Can we start again?
Meet me tonight atstage door?
When the curtain falls.
Oz
x
When Olive had first seen the box of flowers in reception, she’d wondered if they’d been sent by Oscar – her agent usuallyjust sent a bottle of champagne. All the way up the stairs she’d been debating with herself whether she wanted the flowers to be from him or not. If he had sent them, then he’d won a few brownie points, but Olive wasn’t sure she wanted to give him any, even if the flowers really were quite extravagant, not to mention how beautiful they smelled. And if Oscar hadn’t sent them, then why not? Not thatOlive thought she deserved flowers, but he had screwed up and if he really did want to sort things out between them, then a bunch of flowers would be a lovely start.
Now that she knew he had definitely sent the flowers, she couldn’t help but smile at the gesture, which made her feel so conflicted about her own feelings that she then felt annoyed with herself. In the end, Olive started cryingfor what felt like the hundredth time that day.
‘Why couldn’t you have just…notkissed her?’
She folded the card in half and as she ripped it along the crease, one by one, all of the bulbs along her mirror shattered.
‘OH MY GOD!’ She jumped up from her seat, thankful she still had her shoes on as there was glass everywhere. She ran to the door and fumbled in the dark to flipthe switch to turn on the main overhead lights. ‘HOWARD!’ she yelled down the hallway.
‘What on earth is going on out there?!’ Oscar appeared in his doorway, his costume shirt on but still undone.
‘Nothing! Nothing! I just need Howard.’
‘Have you been crying again?’ Oscar started to walk up the corridor towards her, but Olive quickly retreated.
‘No, of course not!’She turned back into her room and quickly wiped her face.
‘Did you… oh my… what the hell happened in here?’ Oscar said as he walked into her dressing room to find glass scattered on the floor and the card from his roses ripped neatly in two lying amongst the shards.
‘I don’t know, all the bulbs just started… exploding. Howard said this building had dodgy electrics, but this was somethingelse.’ She started to collect the shards of glass carefully into her hands.
‘Something else? What do you mean something else? Here, let me help.’
‘Well… I don’t know! Ouch.’ Oscar picked up the small plastic bin so she could decant the glass from her hands into it, but a small fleck of blood was already forming on her palm.
‘Please don’t tell me you think this was a ghost,Olive.’ He put the bin back down and took her hand, inspecting her palm. He wiped it clean with his fingers when he was sure no glass was still stuck in her skin and in the split second he was deciding whether or not to kiss her palm, she pulled her hand away.
‘I don’t care what it was, Oscar. I just want things back to normal.’
‘The bulbs or…’
‘Yes, Oscar. The bulbs. I thinkeverything else is a little harder to fix.’ Olive took the bin and continued to pick the glass up off the floor, their conversation clearly over, and Oscar left to go and find Walter at stage door. He was so certain the roses would have helped, even if only a little, and so to see her crying again made his heart descend in his chest.
