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I hurriedly typed Yes before letting him know to enter through the stage door. Once I saw him enter the auditorium, I waved and called out, telling him how to get up to me.
A few minutes later, he knocked and came into the booth, accidentally kicking the broken-ruler door wedge.
“Don’t let it close!” I yelled, jumping out of my seat. I secured the wedge and then looped my arms around his waist.
His hands cupped my face as he kissed me slowly, and I shivered when he nibbled my bottom lip before pulling away. “Why do you have a broken ruler holding the door open?” he asked.
“It sometimes locks from the outside. No one can find the key, and maintenance is kinda stingy during the summers.” I kissed him again before plopping back into my chair. “Gotta love old buildings.”
“Maybe I could fix it for you?” He ran his hands over the hinges and frame. “It’s easy to install a new lock, honestly.”
“That’s sweet, but Ms. Sparrow was supposed to call the owners earlier this week, so I’m sure someone’s on their way to fix it.” I hoped.
Frankly, it had been a miracle I hadn’t locked myself in here while working alone on my cues.
Reed took the chair next to me in front of the soundboard and moved his hand over one of the knobs.
“Careful!” I warned. “That board is super glitchy.”
“I thought you said it was a new one?”
“It is, but I’m beginning to think it’s as cursed as the theater is…”
“But your grandmother did a ton of stuff here.” Reed leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure it’s not that bad.”
I spun to face him. “The fire alarm has gone off twice for no reason, the ghost light randomly turns on and off, that booth door won’t stay fixed, and my new board keeps crashing—”
“Fair enough.” Reed scooted his chair closer to me. “So what are you working on today?”
“Scene five of act three, where Romeo is leaving Juliet’s room after they, um…well, after they—”
“Sleep together?” Reed’s eyebrows went up, and a smirk played at the corner of his mouth, making me want to kiss his dimple. It didn’t help that his hair had that messy, wet, just-showered look again.
Focus, E.
“Right.” My neck flushed with heat. “I’m trying to capture the mood right for when Juliet’s mother comes in, because there’s a big shift a second later when the dad enters and says awful things to her.” My stomach squirmed.
I honestly couldn’t decide who I hated more in this play: the friar or Juliet’s father. One abandons her in a freaking tomb while another says he’d leave her to die in the streets if she didn’t obey him. Bleh.
“Can I see?” Reed picked up the script. “I can read the lines while you do the cues, if it helps.”
“Actually, that’d help a lot. Thanks.” The downside to doing cues alone is that you forgot the natural rhythm of dialogue, which could make it hard to guess the fades.
I pointed to where I wanted to start in the script and backed up a few cues to match the spot. “Whenever you’re ready, Romeo,” I nudged his shoulder and pressed the green “GO” button to start the scene.
Reed cleared his throat and began reading. “ ‘Farewell! / I will omit no opportunity / That may convey my greetings, love, to thee.’ ”
Wow. Total natural.
“Juliet?” Reed nudged me. “Your line.”
Oh, right. “ ‘O, think’st thou we shall ever meet again?’ ” I clicked the “GO” button again for the slow fade into one of my favorite foreshadowing moments of the play, after Romeo’s next line.
“ ‘I doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve / For sweet discourses in our times to come.’ ”
The ace pitcher reads Shakespeare like a thespian. Damn.
The stage continued to slowly darken except for a softer blue that would be behind Romeo as he descended the balcony. As I read my lines, the only light on the stage came from the follow-spot that would be directly above Juliet, casting a small part of Romeo in shadow. “ ‘O God, I have an ill-divining soul! / Methinks I see thee, now thou art so low, / As one dead in the bottom of a tomb. / Either my eyesight fails or thou lookest pale.’ ”
