The audition went well.
Not great, in the sense that they didn’t immediately offer a callback or the job. But good in the sense that Irina had totally nailed the Sergio line. Turned out, she just needed a spotlight to make it come alive.
“Hey.” She strode through the door to Bax and Courtney’s house. Linx, Bax, and Knox all lounged in the living area off the foyer. The television was on in the background, but they were obviously working on a song because Knox and Linx had their guitars out. Linx sat on the couch with his guitar while Knox sat cross-legged on the floor near the dark mahogany coffee table with his.
There were random “heys” given all around. Knox even flashed her a quick grin before going back to his chords.
“Knox, Courtney wants the details of today’s excursion from you because I have none of the, and I’m quoting—” She made finger quotes. “Good notes. By good notes, I think she means the messy details. All I could tell her was my hand almost broke, you knew what to do, and the baby’s super cute.”
Courtney followed her through the door. “Courtney also wants to understand why you didn’t let your publicist know you completed a random, and totally awesome, act of heroism without telling her anything about it.”
Irina held up a finger. “Nope. He doesn’t like hero word. Don’t, uh…go there…”
“I am going to go there because it’s true.” Courtney wandered through the room to where Bax lounged with Harley mouthing a green horse-shaped baby rattle. She lifted her daughter and blew a raspberry at her tummy. “As your publicist I need to know these things. And as your manager, Hans also needs to know these things so he can handle any damage control or fallout.”
“What are you two talking about?” Bax asked, standing to give his wife a welcome-home hug.
Linx grunted something that sounded like, “Yeah, what’s going on?”
“You didn’t tell them?” Courtney glared at Knox. “It’s like you’ve done something that can totally revive your image and you aren’t using it to the full advantage.”
“Because it’s not for that.” Knox blew a breath out from between his lips, and went back to scribbling on the sheet music.
Irina didn’t like the way he shut down about it, but she understood emotions got complicated around things sometimes. “Maybe we should wait until Becca can come by?”
She understood emotions better than all of them combined.
“Not necessary,” Knox said, finally dropping the pen and setting the guitar aside. “Lady had a baby on the plane coming into Denver. Not a big deal.”
“Uh.” Irina crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “There’s more, Knox.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a lot more?” Bax asked, nuzzling Courtney’s neck from behind.
“He delivered the damn baby!” Courtney threw this out almost like an accusation.
“Holy shit,” Linx said, dropping the guitar pick he’d held between his lips. “Like you actually put your hands there and…” He made a pulling motion.
“Yup.” Irina nodded. “Baby and Mom are both fine because Knox knew what to do. Also, he’s a certified EMT—like the guys you call from 9-1-1 that show up with an ambulance. He’s even paid the extra five dollars for the certification card.” Perhaps she got a little too worked up about that, because she got more and more high pitched toward the end. She cleared her throat and uncrossed her arms. What could she say? She was proud of him.
“How did your audition go?” Knox asked, totally defecting the spotlight back to her.
“Under normal conditions I would be perfectly fine with that question.” She crossed her arms. “But you need to let us give you props for the thing you did that was awesome.”
She uncrossed her arms, then crossed them again.
Knox didn’t say anything, he just stared at her as though waiting for a real answer to his question.
“Audition went fine, they said thanks for coming and they’d be in touch. I’ve been through this enough to know that usually means they’ve got someone else lined up they’d prefer to take the role.” She dropped to the sofa. “I can’t let myself be sad. It’s just one audition.”
“But you really wanted that part,” he said, low and soft.
She flicked a piece of lint from the couch and hedged. “I always want the role. But enough about me, let’s talk about you.” See? She could deflect right back at him.
“Let’s not.”
“Knox.” Courtney used a tone that Irina knew meant she was all business. “You and I and Hans all have to talk about this.”
“Nope.” He went right back to strumming his guitar.
