Page 57 of Stay for Me
A hand goes up. “Yes, Clarissa?”
“Can you tell us now if you know who will play the leads?”
“I can,” I say and then pause. Again, the kids fidget in their seats. “But I won’t.”
A groan goes through the auditorium, and I fight back the urge to laugh. Now I see why Noah started acting less and directing more. This is fucking fun.
“Now, everyone head home and go over the script if you want, it’ll help you prepare in case you’re selected for another role than the one you auditioned for. Remember, there are only so many lead roles. It’s not an insult if you’re selected for something else. Every role, no matter how small, is important. After all, without the supporting cast, a play would be boring.”
After the talk with Sebastian about taking roles you don’t always want, I was taken back to the earlier parts of my career. When things were always bleak. In Hollywood, actors are a dime a dozen. I was unprepared for that reality. I got there, thinking I was hot shit and would get any role I wanted.
I was an idiot.
The kids get up, grab their stuff, and shuffle out, except for one.
“Hey, Jacob?”
“Sebastian, you did well today. I was impressed.”
“You were?”
I nod. He has talent oozing out of him. I was worried that his passion for the theater meant he wouldn’t be good, but thankfully, that wasn’t the case. I could see the amount of work he put into the role, and I’d be a fool not to cast him.
“I was. Good job. How do you feel you did?”
He sighs and looks over at his mother, who is doing her best to ignore me and failing. “I think I did okay. I had fun, which Mom says is the most important thing.”
“Your mother is very smart.”
He smiles. “Don’t tell her that.”
I laugh. “Did you want to ask me something?”
He shifts his weight, and I can tell that whatever is on his mind, he doesn’t want to really ask. “It’s not a question.”
“Okay.”
“It’s more . . . I heard something around school.”
I lean against the stage. “Whatever you have on your mind, you can say it.”
“All right. Here it is. I heard that you went on a date with my mom.”
Okay, that definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. “It wasn’t a date, we had lunch to discuss the play.”
“Everyone is saying you’re dating her.”
I let out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry they’re giving you a hard time. We’re not dating.”
He shakes his head. “I heard her talking too.”
Now my interest in piqued. “Yeah?”
“She was telling Aunt Cybil that she wanted to kiss you.”
I could fucking do a jig right now, but I keep it together. “A lot of women want to kiss me,” I say as a joke.
“You should ask her out.”
