I reel off the rest of my notes to the other actors and watch as they get ready to do the scene again. My eyes keep going back to Liz, and it takes all my willpower to drag them away.
Why the fuck did I kiss her?
“Everything all right?” Cruz asks.
“Yes.” I give him a tight smile, then my eyes go back to the stage, where Liz is saying something to Arthur. The older actor looks enchanted with her. They both laugh, and I desperately want to be the one she’s laughing with.
As I watch, she pushes a stray hair back over her ear, lifts a water bottle to her lips and drinks.
God, she is beautiful.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
“What?” Cruz asks.
“Nothing. Jesus!”
He gives me a quizzical look. “Maybe you need a break.”
Maybe I do. A break. Or something to get my mind off Liz. Another woman, maybe. I grimace. Somehow, the thought of being with someone else is almost distasteful.
Liz has bewitched me with her dislike and her resentment.
It would serve me right to fall for someone who can’t stand the sight of me. All the goddesses on Olympus would celebrate that one for all the ignored calls, blocked numbers, and unanswered messages their adherents have suffered here on earth.
I watch the rest of the rehearsal in silence, and when it’s over, I’m glad to leave.
I spend the rest of the day in meetings with the production team and the set designers.
“We’re planning to install a few additional tracks on the stage floor,” Carter Hyong tells us. He’s the chief set designer. “So we can rotate the sets for the final scenes…” He touches his laptop screen and the image on the screen shows what he plans. “Like so.”
“How much does this go over budget?” Dennis McKay asks.
I try to hide my smile. Money and schedules, the producer’s main worry. It’s a valid worry too. Creatives would go over budget every single time without firm refusals from the business side.
“What about the scenes that don’t take place within these sets?” I ask.
“Yes, that.” Carter nods. “We’re still using the tracks that lead backstage, so we can move the rotating sets to the back and use a backdrop closer to the front of the stage.”
Cruz frowns. “Did you test all the seats? What about people at the sides? Won’t they see past the backdrop?”
“No.” Carter shakes his head. “We projected all the angles, and the budget already covers most of this,” he tells McKay.
After about half an hour of more questions and explanations, the meeting ends.
On the stage, a group of technicians are testing the lights. I hear McKay take a deep breath. “It never gets old, does it? Watching a production come to life.”
“No, it doesn’t,” I agree, wondering what he would do or say if he got the slightest inkling that I kissed his daughter.
“Funny,” he continues, oblivious to my thoughts. “I wasn’t one of those kids obsessed with theatre, you know. One day, on a family vacation, my parents decided to see a play. It was unforgettable. It changed my life. I’ve lived and breathed Broadway since.” He smiles at me. “Are we ready for tech?”
I nod. “The cast is ready.”
“I don’t want to be that parent…” He gives me a self-conscious grin that contrasts with his deep, booming voice, “but I am hearing good things about Liz.”
“Well, yeah.” I’m trying hard not to look as uncomfortable or guilty as I feel. “She’s a natural. You should come watch her.”
He laughs heartily. “She’s banned me from doing so. Kids. One minute it’s daddy look at me…and the next, they’re twenty years old and starring in a play.”