t leave the situation with her, Milo, and Heidi be, not any longer, not after the latest gossip and not after the anger Finn had directed at her. They had scenes together but there was never a chance to talk to Milo – at least not privately. She knew she was being scrutinised. Everyone on set was talking about it; she knew paparazzi were camped outside the hotel, which made her wonder if they knew where she was staying. Was there a long lens spying on her through the trees at the end of the garden?

Instead of making the most of the last couple of weeks’ filming, she was longing for it to end, counting down the days until she could escape what had essentially turned into a fish bowl – everyone watching her, everyone having an opinion about her life. And when she really thought about it, what Milo was actually doing could be seen as sexual harassment. With all the attention around #metoo she didn’t quite understand how he could get away with it, not in this day and age.

She finished her morning’s filming and went back to base on her own for once. She got a coffee and sat in her car, leaving the door open to let in what little breeze there was on the humid and overcast day. She thought back over the events of the past few weeks and her reaction to Milo. She was angry with him now, believing he was harassing her, and yet in the beginning hadn’t she encouraged it? She fancied him the same as everyone had – Lily, Amanda, all those extras who’d been lusting after him. She’d felt special when he paid her more attention than anyone else. Nothing untoward had happened then. He was a tactile person; he put his arm around everyone: the costume ladies, the assistant director, the caterers. He chatted with everyone too. Jenna had warmed to him because he was friendly with everyone, whatever their job. He didn’t act like a diva, like he was more important than anyone else because he was the star of the film.

And then, at the hotel and at the party back at the cottage, hadn’t she wanted him to kiss her? Wouldn’t she have welcomed it? She’d enjoyed flirting with him. He was good looking and seemed a decent bloke, regardless of his fame. She remembered feeling confused when he didn’t kiss her that night on the landing, but by then she’d seen him kissing Timothy. Her feelings towards Milo became muddled from that point onwards, but was he completely to blame?

She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and gazed across the base. The place had been drenched by a huge downpour and now the dampness was evaporating in the muggy afternoon sun. More people had arrived at the base since she’d been sitting in her car, and it was now busy with actors grabbing a drink or heading to the tent for a costume change. Then she caught sight of Milo, striding across the flattened grass, a coffee cup in his hand as he headed to his trailer.

Jenna downed her cold coffee and got out of her car. She took the long way round, up along the top of the car park in an attempt to avoid anyone. Now was her chance to talk to him again, in private. She stormed up to his trailer and knocked before she could change her mind and bottle it. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted to say to him but she knew she needed to say something.

The trailer door swung open. Milo stood with his coffee cup in his hand, the top few buttons of his shirt undone so it flapped open, giving a glimpse of his toned chest.

‘Hey, I wasn’t expecting you, seeing as though you’ve been avoiding me.’

Jenna folded her arms. ‘I, uh... Yeah, well, with good reason.’

‘Don’t just stand out there, Jenna. Get your arse in here.’

She was about to glance behind her, but then figured what the hell. Did it really matter if anyone saw her go in? She closed the trailer door behind her with a bang.

‘You look pissed.’

‘You think?’

‘The Heidi thing, right?’

‘You even have to ask?’

He wandered over to the seating area of the trailer, sat down and patted the space next to him. ‘Let’s talk then.’

She sat down opposite.

‘Whose idea was it to go for the love triangle angle? Yours or Heidi’s?’

‘To be honest, it’s been a happy accident.’ He sipped his coffee and placed the cup on the table between them. ‘You aren’t interested in being a part of “Milo and Jenna”, but Heidi seems happy enough. The story kinda played out by itself.’

‘Yeah right. You honestly expect me to believe you didn’t have any part in orchestrating those photos?’

‘Jenna, hun, I thought you’d be happy to finally not be with me.’ He rested his arms on the back of the seat and watched her intently with his mesmerising hazel eyes.

‘I’m not out of it though, am I? I’m still in the papers; my face is still being splashed everywhere, just part of a different lie this time. And not only that, you’re leading Heidi on. You flirted with me; but you’ve taken