Crimson Cheeks

Chapter Two

The lunch went better than Jenna expected. She got to interact with many of her new colleagues and the crew that she'd be working with for the months to follow. She was content to have found a good person in each and every one of the people that approached her. Everyone was eager to put their efforts into this project and make it successful. It was a Netflix production after all.

The expectations that fell onto the young woman were noticeable by the people she was closest to. Emma, Hunter and Joy shared looks every time Tim praised Jenna or talked about how he had chosen her to bring great things to his vision.

They knew the tremendous amount of pressure she was under. She had confided in them a couple of nights before the flight when they had met up in New York for drinks. The alcohol had made a rather emotional combination with the anxiety she was experiencing those days and she had opened up to her colleagues about the way she felt. They were very supportive towards her from the start - the fact that they were close in age played a part in that. They understood the weight of the expectations.

As much as Jenna enjoyed interacting with everyone, she had particularly liked the time she got to spend with Gwendoline. It came as a surprise to her how the older woman was friendly and kindhearted. She seemed to genuinely take an interest in Jenna's career up to that point, complimenting her devotion to pursuing this dream from such a young age.

Jenna had felt like she could tell her anything. As if she had suddenly transformed into an open book for Gwen to read. She admitted to the older woman that she felt regret having missed some important parts of one's childhood like proms and graduation. How she'd only lived these moments through the movies, and some of her own shooting sets. Somehow Gwen had managed to make the younger girl forget about the sadness these thoughts brought to her. She had made a point that Jenna was exceptionally strong to have made such hard decisions in order to stay loyal to her career. Gwen even pointed out that she herself would not have been able to commit as much at Jenna's age.

They had talked for no more than half an hour and Jenna had felt comfortable enough to open up her heart to Gwendoline. Remembering the time they spent together made the young woman smile, thinking she'd initiated the start of a potentially great friendship with the older actress.

She did not fail to notice, however, a crucial difference between her and the rest of the people she'd met that day. Gwen was also attracting her in a different way. A way she didn't quite understand yet, but as a matter of fact, knew was surpassing the boundaries of friendship. In the conventional sense, at least.

The younger woman was nothing but naïve in recognising her own feelings. That didn't mean she was always direct about them. She tended to hide behind her playful manners. She'd flirt with people around her, including the person she'd be interested in, in an attempt to read their reaction but without it being obvious it was about them. She was quite good at that; acting for more than half of her life had played a big role in her developing these skills.

The days that followed their arrival in Romania mostly consisted of them getting accustomed to the shooting sets, practicing lines, and settling into their new living arrangements. During that period, Jenna made the most of her time perfecting her facial expressions and body language as the character she was to play. She already had eyes on her, and she was also trying to enchant eyes towards her. A specific set of eyes, that was.

It mattered to Jenna that Gwendoline notice how good she was. She wanted the older woman to observe her, to focus on her. She wanted to have part of her attention, if not be the centre of it.

More than two weeks had passed since the cast had arrived, and it was time to begin shooting and fitting. They'd film simple scenes first, with one or two characters in them in order to ease the cast in the process. Jenna had tried out several individual scenes and she was getting much into the role. She'd wear her uniform during breaks not to lose the connection with the character, it had become like a second skin on her. Her friends teased her about it, the fact being that they hated wearing their uniforms as they had to be overly careful and gentle in their manners not to damage them. But Jenna didn't mind that, it was part of her job.