Given and Denied

Chapter 14

I shuffled nervously.

"That's right. I have ". I answered him quietly.

Jules sucked in an over elaborated breath.

"Wow, you're very brave!". He said, now leaning back in his chair, "Taking on such a demanding role such as this, in your first ever film".

Jules was now sucking air between his very white teeth and slowly shaking his head at me.

"I mean it's very, um.......". He went on.

"Well, it's not bothering Gwen that much. She's actually doing a great job of it". Alan suddenly interjected.
"Admittedly, we've had a few problems along the way, which was to be expected but we're getting there slowly aren't we sweetheart".

I peered around at him from the other side of Jules and could see that he was smiling. That gave me great comfort and the fact that he had also called me sweetheart!!!!
To be honest, I wasn't really sure quite what to make of this Jules Rybak character. I mean I had only just this minute met him and he looked rather nice, but was he trying to do me down just a little bit because of my inexperience. Did he think that I was not up to such a demanding role, without even seeing me act! Was he in fact already judging me?
I eyed him up suspiciously but then noticed he was now looking at the shortness of my skirt.
Oh heck, why on earth had I decided to wear such a garment. All it had ever succeeded in doing was to make me feel paranoid and uncomfortable. Little wonder Beth had decided to leave it behind in the flat!

The sticky bun that had now been presented in front of me, was so tempting and delicious that I took no time at all in devouring it, crumbs and all. I had even forgotten exactly where I was for a moment as I continued to wipe a wetted finger all over the surface of the prettily decorated, bone China plate, such was my hunger.
It wasn't until I placed the piece of crockery back down onto the table that I noticed that Jules was staring at me again and smiling.

"Good was it?". He asked.

My face flushed with awful embarrassment as I looked at him and then away again.

"Would you care for this one as well?". He then asked, pushing his plate towards me with another equally tempting looking bun on it.
"I'm not really into sweet things.......... Unless they're women...... Of course".

I looked up at him, not sure whether or not  he was flirting with me or being just a tad sarcastic at my apparent gluttony.

"Go on, take it". He insisted, "I'm not even hungry".

I eyed it up. I could not eat two sticky buns, one right after the other, could I?
Then again, I was particularly ravenous and could have surely eaten a plateful of them, if pushed!

Jules was now staring at me as I tentatively picked it up and then took a grateful bite. It was so utterly delicious.
Normally I would have been far too embarrassed to indulge like this, in front of anyone, never mind three extremely well known film actors! But my hunger had got the better of me and at this precise moment, I really didn't care.
That was until I noticed Patricia was looking at me with obvious disgust at my antics.

"What do you think you are doing?". She screamed in horror, just as I was about to take a second bite.

"It's alright. I said she could have it". smiled Jules.

"Well, it's not alright!". Patricia snapped, "What about her figure? What about the film? We can't have her ballooning up all over the place just because of her useless inability to conduct any form of self control!".

I put the bun down. My hunger suddenly abated as I wiped my hands on the cloth napkin.

" Oh, for goodness sake. It's just a bun". Jules laughed, "It's not going to hurt. I'm pretty sure Gwen will find a way of burning off those extra calories later on anyway!".