Chapter 11
Doug
True to her word, Willa was tough on me in Austin, and by the time we crisscrossed the country and reached the New York auditions, we had turned our banter into a game of double meanings and personalized insults, like when she called me a board-game geek or I told her she was an ice queen incapable of feelings. I took to calling her Frostina, which I suspected she liked, though she pretended to hate it.
Justin began to look at us with a bit of suspicion and bewilderment, not understanding why Willa spent so much camera time bickering with me. He tried to banter with her during auditions, but he didn’t get the same attention, and as far as I knew, neither Alan nor Willa planned to explain why.
He sought her out off camera too, and went out of his way to invite her to after-work plans with the cast and crew. I don’t think she ever went. Instead, we often played Uno or Gin Rummy in a corner of the hotel lobby with her dog on her lap.
The adjacent room thing only happened in Austin, and we both agreed getting caught coming in and out of each other’s hotel rooms at night would be a bad idea. No one would ever believe it was just to play cards. Plus, Alan would kill us both if we didn’t nail the timing of the relationship rumors. We were still two totally unknown B-list actors. Nobody cared about us yet.
With only the New York auditions ahead, rehearsals started in earnest for the show’s opening sketches and musical numbers. It had been a long time since I had to dance professionally. I hurt in places I didn’t remember ever hurting before, including a hit to my ego. They made me learn a hip-hop routine with Justin and filmed my every slipup, my every geeky attempt to mimic him. Justin made it look so easy. I knew no matter how much I rehearsed, I would only reach a certain level. Justin was taller, better looking, and three times more charming than I was. Not to mention hip-hop was his thing. But maybe that was the point. I was the judge to hate.
I also learned a quickstep routine with Victoria that was actually quite fun. She was an amazing dancer, and she made me even better. As this was Triple Threat, we had a small scene before we began our dance where the two of us were sitting at a bar—me as the bartender wiping down the counter and Victoria as the distressed patron waiting for her date who never shows. The whole script was her pretending everything was fine, and me knowing it wasn’t and not calling her out on it. Finally, the bar closes and I ask her to dance with me.
They didn’t ask me to learn a dance with Willa, and I didn’t ask. Whatever plans Alan had for us, they were always in the future. I assumed that meant sketches too.
I woke up the morning of the first day of New York Auditions wishing I didn’t have to get out of bed. This hotel had nice bedding and the room was dark and quiet. I’d only gotten three hours of sleep, but it was good sleep, the kind where you wake up and can’t remember where you are or who you are until the incessant ringing from your phone alarm reminds you. I hadn’t even changed my clothes from the plane, and my mouth was as dry as a desert.
My phone buzzed with a text from Willa.You up? The crew brought us good coffee. Open up and I’ll hand it to you.
Yeah, not happening. I stumbled into the bathroom, only to see my hair sticking up at a firm forty-five degree angle.
She texted again.Alan will kill you if you’re not in the makeup and wardrobe room in five.
My fingers were not in a texting mood. I scrolled down to her number. “I do not remember ordering a courtesy wakeup call.”
“I didn’t get any more sleep than you did, so suck it up, buttercup. Besides, you have about four seconds before I get tired of standing outside your room and I hand this coffee off to someone else.”
I did want the coffee. The stuff in the lobby was awful. Cracking the door open, I reached my arm out for it.
“Not happening. It’s like you’re channeling Victoria or something. Open up, diva.” She pushed on the door and I reluctantly stepped back and let her see me. For a full three seconds she took in my appearance before erupting with laughter and holding up her phone.
“You take that picture, your phone takes a bath.”
She lowered it and stuck it in her back pocket. “Sorry, instinct. I wasn’t really going to take a picture.” I took the coffee cup she held out like a peace offering and retreated to the mirrored closet door behind me, one-handedly trying to flatten my hair.
She stayed at the door, holding it open. Appearances, always appearances.
“How is shorter hair harder to manage?” I asked.
“Take a quick shower and let the hair and makeup people work their magic.” She waved goodbye and left.
As close as we’d become, I still always felt a little out of my depth with her, like a teenage boy around the high school girl of his dreams. It didn’t matter that the attention she gave me was because of our working relationship. Attention was attention, and my hormones reacted regardless.
I took the quickest shower known to mankind, not because I was worried about being chewed out by Alan, but because I wanted to prove to Willa I could handle an early morning as well as she could. I had a serious problem.
Willa
Justin was getting to be a serious problem, and I didn’t need any more of those. The New York auditioners were brash, funny, and totally serious about their craft. Chatting with them took all of my concentration, because if you didn’t get their jokes or have one to throw at them in return, you were pretty much dead to them. I hadn’t thought hosting would be this intense or require this much focus.
And yet, here was Justin, on break, heading straight for me. He might as well have worn a sign around his neck that said ‘unwelcome distraction.’ Maybe he’d never been turned down before, and I was his personal challenge.
I wanted to shut him down so bad, make it perfectly clear I had zero interest. I was aching to do it. Yeah, maybe he was nicer to Doug now than he’d been as a ten-year-old, but all I saw when I looked at Justin was someone who had turned his bullying years into his own afterschool special running in his head. He thought he was so evolved, so amazing. How could I not fall at his feet?
Unfortunately, I’d been commanded by Alan, in no uncertain terms, to not burn any bridges here. Alan could yell at anyone he wanted to but I had to play nice. It was infuriating.
Justin sidled up next to me and surveyed the waiting auditioners. “Willa, can I bring you a sandwich or something? You’ve got to be starving by now. Let me be your personal assistant.”
