Three Girls And A Leading Man (15 page)

“You’re doing fine,” Nate said.
“We’ll just take it slow, okay? No pressure.”

“No pressure,” I repeated.

“So, having said all that…” Nate
grinned at me mischievously. “Wanna spend the night?”

I smiled back, and leaned forward
for a kiss.

“Thought you’d never ask.”

Chapter Nineteen

“I swear to God, Jen, I’m just
gonna quit,” I fumed, throwing open the cabinet door so hard that it slammed
into the wall. “I just don’t think I can take it anymore!”

“You’re stressed,” Jen soothed.
“There’s a lot going on. Let’s go sit down and relax.”

It was three weeks after the
benefit and only a week before the show was set to open. I was definitely
starting to feel the strain, and to top it off, I’d had a horrible fight with
Grayson at the end of the day. He had insinuated that I was devoting to much of
myself to the play, and not enough to my job. Which was completely ridiculous.
I worked my ass off for those kids and he took all the credit. I felt my anger
rise all over again at the memory of it.

“How the hell am I supposed to
relax?” I asked Jen. I immediately felt bad for snapping at her, but she didn’t
mention it. “The show opens in a week,” I said, more calmly. “I’m scared out of
my mind. And now all of this from that little jerk…”

Suddenly I felt tears spring to my
eyes. Jen raised her eyebrows in surprise. “That’s it,” she said. “Couch, now.
I’ll get the wine, you just go sit down.”

I listened to her orders without
complaint, feeling a little surprised by my own reaction. I usually dealt with
stress much better than this. It was not like me to burst into tears over a
little confrontation with Grayson.

Jen met me on the couch a few
minutes later with two full glasses of merlot. She handed me one and pulled my
feet up into her lap. “Just relax,” she said, patting my legs gently.

I leaned back into the cushions and
closed my eyes, breathing deeply for a few minutes. When I was sure that the
weepiness had passed, I opened my eyes and took a drink of my wine.

“Little better?” Jen asked.

“Yeah, thanks,” I told her. “Sorry.
I don’t know what got into me.”

“You’re under a lot of stress,” Jen
told me. “This show is a huge deal for you. It’s normal to freak a little.
Believe me, I’ve been there.”

She had a point. It was only a year
ago that Jen had practically had a breakdown overworking herself for Kiki’s
wedding. If anyone understood about work stress, it was her.

“I just don’t think I can handle
working at Springwells anymore,” I told her. “Seriously, Jen. It makes me crazy
every day. I like the kids, I like planning activities for them and working
with them. I think the theater is great for the neighborhood. ButI’m so tired
of doing paperwork all day. And Grayson…why does he have to make everything so
hard?”

“Some people are just like that,”
Jen said. “You can’t change them and you can’t tear yourself up trying to
please them.”

“I know,” I said, taking another
sip of wine. “It’s just really hard when you have to work with them.”

“You’re so close, Annie,” she told
me. “You know that, don’t you? This show is going to do well, I can just feel
it. And think of how it will look on your resume. You’re going to start getting
more work. Maybe it’s time to ditch the day job.”

I shook my head. “Even with what
we’re making for this show there’s no way I could afford rent if I quit my
job.”

“I actually wanted to talk to you
about that,” Jen said. “Tina’s sublease is up in two weeks. I’ve talked to her
and she said she doesn’t plan on renewing.”

“Shit,” I said. I wouldn’t miss her
at all, but in the mad rush of prepping the show I had completely forgotten
that we needed to look for another roommate. “We need to get an ad in the
paper!”

Jen held up her hand. “Hear me out
first. And please know that you can say no, okay? There’s no pressure here.”

I looked at her, feeling confused.

“I want Matt to move in.”

I felt my stomach lurch and I had
to set down my wine glass. I was so not expecting that.

“It’s just…I feel like we’re ready
to move on to the next step, you know?” I appreciated that Jen kept her eyes
locked on mine, not lowering her gaze or acting like she was embarrassed…like
she pitied me.

“But I’m also not ready to move
out. And I’m certainly not ready to stop living with you.” She reached out and
took my hand. “I mean that, Annie. I still miss having Gin around every day.
There’s no way I’m ready for us to be split up too.”

I felt my heart rate slow down a
little bit. So she wasn’t asking me to move out…

“You know how Matt is all into real
estate,” she went on. “He would never, ever be okay with renting.”

Matt owned his own construction
firm. In the past few months he had been expanding more into development,
buying some of the properties his crew fixed up instead of just working for
developers.

“He says with the market the way it
is right now, it would be a great time for him to buy a house.”

“He wants to buy this place?” I
asked.

Jen nodded. “Then he could spend
the next few years putting some work into it. Fixing up the kitchen, maybe
finishing the basement. By the time we’re ready to move on the value will have
gone up by quite a bit. It’s a smart business move.”

“So you and I would live here and
pay him rent?” I asked. The idea made me feel weird.

“We’d contribute to the mortgage,
yeah,” she said. “But the great thing is that it’d be much cheaper. Our
landlord is gouging us right now. At today’s prices, Matt’s mortgage would be
about two thirds of what we pay now in rent.”

She looked so excited discussing
these business matters. Jen was definitely a nerd when it came to stuff like
this. And I could see her point—it would make financial sense for Matt to
own the property. If it lowered our rent that would only be a good thing.

But living in Matt’s house? Living
with Matt and Jen? It made me uncomfortable, even though I couldn’t put my
objections into words. It just felt funny. Granted, Matt was here almost every
night anyhow, he practically already lived with us. But still…

“Just think about it, okay?” Jen
said. “I think it would be really great, but it’s up to you.”

“I’ll think about it,” I promised.

“Matt will be here tonight if you
have any questions,” she continued. I could tell she was excited about the
whole thing, and I felt a little bad for my reservations.

“I think I’m going to see Nate after
rehearsal,” I told her.

“That’s almost every night this
week, isn’t it?” she asked, the forced casualness in her voice not lost on me.
I had the feeling she was dying to ask me to dish about my relationship but was
trying to restrain herself.

I wasn’t quite sure what I would
tell her if she did ask. I had been seeing an awful lot of Nate since the
benefit. The truth was, we were having a great time. He was easy to be with, he
was fun, he made me laugh. If I was any other girl I’d probably be trying to come
up with ways to get my claws into him for good.

But in spite of all those good
things, something was holding me back. I just wasn’t sure how far I wanted to
take it. I had an urge to tell Jen all of this, to ask her what I should do.
But then again, she would probably just advocate for me to get serious with
him. Jen made no secret of her opinion that I was only single because I was
repressing issues about my dad’s abandonment. Whatever that meant.

“I probably won’t get to see him
much in the next week,” I told her instead. “What with tech and all.”

Tech week was my least favorite
part of doing a show. During the week before the opening we would have dress
rehearsal every day, a chance to run the entire show with all the technical
aspects. By the end of the week everything should be pretty smooth, but the
first few rehearsals would be rife with bugs. It was just about guaranteed. And
that meant long nights trying to work everything out…

“When does tech start?” Jen asked.

“Tomorrow. We’re going to run twice.
I’ll probably be at the theater all day.” Not the most exciting way to spend a
Saturday.

“So tonight’s the last night to see
the boy before all the craziness starts?” she asked with a smile. I rolled my
eyes. “And then Friday is the opening?”

“We have a press preview on
Thursday,” I said, my stomach twisting at the thought. “Then official opening
is Friday, yeah.”

“And you reserved our tickets?” she
asked.

“Yup, you guys are all set. Good
thing, too, because we’re totally sold out.”

Jen gasped. “Oh my God, hon, that’s
amazing!”

“And scary.”

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “You’re
going to be great.”

“I hope so,” I told her. “We all
need to be great if we want to get this play to Chicago.”

Jen’s face clouded a little. “I’ll
be so sad when you’re gone,” she said.

“It’s a long shot.”

Jen only shook her head. “Nope.
This thing is going all the way. I can feel it.”

I smiled at her. I didn’t say it,
but I had a feeling she was right.

***

Four hours later and I was finally
leaving rehearsal. Our final run before tech had gone really well. My
frustration over Grayson and work had evaporated under the exhilaration that
came from a good rehearsal. When I got to Nate’s house, I was practically
bouncing off the walls.

“Good rehearsal?” he asked with a
smile.

“Awesome rehearsal,” I corrected.
“God, theater is amazing. Seriously. The next time I complain about something,
remind me how good I feel right now.”

He came over to put his arms around
me and I met him with an enthusiastic kiss.

“We should go out and do something
fun,” he said, smiling down at me. “Let’s not waste this good mood.”

He took me to club in Ferndale so
we could dance. Most of the guys I knew would drop dead before they would be
seen out on a dance floor—not Nate. He seemed to have no inhibitions
about looking ridiculous, as long as he was having fun.

The DJ mostly featured hits from
the seventies and eighties, so the club lacked that competitive feel you got in
many places. In fact, most of our fellow revelers were quite a bit older than
us.

“This place is hilarious,” Nate
said at the bar. We had finally taken a break to get drinks and we were now
happily watching the crowd dance. “Do you see that old dude in bellbottoms?”

“He’s reliving his youth,” I told
him. “I think it’s awesome.”

“You mean groovy,” he corrected,
putting his arm around me. I was sweaty and disheveled from all of the dancing,
but I didn’t care. From the way he pulled me closer, I could tell that Nate
didn’t care either.

“Ready to get back out there?” I
asked.

“I’d rather get you home,” he said
in my ear.

“We’ve only been here for an hour!”
I laughed.

“I don’t care. You’re gorgeous,” he
said, his voice low. Even after all these weeks it still sent a thrill through
me when he talked like that. I looked up into his eyes, which were dark and
intense.

“Okay,” I said, happiness filling
me up right down to my toes. “Let’s go home.”

***

An hour later, I was curled up
comfortably in Nate’s bed, trying to keep him from falling asleep.

“Talk to me,” I told him, slapping
his chest. “Come on, I need entertainment.”

“You’re a spoiled child,” he
moaned, throwing his arm over his face. “I’m tired.”

“You’re no fun,” I shot back. “How
old are you?”

“I don’t understand how you’re not
sleepy yet,” he said, rolling over so he was facing me. “You had to go into
work this morning, you had rehearsal, we went dancing, I just totally ravished
you…”

I laughed. “Maybe your ravishing
skills aren’t as effective as you thought.”

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Don’t
make me show you again.”

“I thought you were so tired,” I
teased, rolling away from him and swinging my legs over the bed. “I’m going to
get a drink. Want anything?”

“Nah, I’ll just admire the view,”
he said.

I rolled my eyes and headed to his
dresser. I had no desire to put my sweaty dance clothes back on. I rummaged
through a drawer until I found a worn gray t-shirt. Pulling it over my head, I
smiled a little; it smelled like Nate.

“You just help yourself there,
Ann,” he called over from the bed.

“Thanks, I will,” I told him
sweetly.

I headed out to the kitchen,
grabbing a glass from the cabinet, then pulling a pitcher of water from the
fridge. The clock on the stove blinked one a.m. I thought of Nate, surely
falling asleep in bed, but felt too keyed up to join him just yet. Instead, I
found my purse and pulled my iPod out, plugging it into his docking stereo. I
hit shuffle and smiled as the strains of Billie Holiday filled the living room.

I wandered over to his bookshelf,
thinking I might read until I calmed down a bit. On the bottom shelf he had a
stack of board games and a few decks of cards.

“Whatcha doing?”

I looked up and saw Nate standing
in the doorway in his boxer shorts. He still looked sleepy, but he was smiling
at me.

“I thought I might play some
cards,” I said.

Nate snorted. “You can’t play cards.
I was in Vegas with you, remember?”

“I can play solitaire,” I said in
my best ‘so-there’ voice.

“How about we play something else?”
he suggested, coming over to join me. “I have some games.”

“Yeah, I was looking at your
games,” I said with a smirk. “
Star Wars
Risk, eh? Not at all dorky there, Hughes.”

“Oh, shut up,” he said, tweaking my
ear. “What do you feel like?”