“Great.” Fatima pulled out a chair and gestured to them to take a seat. “Let’s talk through it a little bit, and then we’ll run it up until the kiss. Now, Lilah, how do you think Kate’s feeling here?”
Lilah eased into one of the rolling leather chairs as Shane did the same. “I think…I think she’s frustrated that they obviously have these feelings for each other, but he can’t admit it. Especially after everything they’ve been through. It’s hard for her to understand why he’s shutting down and pushing her away. I think it really hurts her.”
She avoided looking at him as she said it, but her face heated under his gaze, the irony of the situation not escaping her.
Fatima nodded. “Absolutely, I think that’s spot-on. And Shane, why do you think Harrison is so reluctant to pursue things with her?”
Lilah glanced over at Shane, meeting his eyes. He looked away first.
“He’s afraid. Opening himself up to her means making himself vulnerable to getting hurt. I don’t think he ever really got over her death. He doesn’t want to take the risk of caring about her again. It’s easier to just close himself off, even if that means sacrificing his own happiness.”
“Well, we don’tknowthey’d be happy,” Lilah blurted out before she could stop herself. Shane and Fatima both looked at her with curious expressions. “I mean…they’ve never actuallybeen together for real. We don’t know what their relationship would look like. I don’t think it’s wrong for him to take that into account before jumping into things. Especially after all this buildup. There’s no way it could live up to whatever expectations they have for it.”
Fatima pursed her lips and cast her eyes to the ceiling, considering it. “Hmm. That’s an interesting angle. If you want to play up the uncertainty, it could definitely add to the drama of the moment, but I wonder if it’s denying the audience the catharsis they need.”
“Right. You’re right. Of course,” Lilah said hurriedly. “Sorry. Just…thinking out loud.”
“No need to apologize. No bad ideas here.”
“For the record,” Shane added, “I don’t think Kate is that hurt by it. By Harrison being withholding, I mean. I think she finds it more annoying than anything. Like, when is this guy going to get over himself already?”
She whipped her head in his direction, embarrassed he’d caught her slip. He had that look he always got when he was messing with her, a gloss of wide-eyed innocence he never wore otherwise. Lilah rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but feel a little destabilized by the whole conversation, unsure how much of it was real—from either of them. Fatima watched them with a pensive expression, her eyes flicking back and forth between them.
“Okay. Well. Good to know you have just as much insight into each other’s characters as your own.” She stood up. “Should we get it on its feet?”
They cleared the center of the room, rearranging the chairs and tables to give themselves some space. The scene was the last of the two-parter—Kate confronting Harrison about why he’d been so distant with her after rescuing her from her kidnappers.
Shane sat in one of the chairs, facing away from her, using his script as a stand-in for a prop book. Lilah approached the nonexistent doorway, and they exchanged the first few lines of small talk. She paused, gathering her courage as Kate.
“Did I do something wrong?”
Shane’s face was a blank mask. “What do you mean?”
“It kind of feels like you’ve been avoiding me.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you,” he said in a monotone. He held her gaze for a long moment before closing his script and putting it aside. “Will said your memory’s been coming back.”
“Yeah.”
“So? What do you remember?” His expression was cold, but she could see a flicker of emotion roiling under the surface. She was surprised he was bringing this level of intensity to what she’d assumed would be a glorified blocking session, but her competitive streak flared, pushing her to step her game up to match him.
She approached him slowly, without breaking eye contact. “I remember my name. I remember my tenth birthday. I remember the sound of my mom’s laugh.” She paused when she reached the desk, leaning against it and crossing her arms. “It’s all pretty jumbled together, though. Like, it kind of feels like it all happened at once, and my brain is still straightening it out, trying to make sense of everything.”
“Sounds confusing.” He seemed almost bored.
“Yeah. It is.” She paused. “You know the most confusing part, though?”
“What?” He wasn’t looking at her anymore, but she waited to respond until he met her eyes again.
“Even when I couldn’t remember any of that,” she said softly, “I knew I was in love with you.”
The script called for a long, loaded pause before Lilah’s next line, so she gave it the space it needed.
Shane’s gaze dropped to the floor. She watched his chest rise and fall. It felt like there was a string pulled taut between them—tighter every second, refusing to snap. He finally looked up at her, his expression so conflicted and stormy that her lips parted automatically, her heart rate speeding up, her stomach twisting. Those physical responses told her she was connected to Kate, fully present in the scene.
“Please say something.” She was startled by the desperation in her voice, barely above a whisper.
He shook his head and looked away. When he spoke again, his voice was low and gravelly, sending a thrill through her. “What do you want me to say? That when you were gone, it felt like I was half a person? Like all the best parts of me were missing? Like I died all over again?” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, his jaw tense. He got to his feet abruptly, making her flinch, but she stood her ground as he slowly moved toward her, even though she felt like her legs might give out.
