Method Acting: An opposites attract, found family romance (Center Stage Book 2) by Adele Buck (web based ebook reader txt) 📕

In addition to Alicia, the room held two brunettes and a redhead, all in their mid-thirties, all of whom were pretending to peruse their printed sides and ignore everyone else. The only thing they seemed to have in common other than their age was that they were all slim and attractive.

Alicia sat in a chair and looked at the sides she had stopped at a copy shop to print off. She had already read the script pages three times on the Metro, but this time she focused on the character description.

Well, I’ll be damned. Melissa hadn’t been kidding when she said it contained, “Buttoned up in the House Chamber, a tigress in the bedchamber.” Alicia bit her lip and let her eyes lose focus, imagining this woman, her inner life. She didn’t know much more than that and what the scene’s lines gave her, which was a bantering, flirtatious exchange with a lobbyist.

Well. She actually knew how that could go, didn’t she? She could and would use her time with Colin to her advantage, imagining it was his low voice and cultured accent saying the lobbyist’s lines, his handsome face focusing on her, heating her through. She wondered if the character’s interest was genuine or a means to some other end.

Flipping through the pages, she decided that this woman really did like the man in question. It was there in the text, though she was being coy, unsure if her interest was returned. Deniability. That’s what this woman needed. That was why she included a bit of misdirection with her flirtation.

One of the brunettes was called into the audition room by a production assistant with a clipboard as a blonde left. The blonde looked demoralized, her shoulders rounded as she walked out.

Sorry, Alicia thought without irony. Auditioning was a tough business. It could do a number on your ego, your confidence, and your career.

Casting another glance over the pages, Alicia focused again on the silly phrase her agent had derided. She felt it was like a shiny pebble in a stream, a promise of something special.

Aha. Her shoulders released tension she hadn’t realized she was holding. Standing, she walked to the bored young woman who was taking names at the door.

“Excuse me, where’s the bathroom?” she asked.

“Take a right, down the hall, on your left.” The young woman didn’t even look up as she gave her response by rote, her ball-point pen jabbing out the directions she described.

“Thank you.” The woman’s eyes fluttered up in surprise, and Alicia felt sympathy for her. Actors could be such shits sometimes. Common courtesy, people. How hard is it?

Almost running down the hall, she pushed the bathroom door open and darted into a stall. Hanging her bag on the hook, she hiked up her skirt and shucked off her panties, stuffing the wisp of lace and satin into the bottom of her bag. Smoothing her skirt back down over her hips, she let a small smile curve her lips as she shouldered her bag and walked back to the waiting room.

She barely had time to sit again, crossing her legs and almost giggling at the juxtaposition of conservative skirt and bare ass when her name was called.

Colin, we’re up.

Colin frowned at his computer screen. He had never had so much trouble composing an e-mail in his life.

Why didn’t I get her number when I had the chance? He read through what he had written again. It was too stiff, too formal. He just wanted her to put on a dress and come with him to celebrate incredibly smart, hard-working young people. Why was that so damned difficult?

“That scowl could peel the paint off the walls.” Brandon’s voice from the doorway pulled Colin’s attention from his screen. His friend looked amused.

“Well, you try to invite a woman to a formal affair by e-mail and see how that works out for you,” Colin said, pushing his chair back from his desk in frustration.

“Join the twenty-first century and text her,” Brandon said, his expression bland and tone reasonable.

“I would, but I don’t have her number.”

Brandon’s eyebrows flew up, and a faint, incredulous smile crossed his face. “Really? When did you meet this woman, anyway?”

Colin’s eyes rolled to the ceiling as he thought. “Um…two weeks ago? Approximately? The party for Folger donors.”

Settling his shoulder against the doorframe, Brandon considered Colin as if he were an interesting specimen in a glass case. “And have you seen her since?”

“Yes. Twice.” Colin was aware that his jaw was getting tight.

“…And you didn’t get her number.”

“No.”

“But you have her e-mail.”

“Yes.”

“Unusual.”

“She’s an unusual woman,” Colin said, his eyes returning to the e-mail.

“Does she like pop culture? If she does, it might reconcile Mari to attending this thing.”

Colin rubbed his chin. “Not sure. She’s a Shakespearean actress who also sings in a jazz club. We haven’t covered current cultural touchstones yet.”

“Sounds interesting.” Brandon folded his arms across his chest, his shoulder still digging into the doorframe.

“She’s bloody fascinating. Frankly, I wish she were a bit less interesting. It would make my life easier.”

Brandon grinned at this, hazel eyes twinkling. “Good luck. But if she’s willing to wear Chuck Taylors with an evening dress, Mari will love her forever.”

“Get out of here and let me compose an incredibly stilted, ineffective e-mail to an incredibly beautiful, maddening woman,” Colin said, waving Brandon away.

“I hope she says yes,” Brandon replied as he straightened to move down the hall. “I want to meet her.”

Chapter 6

Alicia locked the front door of her apartment and took a deep breath, scrubbing her fingernails through her hair. Tossing her bag onto the sofa, she walked back to the bedroom, unbuttoning her suit jacket and shrugging it off as she went.

With most auditions, she immediately banished all thought of the experience from her mind when she tossed her pages in the trash and walked out the door. It was pointless to dwell on it: either she had impressed them or not. She was either what they had in mind or