‘For God’s sake.’ Tamara pushed past Oscar, catching him on the shoulder as she scarpered up the stairs to her dressing room.
‘Erm… ouch,’ he said, rubbing his shoulder.
‘You did kiss her and then decide you didn’t want her any more,’ Olive said with a sigh as she followed Tamara up to her own room.
‘Once! I kissed her once and I was —’
‘Drunk! Everyone knows!’ Doug gave him a slap on the cheek.
‘Ouch. Why is everyone hurting me today?’
‘Because everyone’s a little bit angry with youtoday! Look, just give Olive time. She’s mad at you, but she’s also mad about you.’ Doug started unbuttoning his own shirt, his hat and waistcoat in the crook of his arm.
‘And I’m mad about her! I just want this to be fixed. I want simple and happy and so far all this job has been is complicated and miserable.’
‘Does she know that?’
‘What?’
‘That you’re mad about her?’
‘… I think so.’ Oscar shrugged.
‘Have you said those words to her? Those exact words?’
‘Well… no, I don’t think so. Not exactly.’
‘So… all she knows is you like her enough to spend time with her, but don’t want to be with her.’
‘How do you know all of this?’
‘She tells me everything.’
‘Great.’
‘And I mean everything…’ Doug briefly glanceddownwards and Oscar could feel his cheeks flush.
‘Which begs the question, Oscar, why are you stood here telling me that you’re crazy for her? Tellherthat! She’d love to know! In fact, if you’d been telling her that from the start she would have had far less to be insecure about.’
‘Don’t say that.’ Oscar rubbed his eyes.
‘Truth hurts, mate.’
‘I’m not a soppy person!I don’t like PDAs, I’m not good with telling people how I feel —’
‘You’ve just told me how you feel! You never have to say anything you don’t mean, you don’t even have to be gushy or soppy. But if you can tell me you’re mad about her then you can tell her that too. Simple as that.’ Doug gave Oscar a slap on the back and disappeared down the small spiral staircase to his own dressing room,leaving Oscar on his own.
He reached his corridor and paused briefly at Olive’s door. His hand was poised to knock but, despite Doug’s words of encouragement, Olive had said she needed time and Oscar was worried that things between them would never heal if he didn’t do as she asked. So he kept on walking, lost in his thoughts, until suddenly Olive’s door burst open.
‘Has anyone seenmy clothes?’ she called down the corridor, Oscar the only one around to answer her.
‘Your clothes?’ he laughed.
‘Well, I’m not going to the after party in this.’ She gestured at the big purple towel wrapped around her like a dress.
‘I mean, it’s definitely a look!’ Oscar said, trying to look anywhere but at her body.
‘Have you taken them?’
