The Road to Her Read Online Free PDF

and drank from it. “You up for it?”
    “The gig?” I circled my finger round the edge of my own prop cup. “If you’re going, then I might go, yeah.”
    “For real?” Elise looked over her cup at me. “I’d like it if you did.”
    It was Wednesday; three workdays since Elise had joined us. Now here we were, filming Jasmine and Casey scenes on the set that doubled as their university, talking over coffee and offering viewers subtle hints that the pair were growing closer.
    “For real,” I repeated. “Yes.” I opened my mouth to say my next line but stopped as Elise held her hand up.
    “Cut.” Stuart jerked his head towards Elise. “Problem?”
    “She said yes ,” Elise said. “ Yeah would have been better.”
    “You think?” I asked, frowning.
    “I do think,” Elise said. “Yeah.” She emphasised the yeah.
    “Okay, from Casey’s I’d like it if you did , please.” Stuart made a winding motion with his hand. “Action.”
    I stared at Elise and spoke my lines, adding my yeah without taking my eyes from hers.
    “I’m glad, Jas,” Elise said, not taking her eyes from mine, either. “I like hanging out with you, you know?”
    “Well that’s fortunate,” I replied, suddenly forgetting my lines. “I…I like…”
    I sat back as Elise held her hand up again.
    “Cut.” Stuart’s voice was quiet. “ Fortunate , Holly?”
    “No one says fortunate unless they want to sound like the Queen.” Elise leant back and ran her hands through her hair. “The line was That’s awesome. I like hanging out with you, too .”
    “I know what the line was,” I said. “I just had a mental block.”
    “So try to unblock it,” she offered unhelpfully. She leant over the table towards me. “And maybe when Jasmine’s talking to Casey, she could maintain a bit more eye contact.”
    “I thought I just was.”
    “Only briefly,” Elise said. “I think there needs to be more eye contact throughout, to be honest.”
    “Okay,” I replied sarcastically. “Anything else, while we’re at it?”
    “Maybe lighten up a little.” Elise shrugged. “Jasmine is supposed to fancy Casey, after all. It’s not all coming from Casey by now.”
    “From Casey’s last line, please.” Stuart tapped his pen on his clipboard. “Say your line, Holly, then push your plate over to offer Casey the fries.”
    On my cue, I delivered my line perfectly, pushing my plate over towards Elise until Stuart indicated that the scene had been shot successfully.
    “Okay, that’s a wrap, thank you, ladies.” He grabbed his portfolio and gestured to Louis, his assistant, to follow him from this set to the next one. “Back just after lunch, please,” he called to Elise and me over his shoulder as he left. “If we could get the kitchen scenes filmed before the day’s out, that would be good.”
    I jerked my head in acknowledgement, but my heart sank. An afternoon full of scenes with Elise didn’t exactly fill me with excited anticipation, especially after all of that.
    With Stuart gone and everyone else on set dispersing, I got up from the table and walked away, brushing past Elise on my way out, bristling with irritation and indignation.
    “That took longer than I thought it would,” Elise said breezily, following me as I headed for the door to the main corridor.
    Without answering, I yanked the door open, not bothering to hold it open for Elise. I got a certain satisfaction at hearing it close and open again a second later, knowing that I’d achieved my goal of letting it shut in her face.
    I’d been nothing but nice to her all morning, despite still being annoyed with her for Monday’s comments, but all she seemed to want to do was bring me down. I’d had enough of it—and of her.
    I headed down the corridor towards the canteen for lunch, just wanting to get away from her. I was aware of Elise’s footsteps just behind me and tried to speed up, but however fast I walked, she just kept walking right behind