"No, not at all."
"It's the Four-Runner right there—the black one. There's a bag in the backseat. Thank you, James." Collin handed James his keys.
I had a little bit of that pizza left, and I was thinking about how to stash it so that I could pack up my things and go.
"Good, I'm glad you got a slice," Collin said, seeing me with the pizza.
"She went to Tony's and got it for us," James said as he headed out the door. He smiled, leaving the two of us to finish that conversation.
Collin seemed to be about my age, and he was young and good-looking. I hadn't expected him to be so young. I felt taken off guard by his sudden appearance and didn't know what to say. It wasn't because he was handsome, which was the truth. But the real reason I got nervous was because I wanted to be in the show, and therefore I wanted to make a good impression on him. Collin sat down next to me on the bench while James went outside.
"Thanks for picking up the pizza," he said. "It was great. I've never been there before."
"Yeah, Tony's is great. It just opened about a year ago."
"And I just moved back a month ago, so that explains why I haven't tried it."
"Where'd you move from?"
"New York."
"How cool," I said. "I've been there a few times. Never to live, though. Did you grow up out there?"
"No, I'm from here. I was there for college."
"Where'd you go?"
"Tisch."
"Is that at NYU?" I asked.
He nodded and smiled. "Yes."
"That's fancy."
"I know, right?"
"What are you doing back in Montana?"
"I missed it," he said. "I took a job as the theater director here."
He gestured around us, and I said, "At this school?"
"Yeah."
"You work here?"
"I'll officially start in the fall. But they're letting us do our rehearsals here. It's a new school. They tore down the other one a couple of years back."
I looked all around. "It's nice in here."
"It's a beautiful auditorium. Have you seen it? It's an art-focused school. Our facilities are amazing. My office is huge."
"I've never been here. This lobby is as much as I've seen."
He glanced at me. "Are you here with James? Or do you work at the pizza place?"
"I'm James's friend," I said. "And I think I'm going to try out for the play next week, so I was just sort of coming up here to… see where the place was."
