Three Girls And A Leading Man (4 page)

“I can’t believe you guys aren’t
more excited,” Kiki said, starting to pout. “Are you worried about the money?
That’s it, isn’t it?” As a wealthy heiress, Kiki had a very hard time
understanding why the issue of money so often made the rest of us
uncomfortable.

But this…like she said, it wasn’t
like she or her dad were just giving us a trip to be nice. Business people must
do stuff like this all the time, right? I mean, not that I knew too many
business people. But weren’t they always spending money on this kind of thing?

Jen had gone on Mr. Barker’s jet a
few times, for work. She said it was the most amazing thing, total luxury and
swank. And then we would get to spend the weekend in a suite in Vegas. I could
only imagine what kind of place we would be going to. I hadn’t been on a trip
in so long, and I’d never been anywhere so cool.

I felt a sudden flash of
excitement, and before I knew it, I was jumping off the couch to hug Kiki.
“This is amazing!” I cried. I saw Jen look at me in surprise. Hugging Kiki and
jumping around in excitement weren’t really my style. But I didn’t care. We
were going to Vegas!

“Seriously!” Ginny cried, jumping
up too. Danny, seeing her reaction, started clapping. Ginny also wrapped her
arms around Kiki, who seemed overjoyed at our response.

“Oh my God, we’re going to Vegas,
baby!” I shouted.

I looked over and saw that even
calm, collected Matt was looking excited. He gave his brother Eric a high five
and hugged Jen.

“Josh, why the hell aren’t you
excited?” Ginny asked accusingly. I looked over and saw that Josh was sitting on
the couch, a rather disappointed look on his face.

“I won’t be able to go,” he said
softly. “Sorry, Kiki,” he added, looking up at her. “But there’s just no way
I’ll be able to get a Saturday off.”

Ginny groaned. Josh had recently
started a new job at a local magazine. It was the kind of work he’d wanted to
do his entire life, literally his dream job. But he had just started a few
months ago and was working his way up from the bottom. His current assignment
was to cover weekend events all over the metro area. Saturdays were always his
busy day.

“I just haven’t been there long
enough to get the time off,” he said. “I’m really sorry.”

Ginny looked like she was going to
cry. “That’s okay,” she said. “I’m sure there will be other trips. You guys
will just have to tell me all about it.”

“Are you crazy?” Josh asked,
staring at her. “Why on earth shouldn’t you go with them?”

“I can’t just leave you here to
work while I go on vacation!” she said.

“Oh, yes you can, and you will. No
way are you missing out on something this cool just because of me.”

“Josh...” she started.

“Seriously, Gin,” he said firmly.
“You’re going. I’ll stay home with my little Danny bud here and we’ll have a
man’s weekend. We’ll smoke cigars and watch racy movies and walk around in our
underwear. It will be a blast.”

I felt a rush of affection for
Ginny’s husband. They may have gotten off to a rocky start, but I loved him for
wanting this for her, for trying to convince her it was nothing rather than act
like some kind of martyr.

I looked at Ginny and realized it
wouldn’t take too much to convince her. She clearly wanted to go, bad.

“Gin,” I told her. “I’m gonna need
a roommate. Please come with us and bunk with me so I don’t end up having to
sleep in a rollaway bed in Jen and Matt’s room. Please.”

She laughed, then turned to her
husband. “Josh, are you
sure
you
don’t care?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “And who
knows, maybe you’ll strike it big at blackjack and we’ll be rolling in the
dough by the time you come home.”

“So when is this?” Matt asked.

“That’s the best part. It’s next
weekend! We’re leaving Thursday—we don’t even have to wait that long.”
She took a deep breath. “And I think I would seriously die if we had to wait.
Not being able to tell Jen all day has been
killing
me.”

I was so excited, I managed to not
even roll my eyes at that.

My phone rang, distracting me from
the excited plans everyone had started to make. I looked at the screen and
didn’t recognize the number. “Probably a bill collector,” I muttered, but was
still too excited to care. I headed to the hallway for a little more quiet
before answering.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Miss Duncan?” said an unfamiliar
male voice. Definitely a bill collector.

“Yes?”

“This is Jackson Coles, from the
JCollins Theater team.” I managed to stifle my gasp. This was the man I had
read for the night before.

“We were very impressed with your
audition last night,” Jackson continued, and I felt my heart start to beat
rapidly in my chest.

“We would be pleased to offer you a
place at our callbacks this week.”

“Wow,” I stammered, feeling totally
shocked. I couldn’t believe they were getting back to me already. And I really
couldn’t believe they wanted to see me again. “That sounds great. I would be
very interested in attending.”

“Great,” Jackson said. “Let me give
you the details.” He read out a date and location and instructed me on where to
find the audition materials online. “We’d like you to read for the part of
Jillian,” he said, and I felt like passing out. That was the largest female
role.

“That sounds great,” I said, barely
recognizing my own voice. I felt my hands shaking and I prayed I wouldn’t say
anything stupid to give myself away.

“So we’ll see you on Wednesday
evening,” he confirmed.

“Absolutely,” I said. “Thank you so
much.”

I hung up the phone and stared at
the wall blankly. I could hardly believe that only a few hours ago I was
cursing Grayson and my mother and feeling so frustrated with everything. Within
the space of an afternoon I had found out about a possible sponsor to the
theater, the trip to Vegas, and now this.

I walked slowly back to the living
room and watched my friends for a moment. Jen was sitting close to Matt,
holding his hand while they excitedly talked about the trip. Ginny was bouncing
Danny on her lap while Josh sat at her feet. They all looked happy, excited.

I’ve
been jealous
, I realized suddenly. I never would have thought it of myself.
I loved my friends more than anything else in the world. I wanted their
happiness as much as my own. But deep down inside I’d been jealous that they were
settled, that they were successful, that they knew what they wanted and were on
their way to getting it.

Now, for the first time, I realized
I just might be, too.

Chapter Five

‘Do you feel nervous
when conversing with the opposite sex? It’s a very normal response for many
young ladies, and nothing to worry about. If you take the process of finding a
mate seriously, then it’s natural you’d have some nerves when you meet the
potential Mr. Right. Instead of dwelling on this, do your best to act confident.
There are few things more appealing to a man than a woman who is sure of
herself.’—
The Single Girl’s Guide
to Finding True Love

I felt a healthy dose of fear as
the callback approached. I tried to tell myself that it was pointless to get
worked up about it. Whatever happened would happen and the best thing I could
do to help myself was stay loose and try not to feel anxious. Stress would only
make my performance worse so it was essential I stay calm.

I told myself that, but it was
really hard to actually
do
.

“This could be it,” I told Jen the
night before the callback. She had been running lines with me for the past two
hours and I now felt that I was as ready as I was going to get. “I mean, this
could be my big break.”

“You can’t think about it that
way,” Jen told me firmly. “Seriously, Ann. If you let yourself even think about
‘big breaks’ and all of that, you’re going to freak out. Just treat it like any
other audition. I mean, how many of these have you done?”

“Dozens,” I told her, thinking back
to all the seemingly endless (and mostly fruitless) auditions I had been on
since I first picked up the acting bug in high school.

“You have to convince yourself it’s
just like all the rest,” she told me. “You’re prepared, you know your stuff. If
you can go in there with a confident attitude and just relax, I think you’ll do
really, really well.”

She was right. She usually was. But
it was much harder to actually act on.

I pulled up in front of a small
theater on the outskirts of the city. I had seen a few live bands here over the
years, and somehow I felt comforted by the familiar setting.

This
is your turf
, I reminded myself.
You’ve
been working in this city for years now. There’s nothing to worry about.

I entered the building, trying to
tamp down the nerves. A sign in the lobby directed me through to the stage
area. I could make out a clump of people down by the stage and I headed in
their direction.

A skinny man met me in the aisle. I
recognized him as Jackson Coles, the man I had read for in my initial audition.
He looked busy and impatient and I was very relieved that I was early. “Name?”
he asked briskly.

“Annie Duncan,” I said, burying my
hands in my pockets to stop them from shaking.

“Good. You’ll go in the first group
here.” He gestured behind him to the small group of people waiting by the
stage. “We’re just waiting for one more.”

The man handed me a stack of
stapled papers before turning away to talk quietly with the woman sitting next
to him.

Well,
at least they’re welcoming
, I thought to myself sarcastically. I took the
papers and headed toward my group.

“Hi,” said a girl who looked to be
a few years younger than me. She was gorgeous, totally perfect. She had
porcelain white skin and long, silky blond hair. I felt intimated by her
immediately, though she was smiling kindly at me.

“Are you as nervous as me?” she
asked.

I smiled back. “Yeah, pretty
nervous.”

“This is my first audition,” she
continued, leaning toward me conspiratorially. Great. She had managed to pull a
major callback on her first try. Brat.

“Do you think he’ll be here?” she
asked.

“Who?”

“Jenner Collins!” she replied,
looking surprised that I hadn’t known immediately. “I mean, it is his show, you
know? I heard a rumor he plans to actually
direct
the show. Don’t you think he would want to be involved in the casting?”

“I bet he’s pretty busy,” I said,
shrugging. I didn’t need to be worrying about Collins in addition to all the
nerves I was already battling.

“Oh, wouldn’t you just die if he
was here?” the girl continued, closing her eyes while a dreamy smile lit up her
face. I rolled my eyes. “He’s just so gorgeous and successful. I would love to
meet him.”

I found myself feeling a little
better as Jackson called for us to head to the stage. I may not be as
heartbreakingly beautiful, or as young, or as lucky, as the blond
girl—but at least I had a bit better sense than to get all star-struck
like that.

“Okay, listen up,” Jackson called
out. “We’re going to start with some cold readings. We’d like everyone to stand
out to the side until we call your name. We might have you read in some odd
pairings and we might want to see you in different roles than you prepared for.
We ask you please to just go for it and do your best. We’re looking to see how
flexible you can be, how quick you are on your toes. We’ll be asking for some
more in-depth character readings a little later.”

I was relieved not to be one of the
first ones called. The lights on the stage were very bright and the theater
seemed to stretch out endlessly behind the seats where Jackson and his partner
had set up. I was feeling those nerves return and I was grateful for the
moment’s reprieve to gather my thoughts—and check out the competition a
little, of course.

The first three actors they called
forward were clearly good. The two men carried themselves with that confident
air that only comes with true comfortableness. The girl that had read first
seemed thrown by the activity. She had been asked to read for an older woman,
though she appeared to be no more than twenty-five. I suspected that she had
studied her lines ad nauseam last night and she didn’t seem to be adapting well
to having to read something unfamiliar.

When it was my turn, I was asked to
read one of the male parts. Determined not to let it throw me, I made sure to
read clearly and loudly. At one point during the reading, I thought I saw
another figure join the two in the back, but I was concentrating so much on the
unfamiliar lines that I didn’t let it phase me.

The readings went on like that for
some time. I was asked to read several more times and I soon noticed that I had
read with every combination of males on the stage. In fact, it started to feel
like I was being called forward more often than any of the other girls. I
wondered if that was a good sign.

“Okay, thank you!” Jackson called
out finally. “That gave us a chance to see you all paired up together. Now we
want to see you do a bit of improv.”

Yes, I thought to myself. I loved
improv. And I was pretty darn good at it, if I do say so myself. There was a
group of people that I knew from college who would occasionally hang out at a
local comedy club on open mic nights to do improv sets—kind of like
karaoke for actors. I enjoyed meeting up with them and having a go at it.
Something about the way you had to just jump in—there was no room for
anything cerebral, no room for any self doubt. You either did it, or you
didn’t. It was a very freeing feeling.