Free Valentine by Rebecca Farnworth Page B

precious
few compliments, praised her performance, telling her she
was conveying just the right mix of comedy and sensuality.
Her growing attraction to Jack was further heightened by
Finn's distance. He finally called back but gave her no
chance to tell him her big news; he was too full of his
own as he was about to fly to the States to audition for
a CSI something. 'This could be my big break, V,' he told
her excitedly. Valentine was pleased for him, but couldn't
help feeling that conversation with Finn was a one-way
street.
    However the downward spiral that would usually have
been triggered by his lack of interest didn't materialise.
And she tried not to dwell too much on the fact that Piers
had yet to reply to her letter, though she was fanatical
about checking her email. She told herself that he was
bound to be away filming. Thank God she was acting as
she knew if she wasn't she would have been obsessing
over Piers's silence. But acting always gave her such a
high. Not only did she feel good, she was convinced she
looked better too. Her skin appeared brighter (probably
because she'd massively cut down on alcohol and junk
food), her eyes had a sparkle to them and even her hair
seemed more manageable than usual. She loved working
in a company again, getting to know everyone and feeling
part of something. With a few exceptions (the wanker
Xander and the ravishing and annoying Emily, who
fancied the arse off Jack) she adored her fellow actors. It
was like falling in love with everyone. She hung out mostly
with Toby, Zara (a lovely Twirly), Kitty and Rufus (who
were now a couple) and Jack after rehearsals and they
invariably ended up going to the pub they'd nicknamed
the Orange Peril because of its vile orange-patterned
carpet that was so tacky with dirt that you felt you were
going to be stuck like a fly on flypaper every time you
stepped on it. There they would gossip and giggle and
practically no subject was off-limits. That was the other
thing she loved about other actors: when you bonded,
you really bonded and confidences were quickly shared.
At the end of the second week her group were all deeply
involved in discussing when they lost their virginity. Jack
was in the middle of telling them how he lost his, aged
sixteen, to a married woman he met when he was in an
Am Dram production of Noises Off . Very Mrs Robinson
in The Graduate they all agreed.
    'Dirty cow!' Valentine exclaimed. 'You were practically
jailbait!'
    'I looked older than I was, plus I'd been working on
a building site so I looked very muscular and tanned,
though I say so myself.' He rolled up his sleeve to emphasise
the point. Valentine found herself staring at his very
lovely muscular arm. She did love a muscular arm and
he had a striking tattoo on his shoulder of a dragon. She
also loved a tattoo on a man.
    'So you were her bit of rough trade,' Kitty put in.
'How did she seduce you, then?' There was a pause then
Jack gave a wicked grin. 'She gave me a blow job backstage
in the men's loos. I got the impression that she'd
done it before to other members of the cast.'
    'Or to other casts' members!' Valentine put in as she,
Kitty and Zara laughed raucously, seeing the expressions
of total envy on the other men's faces.
    'And then she invited me round to her house the following
morning, on the pretext that she needed some gardening
doing. I didn't do any gardening, needless to say.'
    'Just Mrs Robinson,' Valentine said dryly. 'Well, good
for her; I expect she got the best of you. They always say
a man's reached his sexual peak at eighteen, whereas a
woman is a constant voyage of discovery.'
    Jack moved closer to her and said quietly, 'Horrible
mixing of metaphors there, Fleming, and you're so wrong;
I'm in my prime. So there, sexy lips.' He gave her a challenging,
come-and-test-out-my-theory-if-you-want look.
    Valentine found herself holding his stare and thinking
that, yes, that was a very tempting prospect.
    'Oh, Jack darling, are you telling that story?