Page 37 of Best Supporting Actor
“And thankyoufor the opportunity,” Tag added. He smiled too, but he looked tired. Well, he’d been acting his socks off all morning, Jay supposed. If he kept up that level of intensity, he’d be exhausted before opening night.
“Can I tempt you, old girl?” Henry had produced a packet of his trademark cigarillos from a pocket and was wiggling them at Freddie.
“No, you bloody well can’t,” she said, brandishing a vape pen back at him as she too got to her feet. “But I’ll keep you company outside and inhale some of your poisonous fumes…”
Bea, meanwhile, had her phone out and had turned to Rafe. “Selfie? I’m teasing the hell out of this all over my socials.” Blushing, she added, “And you look fabulous today.”
Rafe made a show of considering, then shrugged one shoulder. “Outside, then, the light’s better.”
Jay watched them leave, arm in arm, marvelling at how young they were. They couldn’t really be that much younger than him—well, perhaps ten years—but somehow he felt a lifetime older.
When the door banged shut behind them, Tag let out a long breath, eyes closing and head falling back to reveal the long pale column of his throat. A throat that Jay had kissed. He still remembered the soft warmth of Tag’s skin against his lips, the prickle of his late-evening stubble. Remembered too the way he’d felt being with Tag that night—appreciated, understood.Looked after. At one point he’d even imagined something profound was happening between them. Christ, what a bloody idiot.
Embarrassed, he looked away.
From outside came the sounds of the street: cars passing, people talking, a child laughing. In the distance, a siren wailed. But inside the rehearsal room, the silence swelled. Jay could feel it pressing on his chest, making it hard to draw breath, because now they were alone together.
Alone for the first time since that night.
As if animated by Jay’s thought, Tag opened his eyes and lifted his head. In the sunlit room, his dark hair gleamed as his lips curved into an impish smile. “So,” he said, “Juliusis it?”
Jay shook his head. “Don’t start.”
“Or do you prefer Caesar?”
“Trust me. I’ve heard them all before.”
Tag huffed a laugh. “Yeah. I bet that was fun at school.”
“You have no idea.”
“Are you kidding?” Tag flashed a grin, tapping his own chest. “Tag, remember? Gift Tag. Hash Tag. Name Tag… Endless fun.”
“Fair point.” Jay smiled, determined not to be charmed by that grin. But then their gazes tangled again, Tag’s honey-coloured eyes looking paler in the sunshine but still as captivating as Jay remembered, and his heart began to skip and skitter, his skin prickling hot.
Fuck.
Hurriedly, he got to his feet, breaking their locked gaze. “I, er, passed a nice-looking deli on my way here,” he said hurriedly. “Fancy grabbing a sandwich before the others get back?”
“A sandwich?” Tag sounded nonplussed.
Jay lifted an eyebrow, hiding behind the practised expression. “Two pieces of bread with some kind of savoury filling between them. They’re quite common in Chalfont St. Giles.”
“You should consider stand-up,” Tag said drily.
“I’d rather deep-fry my own eyeballs.”
Tag made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh, then sighed and tapped his script. “Thanks, but I’d better stay here and, er, read over the next scene.”
That would have felt like a brushoff had Tag not sounded so rueful. Jay frowned. “You’re extremely well prepared already, Tag. And aren’t you hungry?”
Curiously, a flush touched Tag’s cheeks. “Oh, I’ll just finish off these,” he said, waving airily at the last two pastries slumped limply on the plate between them. “That’ll be fine.”
Given how loudly Tag’s stomach had been rumbling earlier, two small pastries hardly seemed like enough food. Perhaps Jay ought to bring him something back from the deli? Oddly, he found that thought deflating. “Come on,” he coaxed, “you can afford a few minutes. You know what they say about all work and no play…”
“I do, yeah.” Tag’s gaze sharpened. “Unfortunately,Julius, some of us have to work twice as hard in life to get half as far as others.”
Okay. Jay spread his hands in surrender. No way he was getting dragged intothatconversation.