“I’m sure you can find your way out,” she says, her voice low, then, without saying goodbye, she leaves the room and heads back to her party.
Oh, Liz.
Chapter Eleven
Liz
“Like…what do you actually want from him?” Fiona sounds curious from the other end of the phone line. “He apologized, now what? You want to be friends? Lovers? Professional colleagues and nothing more?”
“I don’t know.” I sigh. “I just know I can’t stop thinking about him.”
“I think you should seduce him,” she offers. “For both our peace of mind.”
I stare at my phone for a few baffled seconds before putting it back to my ear. “First, how? Second…fucking how? I can’t just seduce him. It’s not like I have a lot of experience in that field.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Exactly.”
“You still have weeks of rehearsals though. A lot could happen in that time.”
A lot, like… what? What do I want?
I want Aidan. On my birthday, in my dad’s study, I’d wanted him to kiss me again. I can’t stop thinking about him, and I can’t bear the thought that after the play opens, he’ll walk away, out of my reach.
Even with my limited experience, I know he’s attracted to me. But obviously, he doesn’t want to be.
Frustrated, I mumble goodbye to Fiona and enter the theater through the stage door. Then, after a few minutes in my dressing room, I go down to the stage.
At first, I hear only singing and laughter. On getting closer, I see most of the cast watching Aidan and Kate. They’re singing and dancing an old classic from one of Broadway’s longest running shows ever.
Aidan is good, very good. He dances like a pro and his singing voice is a deep velvet baritone. If he chooses, he could be on the stage. Audiences would love him.
Like I love him.
Love doesn’t work like that, Liz.
Love isn’t supposed to be an uncontrollable emotion that takes over your senses and fills your thoughts with a certainty that you belong with this one person. It’s supposed to be a slow-building emotion, born from familiarity and respect.
Or is it?
What I know is that I want him. I want him to belong to me. I want to share his smiles, his thoughts, everything. I want to ask him why he chooses not to be on the stage, if he believes in love, what his hopes are, his dreams. It makes no sense, but I wanted that even before I met him.
The song ends to loud applause and more laughter. Aidan is laughing too, teasing his fellow performer as he waves off the shouts for an encore.
“We’ve got to get to work,” he says genially, just as he turns around and our eyes meet.
My belly twists. The laugh has frozen on his face, but he’s still beautiful. A memory of his lips on mine bursts into my mind in vivid color and I’m flooded with a desire that almost paralyzes me.
He approaches me, smiling. “Hi Liz.”
“Hi.” My voice is soft. “I didn’t know you could dance.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me,” he murmurs.
Our eyes are locked, and it takes a while for me to notice that everybody else has fallen into silence. They are all staring at me and Aidan.
Kyle breaks the silence by clearing his throat. “Liz. You must be in a good mood this morning.”