‘We’ll be starting soon, Ms Hunter,’ a production assistant told her as she hurried past.
Celeste’s heartbeat jumped, and she fumbled for her phone in her pocket. She needed to remember to switch it off. Or leave it in the green room, probably.
But first... She hit autodial for her last number and tapped her foot impatiently as it rang and rang.
‘Where are you?’ Celeste asked, as soon as her best friend, Rachel, answered. ‘We’re starting filming any minute!’
‘We’re here, we’re here,’ Rachel replied soothingly. But Celeste could hear a car door opening, which suggested they weren’t, actually, inside the building or anything. ‘We’ll be there any second now, I promise.’
‘Okay. Hurry!’ She hung up. Hopefully that was Rachel getting out of the car, rather than into it, or they’d never make it. And Celeste wasn’t at all sure she could do this without them. Actually, she wasn’t sure she could do it with them there, either, but the odds seemed slightly better, so she was going with it.
Three endless minutes later, Damon and Rachel tumbled through the doors into the lobby, and Celeste’s whole body seemed to sway with relief. Only for a moment, though, because really they were very late.
‘What took you so long?’ she asked, grabbing Rachel’s arm and pulling her into step with her. ‘Let me guess, Damon was flirting with your stepsisters?’ She should have predicted that. Allowed time for it. Historically, adding extra time to any schedule to compensate for Damon flirting was never a bad idea.
‘Actually, it was my fault. I had to fix a window display before we left.’ Rachel sounded apologetic, and Celeste felt briefly guilty for being so cross. She was sure that Rachel’s stepmother would have been the one nagging her to fix it. For reasons Celeste only kind of understood, Rachel was reluctant to break the fragile peace that existed in her family, so of course she’d have risked being late to make her stepmother happy.
She still reckoned that Damon would have been flirting with Rachel’s stepsisters in the meantime.
‘Are you ready?’ Damon asked, all charm and confidence and totally at ease with himself, as usual. How her little brother had got all the charm in the family, Celeste wasn’t sure, but it did seem rather unfair. He always joked that it was because she got all the brains, but his highly successful business argued otherwise.
‘Not really,’ she admitted.
But it was too late. It was showtime, and there was already a production assistant hurrying down the corridor towards them ready to usher Celeste onto the set, while Damon and Rachel slipped into the audience.
‘Break a leg,’ Rachel whispered to her as they headed for their seats.
‘Hopefully not,’ Celeste muttered to herself. But she felt better for knowing that Damon and Rachel were out there anyway.
This would be fine.