“Then you need to sort yourself out,reallysort yourself out, before you ask me the things you asked me tonight.”
Sophie gulped, nodding. “Okay.”
“Good night, Sophie.” She turned to walk away, wishing her heart didn’t feel like it was breaking all over again. It would have been so easy to fling herself into Sophie’s arms tonight. She could have done it, could be there even now, but at what cost?
* * *
Sophie closedher eyes as her lips met Jules’s, absorbing the moment, soaking it in. But she wasn’t herself, not right now. She was Melissa, and Melissa was kissing Bianca. She opened her eyes, centering herself in her character, in the scene, in the show, for the final moments until the intermission.
As soon as the curtain was down, Jules dropped her hands, although Sophie saw the apology in her eyes before she walked away. They’d gone back to ignoring each other after their confrontation on the street last night. That was going to change, though, at least on Sophie’s part. She’d been up most of the night tossing and turning, racking her mind and her soul for the answers Jules had asked for last night.
And now she had them. She just had to tell her. But not during intermission.
She rushed to her dressing room to change into her costume for act two. Tabitha strolled in a minute later, giving her a funny look. “In a hurry?”
“Yes,” she answered as she buttoned her pants.
“For what?”
“To finish the show.”
“You realize intermission is the same length regardless of how quickly you get dressed?”
“I know.” Sophie grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and began to pace with it.
“Big plans?” Tabitha asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No…I don’t know…I hope so.” She drank half the bottle.
Tabitha took her costume off the rack. “Does this have anything to do with Jules?”
“I have to talk to her, and I can’t wait until tonight. We’ve got hours to kill between the matinee and the evening performance.”
“Whoa.” Tabitha raised her eyebrows at Sophie’s rushed response. “And you think this will go well? Because if you piss her off, you could throw off tonight’s performance.”
Sophie paused, then shook her head. “I can’t wait, Tab.”
Tabitha threw her hands up. “Okay, then.”
So Sophie paced through the rest of intermission, drank way too much water, and then had to make a last-minute trip to the bathroom before she went onstage so her bladder didn’t burst before the end of the second act.
Jules was polite when they passed each other in the hall, but she kept walking without a single word. Sophie had alotof words to say to her in a little while. The curtain rose, and they fell into character, portraying Bianca and Melissa’s angst for another packed theater.
There was definitely an energy between them when they interacted on stage that she’d never sensed when Jules did these same scenes with Micki. It seemed to resonate with the crowd too, because they received another standing ovation during curtain call, and the Thursday matinee crowd almost never gave standing ovations.
Sophie watched with tears in her eyes as Jules took her final bow. God, she was beautiful. Talented. Wonderful. The total package. And Sophie loved her so much, her heart ached with it.
Jules turned to leave the stage, passing Sophie without a glance in her direction, striding toward the stairs at a speed that left Sophie scurrying frantically in her wake. She was breathless by the time she reached the doorway to Jules’s dressing room, positioning herself in it before Jules could shut it in her face.
She stood there facing Sophie in that blue dress, eyes glinting, tension palpable, and it was so much like that other time Sophie had chased her to her dressing room, the night they’d had angry sex on her couch. Sophie’s body tingled at the memory, and Jules sucked in a breath, following her gaze to the couch.
Yeah, so they were both thinking about that. Okay, maybe this could work to her advantage.
“I need to talk to you,” Sophie said.
Jules shook her head. “Not now.”
“Yes.” Sophie clasped her hands in front of herself. “Please.”
