Page 7 of To the Moon and Back

While it was ultimately Ethan’s call, it was Lauren’s job to makesuggestions that would keep rehearsal running in a timely manner, and puttingany more of their allotted time on hold for a late actress was not in theproduction’s best interest. Ethan nodded his agreement and opened rehearsal. Heintroduced himself and allowed the cast of eight, well, seven in its currentstate, to introduce themselves. When they got around the table to Evelyn Tate,the other lead actress in the play, the door to the rehearsal room opened witha noticeable bang and none other than Carly Daniel appeared. She woredistressed jeans, heels, a V-neck white T-shirt with a short floral kimono tophanging open, all accentuated with a long silver necklace. She was gorgeous, avision straight out of a magazine. Her blond hair fell several inches past hershoulders, and she had large sunglasses perched on her head. In her right hand,she carried an oversized iced coffee, halfway consumed. Everyone swiveled inawe. While it wasn’t Lauren’s first choice to pause the introductions for alate arrival, it seemed Carly had the entire room’s attention regardless, whichmeant Lauren needed to pivot from her plan of plowing forward.

She turned to the table. “Ladies, and gentleman, Carly Daniel.Thank you for joining—” But Lauren didn’t get to finish her sentence becausethe cast burst into happy applause, and Carly did a makeshift curtsy, extendingthe iced coffee outward as she lowered her body.

The applause seemed to encourage her, and she beamed as ifgreeting her adoring public. “Hi, everyone. I’m Carly, and I’m so thrilled tobe here, to meet each one of you and make this the best experience possible.”Most of the room beamed right back at her, honored to be in her sunshineypresence, and nodded in welcoming agreement. All but one, that was. Evelyn Tatesat tight-lipped and sour, as if waiting for the moment to pass.

The little late ball of sunshine that was Carly Daniel was goingto be a force to wrangle. Lauren could already tell. People clearly adored andresponded to Carly, and she was used to that kind of lavish attention. In aproduction like this one, where ensemble work was so important, Carly might notblend. Something to take note of. Plus, Lauren had done her research sincetaking the job. The headlines hadn’t been forgiving. “Carly Daniel DelaysProduction,” “Studio and Director Argue Over the Costly Decision of Daniel,”and her personal favorite, “Carly Daniel Billed 10K in Hotel Room PartyFiasco.” What in the world had gone on in that hotel room that had cost tenthousand dollars? One could only guess, as the article didn’t say. Lauren hadlet her imagination run wild, cringing at each possible scenario.

Carly, who was more beautiful than should have been allowed,turned to Ethan and Lauren with a hand over her heart. “I am so sorry I’m a fewlate. Crazy morning for me.”

“No problem,” Ethan said. “You’re here now and we can roll.”

Lauren forced a smile. If Carly knew she was running late forrehearsal, why had she clearly made a coffee stop? Those ice cubes were fresh.Instead of belaboring that point in her brain, she shook it off. At this earlya juncture, she decided not to go there. Lauren would give Carly the samebenefit of the doubt she gave everyone, and she at least had the courtesy toapologize with a smile. Maybe it had all been a fluke. A miscommunication oftheir start time.

“Am I here?” Carly asked, pointing at an empty chair next toEvelyn, the one actor at the table who still looked like she tasted somethingunpleasant. That said something, and Lauren mentally clocked the disdain.

“Yes, that’s you,” Lauren said. Carly slipped into her chair andwaved at Kirby Bonner, the young actress seated across from Carly, who wasclearly starstruck. Carly put out a friendly vibe, at least. “We were in themidst of introductions when you arrived.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Carly whispered loudly and bowed her head as if tomake herself invisible. The room laughed. Lauren didn’t.

“Evelyn, please continue,” Lauren said, holding out her hand withan encouraging smile.

“I was wrapping up anyway,” Evelyn said. “I’m thrilled to beworking with Ethan, as I have nothing but the highest respect for his work, andlook forward to a great run with all of you.” She held up the script. “I thinkthis play is an important one. It’s about the love between two women, and weneed to see more of that in live theater. If we do this thing right, it’s goingto touch a lot of people.”

That comment resonated with Lauren. She’d read the play upward often times at this point and adored it. It was the story of Ashley and Mandy,who experienced a sliding doors moment. Down one path, they found themselvesstranded together overnight at an airport when their flight was canceled. Theyargued, got to know each other, stargazed until the wee hours of the morning,and eventually, over time in the coming weeks, fell deeply in love. The otherpath, played out in act 2, had Mandy making the flight, and Ashley missing it.Their lives took separate, more tumultuous turns. In the end, they passed eachother in a grocery store and took a long searching look back, feeling somethingunspoken tugging at them. The final scene had them abandoning their carts andtaking a step toward the other, ending the play on the question, is fate real?It was a hopeful ending, especially having seen how fantastic the two weretogether in act 1, once they got past their differences.

Lauren broke out in goose bumps each time she read it. Shecouldn’t wait for Ethan to work his magic, along with Evelyn and Carly, ofcourse. Carly, who would play Ashley, a blond knockout, and Evelyn, who wouldplay Mandy, a redheaded everygirl, made a great physical pairing when she sawthem seated next to each other, a perfect looking couple. Once the firstread-through began, Lauren clicked the stopwatch and sat back to listen ineager anticipation of hearing the play come to life. It was good, but at thesame time, she felt like something wasn’t quite…there.

Probably just because this was the first time they’d heard thewords, out loud. Together. The character of Ashley was a driven, focused hedgefund manager. In the read, Carly tackled those characteristics with gusto.Evelyn played the character of Mandy, a kindergarten teacher who understood thevalue of stopping to smell the roses and appreciating the little things. Laurenmissed the lighthearted portions of Evelyn’s reading. Carly’s Ashley was real,raw, and identifiable. But Evelyn brought an edge to Mandy that kept her fromfeeling relatable. While it wasn’t at all Lauren’s job to worry about thosekinds of things, she loved the play so much that she’d taken a silent interest.She thought about how she would have delivered those lines, identifying momentsof comedy for Mandy that were entirely missed or glossed over in the read.Luckily, she had a feeling Ethan would be working on eliminating some ofEvelyn’s bite in the coming weeks. He’d been furiously scribbling notes as they’dread, stealing glances at the two of them. The six other members of the casthad tracks in which they would play all the other roles in the show. Some wouldtake on as many as seven different characters before the journey was done. Thiswas going to be a ride.

On their first official break, Carly stopped by Lauren’s chair.“You’re Lauren, right? From the voicemail.”

Lauren stood and offered her hand. “Yes, I’ll be the PSM for theproduction. Nice to officially meet you.” She was caught off guard by the vibrancyof blue in Carly’s wide Disney princess–like eyes once they were up close forthe first time.

“Likewise.” Carly quirked an eyebrow. “PSM? Sorry, you may have tohelp me out with the theater lingo. I’m still stuck in camera speak. I havevery little experience with stage work.” She closed her eyes. “That’s not eventrue. I have zero experience.”

Aha. She wasthatgreen when it came to live theater. “Not a problem. Stands for production stagemanager. Think of me as head stage manager, and Trip is my number two.” Shepointed at Trip, who poured himself a cup of coffee. “I’ll be organizing andhelping Ethan implement a rehearsal strategy. I’ll also be in charge ofmaintaining the show once he moves on after rehearsal. I also do a myriad ofother things. For example, if you ever need help with your lines, let me know.We can set up a session.”

“You have a lot going on.”

“I do, but I’m no stranger to the job.”

Carly pointed at her and smiled, exposing how her whole face litup when she did. “Above all other stage managers. Got it. Anyway, sorry forthat late entrance. I’ll try and be better.” She held up a finger. “Scratchthat. Iwillbe.”

Lauren liked those words a lot, because they were not off to agreat start. At the same time, she wasn’t sure Carly understood the importance.“Well, that’s good to hear. I know Ethan is thrilled to have you on board.”

Carly nodded. “I’m grateful to be here. Trust me. I needed this.”Lauren took a moment because Carly’s beauty hadnotbeen exaggerated. She could see whyHollywood put up with her wilder ways for so long. Not to mention the fact thatshe was also crazy talented. A one-two punch that couldn’t be argued. “Youokay?” Carly asked.

“Me?” Lauren shook herself out of it, embarrassed and attemptingto recover. “Very much so. Yeah. Why?”

“You seemed to lose your focus.”

“Oh no. Just always thinking two steps ahead. Another part ofbeing a stage manager.” It was the lamest answer, but she couldn’t very welltell Carly that she was stunned silent by how pretty she was. Not really themessage she wanted to send in the moment to a colleague in her workplace.

“Anything I can do to help?” Carly also had a really nice tangoing that made her skin look incredibly smooth. Likely very soft. Okay, whatthe hell was she doing? Lauren didn’t recognize herself or her own ridiculousbehavior. She never crushed. And she still wasn’t, damn it. That’s not whatthis was.

“No. We only have seven minutes left on that break.”

“Good call.” She touched Lauren on the wrist as she passed, whichcaught Lauren off guard. She stared at Carly’s hand, briefly on her arm. “I’lllet you enjoy it then. Really nice to meet you.” Then Carly Daniel and what wasleft of her irresponsible iced coffee glided through the room, speaking withthe other members of the cast, laughing with them, and remaining a palpablepresence.

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