Flare

Chapter 4

Emma hadn't seen Aldren since last night. She'd hung around at breakfast watching Belizanna bicker with Daniel over the last slice of bread, Cecelia clearly ready to strangle them both but he hadn't appeared once. With her not beginning shooting till tomorrow, she was at a loose end. 'Emma, come exploring with us?' Belizanna had exclaimed over a mouthful of cereal, gesturing between her and Daniel. 'We're going to walk to the village, Aidan and Cal are coming to' she said pointing at the cameramen seated at the bottom of the table, they gave Emma a friendly wave. Joel hadn't told her he needed her for anything so why not? They set off an hour later after Daniel had insisted he needed extra time to finish his skincare routine with the climate being so 'arid', Emma couldn't help but snigger but who was she to judge?

Their villa was about a 40-minute walk away from the coastal village of Savis, which turned out to be a beautiful myriad of apartments and cottages perched on rock and grassland next to the sea. A small cove with opulent blue water littered with grey weather beaten rocks lay at the bottom. Emma could hardly take it all in, the beauty was breath-taking. Belizanna grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stone path to the rocks below where people were jumping into the water. In true Belizanna style, she stripped down to her underwear and dove straight in, Emma laughed as Belizanna suddenly realised the water was deceptively cold and started squawking, swimming over to the rocks where Emma was sat. 'I'm not helping you up, you'll pull me in' Emma laughed as Belizanna scowled before pulling herself onto the rocks. They lay there sunning themselves as Emma recounted what had happened last night, although she left out the parts about her being ridiculously aroused. 'Do you think he's maybe mad or something' she worried to Belizanna, Belizanna rolled her eyes 'Girl, for what? He got to make out with your gorgeous face, why would he be complaining? And even if he was in a huff that's his problem not yours'. Emma nodded, she knew Belizanna was right but she didn't like the feeling that she'd done something wrong or offended Aldren in some way.

A shadow fell across them both, she looked up to see Aidan and Cal standing over them, Belizanna blinked up, 'Dare I ask where Daniel is? she said making a face. Aidan nodded his head over to where Daniel was standing with a group of girls around him. 'Chatting up females, while speaking no Italian, very skilful' Cal said sarcastically, Emma smiled and Cal reached his hand forward to help her stand up while Aidan did the same for Belizanna, 'such gentleman!' Belizanna said in a dramatic swoon, Aidan rolled his eyes and immediately let go of her hand so she stumbled back. Emma couldn't help but laugh at Belizanna as she righted herself and went storming after Aidan 'Come back here Aidan Howard, you coward! You forget I know your mother and when I tell her what-'the rest of her rant was lost as she was swallowed up by the hustle and bustle of the village. Emma turned to Cal, 'she knows his mother?' she questioned, Cal laughed at her confused expression before nodding, 'yeah those two go way back, I think they went to the same school or something'. Emma nodded, looking back towards where Belizanna had gone storming off, now no longer visible. Cal noticed her gaze, 'don't' worry they'll be back eventually, they can catch us up' he said dismissively. She'd not really had a chance to talk to Cal properly but he seemed friendly enough and she knew she'd never find her way back to the villa by herself so she nodded and followed him off through the village.

It turned out that Cal was actually very easy to talk to, their conversation flowed as they made their way back to the villa, they talked about everything from childhood pets to Daniel's extensive skin care routine. She couldn't help but laugh at the latter as she tried to explain the concept of skin serum to Cal, his eyebrows scrunched up incredulously while some of his inky black hair fell across his forehead. With a tall slim frame and stormy coloured eyes he was very attractive and Emma found herself imagining what it'd be like to kiss him compared to Aldren. She caught herself, why on Earth was she thinking about that now? stupid girl. But she couldn't help but compare him to Aldren who by now would have probably made some snarky remark. They probably wouldn't even be in this scenario because he would never have offered to walk her home like Cal was doing. 'Everything all right, you just sort of zoned out on me?' Cal asked suddenly. Internally cursing herself, Emma apologised, 'it's just Aldren's turning out to be a little difficult to work with' she admitted. Cal nodded like he's heard this a million times, 'yeah Joel said he just appeared out of nowhere at the casting call, no agent or anything, he doesn't even know how he knew about the audition to begin with. But if Joel thinks he can do it he must be decent even if he's being a bit...?' he trailed off, Emma smiled 'Arrogant?' she finished. Cal nodded again and gave her a grin, 'these Hollywood divas, what do you expect?' he added jokingly. They'd made it back to the villa, Cal opened the door and stood back to let her in 'after you m'lady' he said jokingly. Emma laughed and grinned at him, her heart fluttering a bit as she made a show of sweeping into the hall only to come face to face with Aldren, who looked furious.