Page 72 of The Wedding Pact
Chapter 50
August
August loved her days working as a costumed character at the Roman Baths. Even though she only did a couple of days a month, hopefully a few more during the peak summer season, she looked forward to them with the same fizz of excitement every time.
She often played Flavia, a Roman lady, and her role was to interact with visitors, giving them fun facts while never dropping character. It tested her improv skills and at the end of each day she had a new sense of motivation for trying to break into theatre work.
Even today, with the memory of her failed audition so fresh that she thought it would sting to be in character, it calmed her to the point that she thought maybe she could love acting still, despite her recent failure.
‘That wasso cool,’ a young boy enthused to his mum as they walked away from ‘Flavia’. ‘She was really from ancient Rome, wasn’t she, Mum?’
August allowed a little smile to cross her face. Maybe she wasn’t completely awful after all …
With the East Baths clear of visitors for a moment, August strolled out to the Great Bath, open to the cool air, thepièce de résistanceand the centrepiece for the whole complex. A huge pool with steps descending into the hot spa water from all sides that once upon a time Romans would have stepped down into.
Being November, the number of people milling around the venue was few, and August had a few moments uninterrupted while she sat at the side of the Bath and gazed into the warm water.
She turned her thoughts to Abe, and how they were ever-so-slowly growing closer as time went on. Far fromclose-close, but they text each other occasionally, stopped for a chat when he visited his mum, and she felt she was beginning to peek beneath what had once been such a closed-off, hard shell.
Only, thanks to this enormous lie she and Flynn were carrying around on their backs, it could never be anything more than that … could it?
Shaking Abe from her mind, her thoughts returned to the audition again, only this time, rather than hiding from the sting of embarrassment, or the sadness of a dream down the drain, she found herself musing:at least I’ll be more prepared next time.
Perhaps there were silver linings to be found in all of this, and perhaps she’d look for them one day soon. But not here, or now. She could hear the voices of people approaching.
August hoiked up the huge skirts of her dress and turned away from the green-tinted water of the Great Bath and into the shade, and from behind a pillar, hand in hand, out came Flynn, with a woman who she assumed was Poppy.
She gasped. ‘Hello!’
Flynn took a moment to realise it was her and then laughed out loud (not cruelly) and said, ‘There you are!’ He reached in for a big hug, the chunky audio guide that dangled from his wrist tapping her side, and August noted Poppy watching the two of them.
‘I wasn’t expecting the hair, I thought we must have missed you,’ he said, prodding at her towering, dark, curly wig. ‘Poppy managed to drag me away from my laptop, thank God. I told her you worked here sometimes and thought we could come along and she could meet you.’
August turned to Poppy with a big smile and said, ‘Greetings, the name is August,’ and then whispered, ‘If anyone else comes along I’ll need to hop back into character, okay?’
‘Hop back into character,’ Poppy murmured, not taking her eyes off August. ‘How many characters do you play?’
‘Just one, although it’s not always the same one. I’m not supposed to break character at all, that’s really frowned upon, soShhh,’ August smiled.
Poppy looked up at Flynn, her head tilted to the side. ‘Imagine having to pretend you’re someone you’re not at the drop of a hat.’
For a millisecond, Flynn and August met each other’s eyes, before he pulled his full attention back to Poppy as if nothing had happened. ‘Ha ha, imagine that,’ he agreed. ‘Luckily, August’s a very good actress, great improvisation skills.’
‘I can imagine,’ Poppy said.
August brushed away the compliment, though it made her glow a little bit that he still believed in her. She then, too, focussed her attention back on Flynn’s girlfriend. So this was Poppy. This was ‘Mmm, that was nice’Poppy. Shewaspretty, quite striking in a memorable way, and August wondered something. ‘Are you an actress?’ she asked her.
Poppy shook her head. ‘Absolutely not.’
August tapped at her chin.Where do I know you from? ‘I just feel like I’ve seen you before.’
Poppy said nothing, just raised her eyebrows, as if she was waiting for August to finish her speculation.
In the end, August gave up. ‘Must just be one of those small-world things, we’ve probably stood in line together at the bus station or something.’
‘That must be it.’
August shivered a little. It was frosty here, under all this shade. ‘Are you two enjoying the Baths?’
