Kirk laughed. “I was the same way until I was in college. I came to find out that I was good at math and science. I’d had a series of teachers who got me excited. But enough about me. How was your day?”
“It was a day at the office. We’re in tech week. Which is the equivalent of…I have no idea what it’s the equivalent of in the normal world.”
“Well, why don’t you join Carissra and me for dinner, and you can tell me all about it?”
I was about to say no but I had nothing in my house to eat anyway. “Sure, why not. I’ll grab the wine and come on over.” The elevator dinged and opened on our floor.
“Great, I’ll see you in a few.”
“What are you making?” I asked, then added, “So, I know whether to bring a white or red wine.”
“Family lasagna recipe. Prepped it last night, so all I have to do is shove it in the oven. It’ll take about 45 minutes to cook. We can talk while we wait.”
“Be there in a minute. Let me check in with Bootsy first.”
I unlocked and opened the door to my apartment. Bootsy was curled up in a ball on my bed. I slipped out of my clothes and put on something more comfortable. I ran my hands through my hair, then pulled it back into a ponytail with a band I had on my dresser. After walking into the kitchen, I pulled out a can of Bootsy’s favorite food. I leaned down so he could get a good whiff, and to get back into his good graces for having been gone all day. I stood up with the can in hand. He looked at me before he pawed the air as if to say, “Where’s the food going?”
“Just let me get a spoon,” I said, looking at my favorite little furball. I grabbed a spoon from the drawer and spooned it out into his dish. He came over and immediately started eating it. I grabbed a bottle of red wine from the small wine rack I had on the kitchen counter before heading over to Carissra and Kirk’s place. Bootsy was so enthralled with his meal that he didn’t bother raising his head as I left.
I knocked lightly on the door, and Kirk immediately let me in. I handed him the bottle of wine, some generic something or other I’d picked up at the corner liquor store. He opened it and poured us each a glass before we headed into the living room to sit on a couch.
From my vantage point, I could see Carissra in her bedroom on a headset. “What’s she doing?” I asked.
“Playing video games with some friends of hers from back in DC. They do this regularly. It’s a good way for her to keep in contact with them. She was always a gamer nerd.”
“I’m not a gamer nerd,” Carissra yelled. “Hi, Erika.”
“You can hear that?” I asked.
“I hear all. Muwahh!” she said, playing out the spooky villain vibe.
“In all seriousness, her microphone picks up a lot, I’ve found. But she has selective hearing when she has those things on.” Kirk turned to me and said, “Watch this.” He swiveled toward Carissra’s bedroom and said loudly, “Carissra, have you finished your homework?”
She turned her head and gave him a quizzical look before fake yelling, “What? I can’t hear you over the headphones.”
I laughed and so did Kirk.
“So, tell me about this technology week.”
“It’s just tech week. It’s usually the week before a show opens when all the technological elements of a show are implemented. For us, it’s primarily a lot of lights and special effects that must be tested, retested, and tested some more.”
“Okay, so that doesn’t sound too bad.”
“Oh really? Let me tell you about my morning.” I explained the stop and start process of how things were going.
“You sung two words and they stopped you?”
“That’s nothing. On Monday, we were stopped before we even opened our mouths,” I laughed.
“Other than that, how’s the show going?”
“At times, things are going smoothly, and other times I swear I’m living in a farce. If it can go wrong, it has gone wrong. And usually, when technology goes wrong, it goes wrong spectacularly.”
“How so?”
“Take this afternoon, for instance. We have this poor new actor who joined us today.”
“Really? Seems a bit late in the game, doesn’t it?”
