“Rafael, the Puerto Rican hottie stagehand?”
“That’s the one,” Katherine said. A flush ran to her cheeks despite the cold weather.
“Well, I won’t keep you. Go get warm next to your Puerto Rican stud.”
Katherine rolled her eyes and walked toward the VIP seating. I pulled out my cell phone to text Kirk to see where they were. There were already a couple of other texts.
It’s your mother
As if I didn’t recognize the number. The text also shows up asMom’s Cell, so that was also a dead giveaway.
Mom:Saw you on the television. You looked so cute in our little outfit. Call us later. Love, Mom.
Then another text appeared.
Asher:Hey, Erika.Thought the cast looked great. See you tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving.
Well, that was an unexpected text.
Brice:Overall, I thought the performance was good. Hopefully, the rest of the show doesn’t suck.
Ahh, Brice’s superpower was his ability to compliment, but he did it backhandedly to remind you he’s your agent.
I decided to respond to the texts later. I shot Kirk a text, and almost immediately, he texted back to let me know where he was sitting. After making my way through the crowd, I found Carissra and Kirk with ease.
“Welcome,” Kirk said as he scooched over on the metal bench to let me sit between him and Carissra. “Thanks again for inviting us.”
“I’m glad I could use my passes,” I said. “So, what did you think?”
“Well, it was good.”
Ahh, the joys of straight men and their ability to describe things.
“It was better than you made it out to be,” Carissra said.
“Thanks…I think.”
“Well, you know,” Carissra said, “all we’ve really heard about the show are the problems.”
She was right. “Sometimes, when you’re in the middle of creating a show, you don’t always realize what it looks like to an outsider. I know the history of the problems and how things have changed, so I don’t always get to think about the show with a new pair of eyes.”
“That makes—“
The first marching band of the day started playing right in front of us, so I couldn’t hear what Carissra said. It gave me a chance to appreciate that I’d probably been harder on the show than I should have been.
The parade flew by in a dizzying flurry of Christmas colors, music, balloons, and floats. By the time Santa Claus’s float rolled by, I was ready for the parade to be over. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the sights and sounds. But, as much as I hated to admit it and would never dream of saying this to his face, Peeter was right; it was elf-ing cold.
We wormed our way through the crowd to where our bus was located. Only a handful of cast members had stuck around, so it was almost empty on the way back to the theater. Once there, we piled out. I went inside to return my costume. I’d told Kirk and Carissra to go home, but they insisted on staying, so I changed as quickly as I could.
“The turkey should be done in about twenty minutes,” Kirk said from the kitchen.
His friends-giving ended up being Amani, Johnny, another couple and their son from the building I didn’t know, and one of Kirk’s colleagues who didn’t have anywhere else to be. I did a quick headcount, counted the number of chairs Kirk had, ran over to my place, and dragged over a few extra chairs. Thankfully, Kirk had a spare folding table, so we were all going to be at the table together.
“What can I do to help?” Amani asked, clearly not used to standing around and not helping.
“Absolutely nothing,” Kirk said. “You brought sides, even though I told you not to.”
Amani shrugged. “I can’t help myself.”
