Page 88 of Hot to Trot

The phone interrupted the rebuke she had intended on delivering to her sister and her henchman.

Rayne answered it. "It's for you. Some assistant who wants you to hold for a David Sparrow?"

Scarlet's fork clattered to the plate. She almost knocked over her juice glass in her scramble to grab the receiver.

Rayne held it out of reach and mouthed, "Who is he?"

Scarlet ignored her sister, gesturing impatiently until Rayne gave up the cordless. Scarlet left the toast behind as she pushed through the swinging door into the kitchen.

"This is Scarlet," she said into the receiver.

"This is Etta. We’ve been trying to get in touch with you on your cell …to no avail. Glad we found you. Can you hold for Mr. Sparrow?"

“Sorry about that, and sure.” She paced while she waited for David to come on the line.

“Scarlet. My, my, my, you’re a hard woman to track down.” A pause. “This is David Sparrow. We met once at an after party.”

“I remember.” She exchanged a few more niceties before the director got down to business. “I enjoyed your audition tape. Intriguing take on the character.”

"Thank you," Scarlet murmured, feeling nauseous. Her hands shook because she knew what this call meant. Knew she was on the verge of something big.

"I'd like you to come out and do a read for us. I’d like to see you with Hugh and see how you two play off each other."

She screwed her eyes closed and tried to keep her cool. Hugh flippin' Jackman was going to play her father. Or was it Hugh Grant? Oh, snap! Either one would be huge. "I'd love to. When are you thinking?”

"I know it's short notice, but Saturday afternoon I’m off to England on a press junket forSiren Call. Can we make it happen late Friday? Early Saturday at the latest?”

Scarlet closed her eyes, the last bite of bacon turning in her stomach. Of course that’s when he wanted her to read.

Scenes from The Magpie Thiefwould be performed on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. There would be no way to audition for Sparrow in LA. then make it back to Texas in time to direct the play. Dress rehearsal and dinner at the center had already been set for Friday evening. Half the guys in rehab had family coming in and the tickets had sold out.

"Sorry, I've got a commitment then. I could try to move things around. I want to-"

"I wish I could offer you another time," he interrupted, "but we're already behind schedule. Production’s gonna be tight on this one, so if you can't make it, I’ll move forward with other possibilities. But, look, I get upholding commitments.”

Scarlet felt her stomach slide into her shoes. She couldn’t pass this up. Couldn’t. Opportunities to break in and blow up were seldom to be had. She’d be dog stupid to tell David Sparrow no.

Scarlet sucked in a deep breath. “Yeah, so I can’t really pass up the chance to work with you. Let me work on moving my commitments here and I’ll be in L.A. tomorrow morning."

“That’s what I was hoping to hear.”

She wrote down the meeting place and time, then hung up. Sinking onto the kitchen stool, she was slammed with guilt. But what else could she have done? This was her big break, her chance to step away from the small screen and leap onto the big screen. The part wasn't huge, but it was cleverly written and deeply emotional and would stretch her acting ability beyond any other role she'd ever taken.

Adam.

Her heart skipped a beat. What about him... and her? And the magic they'd shared last night? A mere six hours ago, she'd left him with a tender kiss, a sweet promise for a beginning.

Not an end.

But shehadto go to L.A. Acting was her life. The guys at the center would be disappointed, but they would understand. Tipsy Nolan, the drama teacher at the high school, could step into Scarlet's shoes without blinking. The show would go on, the town would see the message hidden in the children's book, and Scarlet would get her biggest break since she'd donned her vampire cat suit.

But nothing would be solved with Adam.

She didn't know how she could leave him after last night. When had she'd gotten so attached to the idea of being with him? Everything felt so confusing, like being stuck in a mirrored fun house, not knowing which was the right direction to walk. Nothing familiar; everything disjointed and disfigured.

Rayne stuck her head in the door. “I’m heading over to the office for a pre-production meeting. We're filming here in a few hours, so you'll need to clear out. Wait, is everything okay?"

“It’s fine. But it looks like I’ll be clearing out myself. To L.A.," Scarlet ran her finger around the uneven tile of the bar.

---