So, he had dismissed the possibility that Genny could be anyone’s muse. She hadn’t been good enough. It was only later, after he found the right way to vent his anger, that he realized the problem had never been her coaching.
It had been inside him, all along.
And if the problem had been inside him, he realized, then nothing was wrong with Genny. In fact, she was just as perfect as she had seemed. That was why, when his latest muse had failed him, he had gone back to his coaching sessions and looked at Genny in a new light.
And her coaching was working, this time. It was. Which was why he knew that he was right about her. She was the one. The muse he had been waiting for all of this time. Oh, it was dreamy to think about.
He emerged from his dark alleyway and stepped out cautiously, looking down the road. Yes – there she was! She was walking with her bag on her shoulde
r, her long dark hair swaying from side to side behind her with every step. It was hypnotic, that hair. Like the ticking of a clock pendulum. He could watch it all day.
He had, come to think of it.
He followed her with a sense of lightness in his heart, watching her every step with rapt attention. She was perfect. She was everything. She was his muse, and he knew in his heart that at long last, he had found the woman who would never let him down.
***
Genevieve was going over the audition in her head, trying to think about how well she had done. The casting director hadn’t said anything about her performance; he was famously tight-lipped. Most of them wouldn’t know if they had any chance of getting the part until they were called back for the next round. That was how it went, unfortunately.
She was thinking about the way she’d said the last line, with a tilt of her head. Had that been the right note to hit? She wasn’t sure if she’d done it right. She tilted her head to the left a few times, then the right, repeating the line in her head. Maybe she shouldn’t have tilted at all. Maybe the character would say the line and stare the other character down, no movement.
God, it was all so difficult. So many years of auditioning and trying, and Genny still didn’t really know whether she’d got it right or not. There were so many variables. Sometimes it came down not to whether you were any good, but whether there had been another actress who looked just like you who was a fraction better and therefore got the callback instead. Or sometimes the casting director would decide to go in another direction than advertised and cast someone who looked totally different.
She’d done all she could. It was up to someone else now. That thought was actually comforting, in a way. It allowed her to stop dwelling on all of this and move on – and start thinking about the next audition, or the next client she was going to be working with. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, calling a familiar number.
“Hey, honey,” she said as the line connected. “You off work soon?”
“Hey, babe,” her boyfriend answered. “Yeah, I’m heading home now. How was your audition?”
“I think it went well,” Genny replied. “I had to do some coaching with that client right before. It put me off a little.”
“Yeah? That’s a shame.”
“Yeah, he’s so needy,” Genny said, shaking her head. “I mean, I would never say it to him, but he’s obviously never going to be an actor. We’ve been working together for all this time, and he hasn’t landed a single audition. I just don’t think he knows when to give up.”
“My train’s just pulling up,” her boyfriend replied. “Sorry, I’ll have to go. Tell me all about it later tonight?”
“I will,” she said. “Love you.”
“Love you too, Gen,” he said, and hung up.
Genny sighed a breath of the fresh night air. She’d be home before he called again, and she could get some tidying up done. Tomorrow, she had to -
Genny pulled up short, letting out a short cry of alarm as someone sprang out in front of her. One minute there was no one ahead of her and she was alone on the road – she had been sure of it – and the next minute, she was only a fraction of a second away from bumping right into him. She braced herself and tried to step back, but instead of doing the same, the man moved towards her, grabbing her.
The initial impact knocked the wind out of her lungs. Genny had no idea what was going on or who this was – she barely had time even to think – but something inside her knew that she had to get away. She had to get away right now. She pushed at him and tried to run in the other direction, but he grappled at her, holding her back.
Genny screamed as she felt his arms pulling her in towards him, stopping her from getting away. She had no purchase, her thin ballet flats scraping against the ground instead of pushing her away. He began to twist her around, his arms holding her in place like a bear hug, throwing her in the opposite direction. She had no idea what he wanted with her, but she had absolute certainty that it would not be good. His hold was awkward, loose, like he had something in one of his hands and couldn’t grab her properly with it…
As she twisted, trying to fight, trying to get her arms up so that she could scratch at his face or something, anything, she saw him. The light in a nearby window went on, a homeowner clearly alerted by her scream, and it illuminated his face just enough for her to see him. She had not been expecting to see someone that she knew right now, let alone a client, but it was him. There was no mistaking him. Not when she’d just seen him at the audition.
“Ed,” she said. “Ed, stop!”
He froze. Maybe he had not been expecting her to say his name. Maybe he thought that she would not recognize him. But she knew it was him. His arms stopped moving for just a moment and she pushed away just a little, not enough to escape him, but enough to get a little bit of distance, to give her purchase, to allow her to drive her elbow back against him, to push forward...
To look up at the sound of a shout, as another woman came into view, yelling a warning at Ed to stop what he was doing.
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE