Page 16 of Bodied

“Oh, yeah. No problem.” He glanced at his watch and stood. “You look great, princess. The boots are perfect. Your hair is cute. Your makeup looks great. Let’s get you to that audition on time, okay?”

* * *

Lauren spent the entire ride to the audition going over and over her lines. Wesley didn’t see how she could possibly get any new insight after the number of times she’d already been over them.

“Don’t you think you should take a breather before you wear out your vocal cords or something?” he asked.

She shot him an angry look and went right back to her lines. Wesley decided not to push her when she was clearly an inch from snapping.

It was odd to be driving a client around, especially one who sat in the passenger seat and chatted at him. That had to be the reason he had such an instinct to ease her mind. It was all so highly unusual, and his brain was tricking him into thinking this was just another friend going through a rough time. But he had to remind himself this wasn’t a friend. This was a client. Not even that. This was a client’s daughter. He reminded himself that his job was to play the boyfriend in public. Doing so in the car would only confuse things for both of them.

At the audition, she finally put her script away. A good number of people were waiting for their turn, all lined up in the hall in various stages of panic. Compared to everyone else, Lauren appeared to have all her ducks in a row. It was a complete switch from how she was in the car. Wesley was impressed. As far as acting went, she was a natural. She just had to take the survival instincts she used in her real life and apply them to the stage. Maybe that was why she connected to acting so much.

He realized he was sitting beside her, coolly psychoanalyzing her when he was supposed to be acting like a boyfriend. So he took a deep breath and put an arm around her shoulders. “You’re going to crush this,” he said. “I know you will.”

Lauren turned to him, her cheeks going pinker than he’d ever seen them. He wondered if he was maybe playing his role a little too well. Maybe this acting thing wasn’t so tricky after all. He pulled her closer and gave her a squeeze, and she looked up at him with the most adorable eyes, which he did his very best to not appreciate.

“Lauren Bartlett,” someone called out to her from a newly opened door.

She stood, and Wesley squeezed her shoulder. “Break a leg, princess” he said.

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, preparing herself. “Here goes nothing.”

Then she was gone, and Wesley was left waiting. It surprised him how nervous he was for her. Weirdly, it mattered to him whether she got the part. He was even wringing his hands while he waited.

After several minutes passed, he began to sweat for no good reason. This audition was taking way longer than it should have. The wait got so excruciating that, when Lauren finally reappeared in the waiting area, Wesley actually shot to his feet.

“How did it go?” he asked, hoping Lauren would ascribe his urgency to the boyfriend act. But it wasn’t. He really did care.

“I think it went okay,” she said. “They said they’d call later today.” On their way out, she added, “I think I need a drink and a cheesy romance movie. Let’s go home.”

“Sure thing.” He opened the building’s door for her, and draped an arm around her as she passed by. As soon as they got into his car, he dropped the pretense and started the engine. Part of him didn’t want to drop the pretense, though. Part of him wanted to keep it going for the rest of the day, but he shut that instinct down as quickly as the inclination arose, every time the inclination arose, which was every few minutes, unfortunately.

Halfway to the apartment, Lauren’s phone rang. Wesley couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation because Lauren hadn’t put it on speaker, but by the nervousness in her mannerisms, he suspected it was related to the audition she’d just had. That was quick. If it was a rejection, the quickness of it couldn’t feel great. He immediately began thinking of ways to comfort her if she took it too hard. Maybe another ridiculous movie? Maybe taking her out for a drink? Something to help her forget and have a good time instead.

She ended the call and said, “Pull over,” without even looking at him.

Oh, no.This was exactly what he’d worried about. He found a spot to park, and Lauren leapt out of the car, screaming. He leapt out after her. It took him a second too long to realize her scream was from excitement and not anger or sadness. He only realized it seconds before she threw her arms around his neck, and he instinctively caught her by the waist.

She was off the ground, in his arms, and shouting, “Yes, yes, yes!” into his ear. Her body against his was too soft and too warm, and he was reacting to it way too much. “They said it’s between me and one other person. They said I was basically a shoo-in for the part. Narrowing it down to two or three people is just a formality, but they all liked my performance the best. I got it! I basically got it!” She dropped back to the ground and grinned up at him. The way her eyes glittered with pure joy and the hint of happy tears had Wesley’s heart beating a mile a minute. “My whole life is about to change. This is it!” she cried, still grinning.

Without even thinking about it, he ruffled her short, already messy hair and said, “Can I take you out to celebrate? Buy you a drink and dinner?” He quickly realized he’d taken things beyond what would typically be considered professional, so he amended it. “Because it’s what a good boyfriend would do, right? It would look pretty weird if I didn’t at least take you out after you got such good news.”

“Oh, why not? I’m in a good mood. Let’s do it. You pick the place.” She gave him a knowing smile and a quick wink as she got back into his car. When he joined her, she handed him one of her credit cards. “I’m not making you pay for my ruse, though. Use this.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “I’m not destitute, you know. I can afford to pay for one dinner.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t feel the need if I hadn’t made you pretend to be my boyfriend. Don’t worry.” She nudged him. “I’ve got this one.”

He decided not to argue with her and pocketed her credit card. “Do you like pub food?” he asked. It was suddenly clear how few romantic restaurants he had in his back pocket. Considering how seldom he dated, it made sense, but he suddenly felt inadequate. He began to formulate an apology and explanation, but she answered before he could get it out.

“Do I ever!” she cried, bouncing in her seat. “It’s been forever since I’ve been to a good pub. Let’s go, farm boy. This is going to be fun for both of us, right?”

He refused to give her the answer he knew she wanted, instead preferring to let it linger in the air between them as he drove her to one of his favorite pubs. It wasn’t a sports bar, more like a classic Irish pub with a cozy aesthetic and delicious comfort food. He often came here when he just wanted to relax without having to put up any kind of front, and for some reason, he thought it would be perfect for Lauren, too, especially considering the kind of roles she had to play almost constantly in her life.

What Wesley couldn’t have predicted was just how right he’d been. Lauren was in some kind of heaven as soon as she saw the place. “This is amazing,” she said, sliding into their booth, her head swiveling left and right. She noted all the trinkets and signs on the walls and then asked, “Do they ever have live music?”

Wesley smiled at her. “In about twenty minutes, in fact.”

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