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“It is now. Lala, you should have seen it. She had half our peopleup there with her in thirty seconds flat. Everyone was in sync and working it.I felt like I’d stumbled upon the middle of a performance ofRent. It was epic.”

“Sounds epic,” Lauren said blandly. Inside, she scoffed. She knewhow to have fun, but it had been a while since she’d kept show-people hours.She turned in when the theater folk headed out because she was Lauren. Maybeshe missed it a little bit, though. The old days. She could admit that.

When Lauren arrived at Pete’s at precisely ten, she found Carlyand Kirby, who played Ashley’s assistant in the show, among other roles, doinga pink colored shot at the bar. The rest of the group populated the smalltables that dotted the main floor, an oasis in which drinks and pub foodflowed. The lighting gave the place an overall red tint, and a variety of ballcaps—each sporting the wordPetesomehow worked into a slogan—dotted the walls. The other room was furnishedwith dartboards and pool tables under fluorescents. Five restored jukeboxeslined the back wall. Pete’s was known for two things: drinks and billiards.Lauren happened to be better at one than the other.

Deep breath as she approached her colleagues. She relaxed, smiled,and left her metaphorical clipboard at the door. Hell, if she thought about it,she was supposed to be on a beach right now. Tonight, she planned to embracethat relaxation, unwind, and maybe even get the tiniest bit tipsy. Who knew?The night was young.

* * *

“Did I mention that I love martini night?” Kirby enthused. KirbyBonner was an up-and-comer who couldn’t have been more than twenty-two,twenty-three at most and had the cutest little pixie cut. From the momentthey’d met, she seemed to really look up to Carly, even after all the badpress. Maybe not the wisest role model choice, Carly thought, but she alsounderstood that her celebrity did tend to attract people. “Let’s do them everySaturday. God, I live for a good martini. Don’t you? I’d love it if we made ita thing. Do you want to make it a thing?” She also liked to talk. A lot.

“We can totally make that happen,” Carly said, accepting the mangomartini from the bartender. Orange and beautiful and well earned. Carly touchedher glass to Kirby’s. With her brown hair and doe-like brown eyes, she wouldsurely be cast as everyone’s cheerful younger sister. At least for the nextfive years. Carly turned back to the group, and would you look at that? Herstomach muscles went tight, and she shimmied against the tingle that crept upher spine. Lauren Prescott had just walked in. “Well, well,” she murmured toherself.Dreams do cometrue.

Kirby followed her gaze. “I feel like she gets on you a lot,”Kirby said, surely trying to make it clear that Carly’s enemies were hers. “Whocares if you missed the off-book deadline for the first three scenes. You’re aprofessional. You’re going to be fine on lines.”

“Lauren? Nah, she’s just doing her job.”

“She should get who you are, though, you know?”

It was possible the same thought had occurred to Carly. Yet shecould forgive Lauren for being so uptight and stuffy and hell-bent on followinga clock. It was apparently what she was hired to do.

“I’m not always easy to wrangle,” she told Kirby.

“My boyfriend says that about me. He’s six three.”

“Is he now? Amazing.” Carly sipped her martini and let the nearlytoo loud music wash over her. Saturdays were for letting off steam, and thatwas exactly what she planned to do, especially with a day off tomorrow. She wasalready a drink in and her muscles felt a little looser. She inched her wayslowly to that point of tipsy with each new sip. God, she loved the gradualfeeling of that unravel. She wasn’t a fan of drunk, but tipsy she could do. “Beback soon,” she told Kirby and headed across the bar, following the magneticpull that wouldn’t seem to let up.

“You came,” she said to Lauren when she arrived at her table nearthe front of the bar. “I honestly wasn’t sure you would.”

Lauren gasped and smiled. “Why? Because you think I’m uptight?”

“No. Because I know you are.” She tossed in a wink for goodmeasure.

“Don’t be so sure you know everything.”

“I’ll work hard,” Carly said. “Let me buy you a martini. Please.I’ve never seen you outside that rehearsal room, so this warrants acelebration. Deal?”

“I’m in.” Carly stole an extra few seconds to absorb this newversion of Lauren. Her dark hair was down and she’d added a subtle curl to itwhich came off as fucking glamorous. Carly loved it. Lauren wore jeans and awhite cold shoulder blouse. Yeah, those bare shoulders were really doing Carlyin. Lauren was hot with her shoulders covered, but this just seemed cruel. Thestraitlaced thing only fueled that fire.

“One martini for my stage manager,” Carly said five minutes later,depositing the drink next to Lauren. She picked up her own martini and offereda toast. “To a kick-ass show.”

Lauren touched her martini glass to Carly’s. “I will sincerelysecond that. As soon as you meet your off-book deadlines.” She added a wink.

“Is it really that big a deal?”

Lauren stared her straight in the eye. “It really, really is.”

“For you? I will put in the effort.”

“It should really be for you, but I’ll take it.” Lauren passed heran amazing smile, and that made everything better.

The music in the bar portion of Pete’s was loud, but by nowCarly’s ears had acclimated. Yes, they had to talk louder than usual to heareach other, but that was part of the fun of being out and about. God, she feltlike dancing, but one-on-one time with Lauren won out.

“Do you live near here?” Carly asked. It wasn’t small talk. Shewanted to know more about Lauren, and geography seemed like a good place tostart.

She nodded. “Only a couple of miles north. Easy commute to thetheater, which is nice, given I have to be there at odd hours.”

“I feel like your job is never ending. You’re there before all ofus, and you leave after we do.”