Ten Days with Mr Darcy (on hold)

Chapter twenty-seven - An embarrassing audition

"Things are going okay."

Jess pointed to his hair, still shorter and lightened from the advert. "I like the blonde. It suits you."

He offered a modest half smile, half shrug, and raked self-conscious fingers through his peroxide locks. "Thanks. What are you here for?"

"I've just come from an audition, back that way." The skin on her face felt so warm she wanted to fan herself but feared she would only draw attention to the high colour and make it worse. Instead, she buried her hand deep in her pocket.

"That's great."

"What about you? Are you here to audition as well?"

Gareth nodded towards the other end of the long corridor. "I have a meeting, down there somewhere." He said no more, allowing the silence to hang over them like a dense cloud of smog, drawing the breath from her lungs. Her gaze wandered as she looked around for inspiration to keep the conversation going.

Jessica felt his eyes on her, but couldn't bring herself to meet them. With the advert playing regularly on her computer, and Bea's general obsession with coffee, she'd spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of weeks thinking about Gareth Jones. She should have been able to find plenty to talk about, but her brain had blanked on her; her tongue tied in so many knots she would have qualified for a Scout badge. The least she could do was to congratulate him on his success. "I saw you on—"

Stiletto heels clicked on the tiled floor behind them as a woman clasped Gareth on the shoulder. "So sorry I'm late. I ran into a friend." Long, straight hair fell past her shoulders, while her skinny jeans ran into tall leather boots. She squeezed her lean form between them, and threaded a possessive arm through his, using a similar technique to the one Jessica had once employed while saving Sebastian from the Austen fans. "He'll be waiting. Come on." She glanced towards Jessica, her expression lacking any curiosity.

Only then did Jessica realise that this was the woman who'd been with Gareth when he'd been photographed outside the nightclub. This was the one he had been clinging to; the one who, according to a friend in the newspaper, he was now happy with.

This brunette with her high-maintenance glamour didn't seem like Gareth's type at all, but then how would she know what his type was? Jess knew nothing about him.

His smile for Jess held a hint of an apology. "I'm sorry, I've really got to go. It was great seeing you again."

The woman released his arm and continued down the hallway, swinging her hips like a supermodel walking a runway. After a final quick nod towards Jess, Gareth followed behind with the easy grace of a sportsman.

And the blind obedience of a rat following a piper.

Jess watched until he passed beyond sight then turned towards the lifts. Counting the floors down to the lobby, she stared at her solitary reflection in the mirrored wall, heart beating erratically and her injuries forgotten.

She was neither tall nor thin. She would never have wanted to be as skinny as Gareth's girlfriend. Her hair, while long, didn't fall straight like a rod. She preferred letting her loose curls and waves do their own thing; even if they weren't currently fashionable, at least they were different.

Gareth no longer looked like an accountant. In place of the jumper, he'd been wearing a clinging t-shirt, just like that last day at Exley Hall. She closed her eyes, as though it would block out her memories of their last conversation there, but it was a futile hope. Her cheek began to tingle as she relived the moment his lips brushed against her skin as he said goodbye.

If she reacted like that to a mere memory of an almost kiss, how would she have coped if he'd kissed her in earnest that summer day in Derbyshire?

The lift doors opened, startling Jess out of her memories. She hobbled across the foyer and passed through the main doors, hoping the noisy traffic and the crush of pedestrians on the busy London streets would distract her from her wholly inappropriate thoughts about a former castmate.