I wonder if he’ll introduce me to the rest of the cast.
“In a few months, people will pay a lot of money to be in these seats.” His eyes land on me. “We’d better make sure we give them something worth their money.”
That’s it. No introduction. No welcome speech.
We go through my scenes from the top. Cruz, the friendly guy with the locs, catches me up on blocking, while Aidan remains at his seat, a copy of the play on his lap. He doesn’t turn the pages, and he doesn’t look up even once.
Is he even paying attention?
I try to stop stealing glances at him, to focus only on my lines, but my eyes are constantly drawn to where he’s seated.
God, I hate him.
Finally, after a few hours of non-stop work, there’s a break.
“Hey Liz.” A tall, dark guy with short coily hair and liquid brown eyes is stretching his hand toward me. He’s playing my love interest and well, he looks like a love interest. “I’m Kyle.”
“Kyle Weathers, I know. I’ve seen your work.”
He looks genuinely flattered. “That’s gratifying. Welcome to the team.”
“Thanks.” My eyes slide back in Aidan’s direction. He’s already leaving. Kyle follows my gaze.
“Don’t worry about him. He can be very focused, but you’ll love working with him.”
I give Kyle a look that says how much I doubt it. “Even when he hardly says more than two words?”
Kyle laughs. “Oh, he says a lot when he feels like it. Looking forward to working with you, Liz McKay.”
“Looking forward to working with you too, Kyle Weathers.”
He slings a brown saddlebag over his shoulder and heads out. One by one, I meet most of the other people in the cast. There’s Kate, an older, veteran actress, Letty, Sarah, who makes a snide comment about actresses getting roles because of their connections, Lea and Dean who are a couple, and Ben, a sweet midwestern transplant with a hoop earring that makes him look like a pirate.
There are a lot of other interesting people in the cast besides Aidan Court, I tell myself. There’s absolutely no reason to fixate on him, especially now that I know what an asshole he is.
I linger in the auditorium as it empties, silently listing all my reasons for disliking Aidan.
He mocked me before he even met me.
He didn’t even bother to apologize.
A technical team enters the stage and starts to work. I watch for a few moments as they discuss lights and sound direction. Only mildly interested, I pick up my things and head for the door at the side of the stage.
Just as I reach it, it opens, and I almost walk flush into Aidan’s wide chest.
My heart jumps and starts to race. My face heats. I have to stop running into him like this. It does things to me, things I don’t want to think about.
He doesn’t move, and neither do I. His eyes are such a brilliant blue up close that looking into them makes me feel hypnotized.
Snap out of it, Liz.
With an effort, I tear my gaze away from his. “Excuse me.” My lips are pursed and disapproving, my face blank and free of all the screaming chemical reactions raging inside me.
He frowns, and his eyes skip to my lips, then back to my eyes.
“Liz.” He says my name as if he’s testing the sound on his lips. His pouty, sensual lips. I force my breaths to remain steady. “How are you settling in?”
The question surprises me. There’s no way he cares if I’m settling in or drowning in eruptions of sewer water.