‘Oh,wow. That’s exciting. Thanks.’ Olive grabbed her letters and Howard picked up the tall black parcel from the floor. It had a picture of gold flowers printed on the side.
‘Looks like someone’s been rather extravagant! Says here it’s got two dozen roses inside!’ Howard said, reading off the receipt stuck to the side of the parcel.
‘Howard!’ Sammy turned and thumped Howard’s arm. ‘Whycan’t you let the girl open the parcel and find out for herself?’
‘It’s got a picture of a bunch of flowers on the side of the box! It’s hardly a surprise that it’s a bouquet of flowers, is it?’ said Howard, peering around the side of the box.
‘Relax, Sammy! My agent texted me and said they’d be sending me something so I knew it was coming. Roses, though. That’s nice.’
‘Twodozen. Even nicer!’ said Doug, signing them all in.
‘Pass them here,’ Olive said as she kicked the second lot of double doors open, her arms outstretched for the box.
‘It’s all right, I’ll bring them up. You’re on my floor anyway,’ Howard answered, carrying the large box with ease.
‘Aww, thanks. See you in a bit, Walter!’ Olive called back as they disappeared into the theatretogether.
‘How did you get so chummy with the door man?’ asked Sammy as they all climbed the stairs.
‘Dunno. We just got chatting. He seems sweet enough.’ Olive shrugged as she started opening one of the three letters she’d found in her pigeonhole.
‘He’sold. How long has he been working here?’ said Doug.
‘No idea, but it’s nice that the theatre has kept him here despitehis age. If someone wants to keep working doing what they love, and they can manage it, then why not!’ said Howard.
‘Well, tell him the lightbulb in our room is still broken,’ said Sammy, peeling off to the door on the first floor with Doug.
‘That’s weird, one of mine broke the other day too,’ said Olive, giving Sammy a hug before she went to her dressing room.
‘These theatresare so old, the electrics are bound to be a bit dodgy. See you guys in a bit!’ said Howard and when the door closed he whispered to Olive, ‘Is something going on between the two of them?’
‘What? Doug and Sammy? No! I mean… I don’t think so. Sammy would have said something,’ Olive said as she overtook Howard on the stairs.
‘Urgh, I’m so bad at this. I just can’t figure out who fancieswho!’
‘Stop trying!’ Olive laughed.
‘No, I know it shouldn’t matter. It’s just fun, isn’t it? You spend so long with people you’re bound to start fancying at leastsomeonein the cast. Problem is the person I fancy only has eyes for you, it seems.’ Howard nudged Olive’s elbow with his own, almost dropping the box of flowers in the process.
‘Oscar?’ Olive scoffed, keeping hereyes on the open letter in her hands but unable to focus on any of the words. ‘He’s got eyes for more people than I thought.’
‘Olive, my love. Can I be honest with you?’ Howard said, as she held her dressing room door open for him.
‘Go on…’ she groaned. He put the box down on her desk and slid it towards her as she sat in her chair.
‘Make him sweat. He deserves that. But don’truin your own happiness. I’ve seen how he looks at you when you’re not looking. And if he’s looking at you like that when you’re not looking, it’s proof that he’s not just putting on a show. He likes you. Whether you believe it or not. He’s just being very immature about it all.’
‘I know,’ she sighed, putting the box between her legs and gently removing the bouquet of twenty-four deep redroses that spilled out into formation as they came free from the box.
‘He’s a lost little boy who up until now hasn’t needed to think about what he wants because everything has always been given to him on a silver platter. Now that he’s found you, something he very clearly wants, he’s just a little bit frightened.’
‘I know.’
‘I know you know. But it’s easy to let the voicesin your head win and convince you otherwise so I just thought I’d stick my nose in and give the good voices a bit of back up.’
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your half hourcall,this is your half hour call. Thank you.
‘Right! Break a leg! God bless! Don’t be shit!’ And just like that, Howard was gone. Olive moved a few roses out of the way, hunting for a card and finding one atthe very centre of the bunch of gorgeous blooms.
