When Sophie headed back down the hall, Jules’s door was open. She was inside her dressing room, wearing yoga pants and a figure-hugging blue top, bent in a forward fold as she stretched, giving Sophie a spectacular view of her ample cleavage. “Morning,” she called, dropping her gaze to Jules’s shoes, which seemed the only safe place to look.
“Good morning.” Jules straightened, cheeks flushed, hair piled in a messy knot on top of her head. She grabbed her water bottle and stepped into the hall with Sophie and Tabitha.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those naturally peppy people who doesn’t drink coffee,” Sophie said, giving the water bottle a skeptical look.
“God, no. I drink mine at home before I leave,” Jules said. “And Cuban coffee is basically a sweetened shot of espresso, so yeah, I’m caffeinated.”
“That sounds amazing, actually,” Sophie said, feeling suddenly less excited about her boring vanilla roast.
“I’ll make it for you sometime,” Jules said with one of her effortless smiles, leading the way up the stairs.
Simon and Andrew were waiting for them on stage. For their first number, the cast joined up in a line, with Sophie holding hands with Tabitha and Jules as they danced. Unlike yesterday, Jules never missed a step, not even with Micki adding her extra flair to every move.
At the end of the day, Jules and Sophie walked home together, which seemed to have become a habit, one they continued for the rest of the week.
“I invited a few people over to my place on Sunday to run lines,” Jules said as they left the theater together on Friday afternoon. “Want to come?”
“Who did you invite?” Sophie asked, torn between the desire to jump on this chance to spend more time with her castmates and the knowledge that, with her persistently inconvenient attraction to Jules, hanging out in her apartment this weekend was probably not the best idea.
“Amir and Micki,” Jules said. “And you. What do you say?”
Sophie hesitated, but as the understudy for both Jules and Micki, the chance to run lines with them this weekend could be invaluable. “Yeah, sure.”
“Great.” Jules beamed. “Around four? We can run lines for a few hours and order food or something.”
“Sounds great.”
They headed their separate ways. Sophie’s weekend had already been busy, as she was working her last shift at the diner tomorrow and then she had a voice lesson on Sunday morning. But busy was good. Really, she tried to avoid her apartment as much as possible. Without her own space to relax in, she often found herself heading to various coffee shops or the library to sit with her earbuds in and have some “alone” time.
By Sunday afternoon, Sophie found that she was looking forward to going to Jules’s. She confirmed with her via text that they were still on, and then she fussed with her hair and makeup for longer than she probably should have before grabbing her copy of the script and heading out. As often as they walked home together, Sophie hadn’t realized how close she and Jules actually lived to each other until she began her walk to Jules’s apartment.
Ten short minutes later, she pushed the buzzer on a three-story brownstone. Jules buzzed her in, and Sophie climbed two flights of stairs. She knocked on the door Jules had indicated, and it swung open to reveal her standing there in skinny jeans and an oversized red sweater, her honey-brown hair loose around her face. Anddamn, it really wasn’t fair for her to look so good.
“Hi,” Jules said, gesturing for Sophie to come in. “You beat the others here.”
“Oh. Am I early?”
“Nope. They’re just late.”
Sophie stepped into the living room. The wall to her left was exposed brick. To her right, a brightly colored curtain hung across the room, presumably hiding Jules’s bed from visitors. She’d strung white lights around the ceiling, which made the whole room seem to glow. “This is really nice.”
“Thank you.” Jules motioned her toward the couch, where she’d set out a tray of snacks and a bottle of wine. “I do love this place. I’ve been here about five years.”
“It’s great. I would give my left arm to be able to afford something like this,” Sophie said, grimacing at her admission, but Jules just rolled her eyes.
“My parents helped me out with rent at first, but I’m able to pay for it myself these days.”
“How?” Sophie blurted.
“I’ve done some modeling, voiceover work, a walk-on role onLaw & Order: SVU. And I’ve had a consistent run of theater work over the last few years.”
“Impressive.” Sophie sat on the couch and reached for a chip. “You’re living the life I dream of.”
They were interrupted by the buzzer, announcing Amir’s arrival, and Micki got there a few minutes later. They sat around chatting for a while, enjoying snacks and wine, before they got down to business. Jules, Amir, and Micki read their own roles, while Sophie filled in for the remaining parts. After breaking for pizza, they were back at it, working until past nine. Sophie got the chance to read for both Bianca and Melissa, the first time she’d gotten to practice her understudy roles with her castmates.
She hadn’t done this since high school, mostly because she hadn’t had many speaking roles since, but also, the rapport among the cast ofIt’s in Her Kisswas a lot more collaborative than some of the shows she’d worked on. That was partly due to the cast itself and partly because it was a brand-new production, so everyone was learning their lines together for the first time.
Micki wasn’t Sophie’s favorite person, but she wasn’t awful either. Behind her dramatic tendencies, she was a hard worker and seemingly well-intentioned. As Micki, Sophie, and Amir got ready to head home from Jules’s apartment, they made tentative plans to do this again next Sunday. Sophie was already looking forward to it.
