Jenna caught snippets of the conversation as her dad gave the builder a tour of the cottage, starting upstairs.
‘If you want work to start over the summer, it will mostly be my son working on it as I’ll be busy on another job,’ the builder said. ‘But a place like this we can squeeze you in...’
‘What if it’s a two-man job like the kitchen?’
Their footsteps clumped downstairs and Jenna looked up from the kitchen cupboard she was emptying at a tall, broad, tanned man with greying hair emerging into the room with her dad.
‘I’ll be available for bigger jobs when more than one person is needed, like the roof for starters. We have an electrician we work with and we can do everything from the windows, gutting the kitchen, plastering the walls, fitting a new kitchen... whatever needs doing.’
‘That sounds great; we want this place up and running as soon as possible.’
‘Money pit otherwise, isn’t it?’ The builder shook Tony’s hand. ‘I’ll get you a comprehensive quote by tomorrow, then we can take it from there.’
Tony walked him out of the cottage and Jenna watched them go past the front window. A car door slammed, an engine started and then silence returned as the van drove away.
‘I like the sound of them,’ Tony said, re-joining Jenna in the kitchen. ‘How are you and your mum getting on?’
‘Okay. I just had a little break. Have you seen the garden? It’s loads bigger than I thought. It’ll be amazing once it’s been tamed.’
Kath joined them in the kitchen with flushed cheeks and a duster in her hand. ‘I think we might have to come up another weekend and finish sorting a few things out. But we’re getting there.’
~
The cottage played on Jenna’s mind long after she got back home. Everything about it felt special: the location, its setting, the promise of what it would be like given enough love and attention – and money of course. Although the cottage was never a place she’d spent any time at as a child, unlike her mum, it was somewhere she wanted to return to.
But the call of London and work drew her back into city life. Jobs trickled in, confirming for Jenna what she loved about being an actor, the variety of things she got to do. One day she found herself as part of a select group of walk-on actors on a period film in a private mansion just off the M25; the next day she was off to central London for a casting in an indie film; the following week she was on a train to Cardiff to stay overnight with a friend before a two-day shoot on Casualty playing a young woman who’d been beaten up by her boyfriend. Despite the early call times, the long days, and often a lot of waiting around, Jenna could hardly call her job boring; she rarely knew what she’d be doing from one week to the next, something she thrived on. She knew her parents didn’t understand how she could be comfortable with the unpredictability of work, along with often not knowing the location of the shoot until the evening before, but Jenna craved the excitement and flexibility. She’d never had an office job in her life and she was going to keep it that way.
The dreary wet days of March gave way to spring and sunshine, fresh days with patchy blue sky, more blossom on the trees, and the distant promise of summer. Jenna worked as much as possible, always saying yes to jobs passed to her by her agent and putting herself forward for castings as often as she could. The one thing that frustrated her about the bit-parts she was getting was the thought that she could have had a steady job on a major movie, if it wasn’t for Heidi. At least Heidi being tied up with filming meant that Jenna avoided having to see her.
~
Jenna gritted her teeth as she waited for the Tube doors to slide open, praying it wouldn’t be packed and she’d have to stand jammed against someone’s smelly armpit. She breathed a sigh of relief as she found an empty seat opposite a woman reading House & Home. It had been a long day with a 5am call time, an hour in costume and make-up to be turned into a character who looked the worse for wear after a night out in central London. She’d spent the day filming in a grubby back alley behind restaurants in Soho. She’d endured take after take of being chased along the lane and slammed against a bin by an actor called Harry who was lovely and polite in real life, but was playing a thug called Jay in the scene. Her shoulders ached from being grabbed and Harry had apologised profusely after each take. Despite that, it was one of those days that was immensely enjoyable because she got to actually act and be a part of a pivotal scene and story, plus Harry, with his chiselled jaw, bright blue eyes and muscles, was easy on the eye. But it was physically exhausting and not at all glamorous, and made Jenna fume at the thought of Heidi and what an amazing time she would most certainly be having.
Jenna yawned, rubbed her eyes and hugged her bag. The make-up artists had done their best to remove the dirt and fake blood that had been smeared down the side of her face, but she was longing for a shower to fully remove it. She definitely still had some in her hair. A hot shower and something to eat before falling into bed, alone but with thoughts of Harry playing over and over, was what she craved.
The image on the front cover of House & Home was of a country cottage kitchen, all cream units and a central island
