Three Girls And A Leading Man (22 page)

I thought about that for a minute.
“I don’t want to make too big of a deal out of it,” I said. “But maybe I’ll
mention it at the show tomorrow.”

“So Ginny tells me everything is
going really well,” Jen said, and I felt a little pang at the thought of the
two of them hanging out without me. Which was totally immature, I know.

“Yeah, we’re getting great reviews,
tickets are selling well. I might be Broadway bound before you know it.”

“That’s awesome, hon,” she said.
There was a pause. “I have to say, you don’t sound too excited about that,
either.”

“No, I am,” I said quickly,
ignoring the stabbing feeling I got whenever I thought about moving even
farther away. “It’s a great opportunity.”

“You don’t have to go,” she said
quietly. “You know that, right? You can still be an actress without going to
New York.”

“I know,” I said. “But it’s a once
in a lifetime chance. I’d be stupid to give it up.”

“Not if it doesn’t make you happy,”
she pressed.

“Acting makes me happy,” I said
firmly, determinedly not looking around at the crummy, shabby apartment I was
now living in all by myself.

Chapter Twenty-six

“You ready to go?”

I looked up at Tyler, who was
standing at the door to the ladies’ dressing room.

“Just about,” I told him, leaning
forward to peer at myself in the mirror. I grabbed a tissue and wiped the last
of the red lipstick off my mouth.

“Aw,” he said, watching me. “I like
you in that shade.”

I rolled my eyes as I stood,
grabbing my purse. “It’s stage make-up. Not exactly subtle.”

“Still looks hot on you,” he said,
winking at me.

There was a time when Tyler’s
shameless flirting might have made me laugh. Now it just made me feel tired.
“So,” I said, trying to force myself into the moment as we left the dressing
room and headed for the stage door. “Where we headed?”

“I thought we’d go to that pub down
the street, get some food. Then we can hit the town. Sound good?”

“Sure,” I said, trying to suppress
the desire to call the whole thing off and go home. My bed and a pint of ice
cream was sounding better and better.

When we reached the pub, I was not
at all surprised to find a group of actors and crew members huddled around a
table. Though I rarely joined them, I knew this to be a popular post-show hang
out.

“Wanna join them?” Tyler asked.
“Or—” he leaned closer to me, whispering in my ear—“would you
rather have some privacy?”

Though his breath tickled the skin
on my neck, I felt nothing from his proximity. No butterflies, no tingles.
Just…nothing.

“Let’s sit with them,” I said,
taking a step back.

“Good idea,” Tyler said, winking at
me. “We can save the privacy for later.”

We joined the group at the table,
which was overcrowded for my taste. The close quarters seemed to encourage
Tyler to sidle up next to me, his hand ever present on my knee.

“So, Annie,” a woman named Calllie
said, looking me over in an appraising sort of way that immediately made me
feel uncomfortable. Callie was new to the show in Chicago, and I hadn’t gotten
to know her very well. To tell the truth, she kind of seemed like a bitch. “I
hear you and Jenner have some hot romance going.”

Everyone at the table laughed, and
I tried to set my mouth in the general appearance of a smile. “I wouldn’t
believe everything you read, Callie.”

“Well, to be honest, it was kind of
hard to believe,” she said, looking down at my admittedly flat chest. “I mean,
you and Jenner.”

I was visited with a sudden urge to
slap her, but managed to contain myself. Tyler slid his hand a little higher on
my leg. “I don’t know about that,” he said, grinning. “I think Jenner would be
lucky to have you.”

I laughed along with everyone else,
trying to pretend like none of this bothered me.

“Alright,” said Bill, the
middle-aged man who played my father in the show. “I want to hear who everyone
at this table has slept with to get ahead in your career. I’ll go first. In
1993 I had a brief but torrid affair with the female producer of a B-list
sitcom.”

Everyone laughed. “You should be
particularly impressed,” Bill continued, “seeing as how I’m a raging homo.”

“I once slept with a college
professor,” Tyler said, squeezing my knee under the table. “And she didn’t even
put me in the show, can you believe it?”

It continued like this for a while,
everyone trying to outdo each other with tales of their (hopefully exaggerated)
sexual exploits. After a few minutes, I began to lose interest. I was hardly a
prude, but even I was feeling uncomfortable with the graphic descriptions
flowing freely from these people I hardly knew.

Talk then turned, predictably, to
shows people had done and who had worked with whom. I had heard it all before,
from these same people, and the bragging was starting to get old. When our food
was brought out, I felt immensely relieved that I would have something to
distract me with.

“Wow,” Callie said, eying my
cheeseburger as I raised it to my mouth. “You have quite an appetite, don’t
you?”

“Mmmhmm,” I agreed, taking a huge
bite. I’d had about enough of this whole scene.

“You’ll want to watch that,” she
cautioned, adding a miniscule amount of dressing to her salad. “If you want to
stay in this business, calories like that definitely aren’t your friend.”

“Oh well,” I said, reaching for my
pop. “Guess I better enjoy it while it lasts.”

I finished my meal in silence.
Tyler tried to draw me into the conversation, but there was no point. A few of
these people might have been cool on their own, but put them in a group like
this and all anyone cared about with one-upping each other. I thought of Jen
and Ginny, wondering what they were up to tonight.

“Wanna get out of here?” Tyler
whispered in my ear after our plates had been cleared.

I nodded, eager to be anywhere
else.

Tyler threw some bills on the table
and we said our goodbyes.

Outside, the cold February air bit
against my skin and I huddled down into my coat.

“Let’s get a cab,” Tyler said,
looking over at me.

“Let’s just go somewhere close,” I
said.

“Wouldn’t you rather head to a
cooler neighborhood? Test out your newfound celebrity and all that?”

I rolled my eyes. “I would rather
just be inside.”

“There’s a bar down here,” he said,
reaching out and grabbing my hand. “Come on.”

We hurried the two blocks to the
bar Tyler had in mind. I was hoping for a laid-back place where I could hear
myself think, and was somewhat disappointed when we entered a very loud wine
bar. There was a live jazz band playing in the back of the room, and a throng
of well-dressed professional-looking yuppies standing around talking. I sighed.

“Let’s head over here,” Tyler said,
leading the way to a low couch on the side of the room. There was barely enough
room for a single person there, let alone both of us, but he was undeterred,
pulling me down next to him so I was practically on his lap.

“There,” he said, smiling at me.
“That’s much better.”

I didn’t feel much better. In
truth, I was feeling pretty damn miserable. I didn’t want to go out with Tyler.
Why had I thought this would be a good idea?

He gestured to a passing waiter and
ordered us both a glass of red. “Unless you’d like a bottle?” he asked me. I
shook my head vigorously, already counting down the minutes until I could get
out of here without seeming too rude.

“So, you really don’t like that
crowd, huh?” he asked.

“At the pub?” I asked.

“Yeah. You were so tense in there I
could have bounced a quarter off your leg. What was up with that?”

“I just don’t like that scene,” I
told him, shrugging. “I’m not into the bragging and cutting people down.”

He shook his head at me. “Sorry to
say it, Annie, but you need to toughen up a bit.”

I bristled. My nerves, already
stretched so tightly, felt ready to snap.

“I just mean,” he said, reaching
over to rub my shoulder, “that if you want to be in this business, there are
certain things you’ll have to get used to. How do you think things will be when
we get to New York?”

“I don’t care where I am,” I said
flatly. “I can’t imagine ever enjoying hanging out with people like that.”

“So what will you do, be a hermit
forever?”

“I have other friends,” I said.

“Yeah, in Detroit. Who do you
expect to socialize with in New York?”

“I’ll make new friends,” I said, my
voice skating awfully close to a snarl.

Tyler shook his head. “You have to
just embrace this stuff, Annie. If you never hang out with other theater
people, how do you expect to get hired? It’s all about networking, whether you
like it or not. Just like this whole Jenner Collins thing.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Well, you’re all over the internet
today,” he pointed out. “Looks like they figured out your name, too.”

“Yeah,” I told him. “Lucky me.”

Tyler smirked. “You are lucky. You
might not know it yet, but you are. This will be great for your career. And who
knows.” He put his arm around my shoulder. “If I stay on your good side, it
might be great for my career as well.”

I shook his arm off and glared at
him. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, it can’t hurt to be seen
with Jenner Collins’ new girlfriend, can it?”

Looking at Tyler’s smug, flirty
grin, I was suddenly overcome with an emotion very close to revulsion. I didn’t
think I could sit there with him for another second longer.

“I’m sorry, Tyler,” I said,
standing. “But this has been a long night. I need to get home.”

“What?” he asked, looking up at me
incredulously. “You haven’t even finished your wine!”

“I’m sorry,” I said again, reaching
into my purse for a few bills. “I really do have to go.”

He looked upset for a minute, then
finally rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Annie,” he said derisively. “I honestly
don’t know why I bothered with someone like you anyhow.”

For a moment I was temped to ask
him what he meant by that, what someone like me was like. I looked down at him
and decided it didn’t matter. I truly couldn’t care less what Tyler, or anyone
like him, thought of me.

“Thanks, Tyler,” I said softly,
before turning to leave.

Chapter Twenty-seven

“So,” Jenner said, smiling at me
across the table. “How are you handling all of this tabloid nonsense?”

I grinned back. Jenner had asked me
to meet him for lunch in his hotel. The restaurant was one of those fancy
places that made me feel underdressed no matter what I had on. But at least it
was warm in here. I could not say the same for my place.

 
“It’s fine,” I told him. “I think I’ve finally
convinced my mom that I’m not moving to L.A. to be your mistress.”

He laughed. “I am sorry about all
of that. It’s one of those things I’ve grown used to. I almost forget how
ridiculous it truly is.”

I shrugged. “It’s really not a big
deal,” I assured him. “My best friends from home have taped everything that’s
been on TV and printed out everything from the internet to put in a scrapbook.
So at least it’s been fun for someone.”

Jenner laughed again, and I smiled.
It was funny how comfortable I now felt around him. It had only been a few
short months ago when the very sound of his voice on my phone had practically
pushed me into a panic attack.

Our waiter appeared with our
meals—seared salmon for me, a steak for him—and Jenner thanked him
politely. It struck me how nice he always was to the people around him. You
would never guess he was a multi-millionaire Hollywood star.

“So, Annie,” he said, beginning to
cut his steak. “I have a few things I wanted to talk to you about.”

I felt my heartbeat quicken. I had
assumed that this lunch date was intended only to apologize for the tabloid
bullshit, but maybe there was something more. We were only a few weeks away
from the scheduled end of our show. We would either move on or shut down. One
way or another, this part of my life was almost over.

He pointed at my food with his
fork. “Eat!” he urged, smiling.

I grinned and took a bite. The food
was delicious but it made me feel a pang for Jen. I hadn’t had much besides
Raman noodles and mac and cheese since I left our house.

“The show is going to New York,”
Jenner said casually, before taking another bite of his steak. I stared at him
while he chewed. “The producers have asked that we re-cast a few roles, get
some bigger names involved.”

I wondered briefly if he had
brought me here to break the news that I would not be invited to New York. It
was the strangest thing—for one moment I felt the strongest rush of
relief at the thought.

“They would very much like for you
to continue in your role, however,” Jenner said.

I stared at him for a moment.
“Wow,” I whispered. “That’s...that’s really an honor. Thank you.”

He smiled at me. “You’ve earned
it.”

I turned back to my food, wondering
why I didn’t feel more excited. I had not been lying about the opportunity
being an honor. To be chosen to originate a role off-Broadway—well, it
was a pretty big deal. But I felt no rush of joy, no exhilaration at the
thought.

“When will we be going?” I asked.

“That’s the other thing I wanted to
tell you,” Jenner said. “I won’t actually be going with you guys.”

I looked at him in surprise.
“Really? Why not?” I smiled suddenly, remembering our earlier conversation.
“Did your agent finally convince you to sign on for another blockbuster?”