“Did you say yes? Please tell me you said yes. I haven’t had a night out with a group of strong, burly men in so long.”
“I said I would check in with you.”
“Then it’s a total yes,” Katherine exclaimed. “I don’t know what I’m going to wear. What does one wear to a pub these days? Do we have pubs in NYC? We have a bit of everything here, so I’m sure there’s an Irish pub around somewhere.”
“Or he could mean any bar,” I clarified. “I’ll ask during our next break.”
“Cue music,” Serafina yelled. Eugene immediately played the last few bars of the song we were working on before we took our break.
The rest of Act One ran relatively smoothly. Once we finished Act One, the cast was asked to gather in a circle on the stage as Serafina went over the notes. I grabbed my binder from backstage and my requisite number two pencil. I sat on the floor, ready for anything Serafina had for me. Serafina had notes about everyone and everything. She clearly had a fantastic eye for detail. I took all kinds of notes about specific line issues and blocking things she’d noticed while we ran Act One that morning. It was nice to be working with such a consummate professional again.
“And on that note,” Serafina said as she wrapped up, “I’ll see everyone back here in forty-five minutes.”
And just like that, we were off for lunch. The rest of the day flew by in pretty much the same way. We got through Act Two. At the end of the afternoon, Serafina promised to run the entire show without stopping in the morning.
After conferring with Lachtna and Katherine, I raced home. I took a brief nap before running through the shower. Once I was certain I smelled good, I threw on a pair of deep burgundy leather pants and a tight black top that showed all my curves in the right places. Before I left the apartment, I made sure Bootsy wouldn’t kill me in my sleep by making sure he had food and water while I was gone.
I exited the elevator in a rush and almost smacked right into my new neighbor. “Oh, hey,” I said, sidestepping to avoid running him down. “Sorry about that.”
“No harm, no foul,” Kirk said. “Where are you off to in such a hurry?”
“Meeting up with a girlfriend and some stagehands at a pub. You?”
“Getting back late from a series of parent-teacher conferences. Trying to get some administrative work out of the way before Thanksgiving.”
“I can’t imagine.”
Kirk hesitated, but his face told me he wanted to say something to me. “So, Carissra and I are having a Friendsgiving on Thursday late afternoon or early evening. I wanted to see if you and maybe Johnny and Amani wanted to join us.”
“By late afternoon, I should be free. I have the parade in the morning, but I should be home by noon.”
“Oh, you’re going to the parade?”
“Yep.”
“Where do you like to see it from? Carissra wants to go, but I want to find a spot that would be good for her. Ya know?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I haven’t gone to see the parade in years. I’m working the parade. Our show is performing the opening number.”
“I forgot about that.” Kirk’s face flashed with disappointment as he said that. I guess he really needed some advice. “Well, I don’t want to keep you from meeting up with your friends.”
“I’ll see you around,” I said. I started to walk away when an idea struck me. I spun around and Kirk had one foot in the elevator. “Hold up,” I yelled. He turned around, and the elevator dinged its angry dinging to let us know it was tired of being held open, so Kirk got out of the way and let the elevator close. “I have an idea. I get two free VIP passes to bring anyone I want to the parade. I wasn’t planning on using them, but this may be a perfect chance for you and Carissra to watch the parade. I know they have seating and wheelchair access there.”
“Oh wow…” Kirk stammered. “That would be freaking amazing.”
“You’d have to be up early and ready to go. We must get on the bus at the theater by 7:30. Technically, I could get you the passes, and you could meet us there. I don’t know how easy it would be to get Carissra there. At least with our bus, we have a close drop-off and pickup point.”
“That would work for us.”
“Great. I’ll come by tomorrow after work, and we can iron out plans.”
“Thanks! I can’t begin to thank you for this.”
“What are neighbors for?” I smiled and left him standing in the lobby with his jaw slightly dropped.
I got outside and was glad to find my Uber waiting for me. Most of the time, Uber drivers would wait a few minutes, but a few got mad and took off. I made sure I tipped extra, so it kept my rider rating high.
In minutes, the driver pulled up to an Irish pub in the heart of Times Square. Honestly, if I had been wearing more clothes, I probably would have walked. But I wanted to look sexy and not like a puffy snowman the whole night.
