SHOWTIME
THE STORY SO FAR: Gemma Arden co-owns the Helter Skelter Theatre along with two other partners, Orson Carroll and Giselle Goddard. Last summer she’d fallen in love with Adam Chandler, who was in town on business. Their lives were on very different trajectories and they parted friends, but now he’s back. She arranges to meet him, but gets a message to visit Orson. She cancels Adam and goes along to Orson’s flat. He tells her Giselle has been in touch and is planning to sell her share of the theatre, and has urged Orson to do the same. Gemma assures him she won’t let anyone take the theatre from them. As she’s leaving, she bumps into Margaret, Orson’s close friend, who tells her that Orson regrets moving into the flat. If he sells his share in the theatre, he’d be able to move somewhere nicer. Gemma realises she has a difficult choice to make – Orson’s happiness, or keeping the theatre.
Wally’s Bar was buzzing with laughter and conversation when Gemma got back to the Helter Skelter Theatre, and for a moment her spirits lifted as the atmosphere consumed her.
But it only lasted a second. She felt rushed and confused after her visit to Orson, and upset that she missed out on meeting Adam.
She hung up her coat before heading into the packed foyer. The air of anticipation was almost tangible and every face she saw wore a smile.
She’d never tire of this and she couldn’t bear to
