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My stomach clenched and I took a deep breath before speaking again. “Okay,” I said slowly. “So what does that mean?”

“If it was a shoddy script, or the part was small, I’d say no,” he said, sounding harassed. “But it’s a solid project, and if it were any other actress, I’d jump at it in a heartbeat.”

“Then what’s the problem?” I swallowed quickly to keep from blurting out, “Other than the obvious?” I kept that to myself.

“You won’t be comfortable having me on location with Kate for four or five months,” he said softly. “And I respect that.”

“But you feel that way about me working with Adam, and I still do,” I pointed out, trying to be fair. “It’s about trust, right?”

“You don’t have a choice about working with him, love,” he said. “You were contracted to the show before he came along. And I’m right here, so of course I don’t worry as much as I would if we were separated right now.”

“But we will be soon,” I said, not wanting him to throw away a good role over something like this. As much as I didn’t like the thought of him working with ex-girlfriend, if the movie was good, he should do it. His last few movies hadn’t received the best reviews, and there was talk that he was at a stand-still with his acting. He needed a really juicy independent film to give his career the jolt it needed.

“Don’t remind me,” he said, his voice sounding tired. “I’ll just have to think about this for a bit before I make any decisions.” He took a deep breath. “So when are you coming home?” He sounded a little brighter, even if it seemed forced.

“That’s what I’m calling about,” I said, straightening my wig on its stand on my dressing table. “Nick’s taking us all out for drinks, to celebrate our nominations, and he wants us to go. Do you want to meet us?”

“I don’t really feel like it tonight,” Orlando said gently. “But you go ahead, love. You deserve to have some fun.”

“Are you sure? I can come home, I don’t need to go.” I hated the idea of him sitting alone in the apartment, especially if he was going to be dwelling on whether or not to do the movie with Kate.

“No, no,” he said. “Have fun, love. I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Okay,” I said hesitantly. “But if you need me, call me, okay?”

“I will,” he said. “I love you, Charlie.”

“I love you, too.” We hung up. I grabbed my purse, threw my phone into it, and went to meet Nick and my friends in the lobby.

We went to one of our favourite restaurants, a few blocks from the theatre, Mixture. We’d discovered it when one of the company members took us there for my birthday in March, and we’d been going back ever since. The food was good, the owner was a sweetheart, and they stayed open late, just for the casts and crews of all the big shows in the area.

After we were settled, all 20 or so of us who’d decided to come out, with drinks in our hands, Nick stood up from his spot at the head of the table. He clinked a fork against his glass to get our attention.

“I’ll keep this short and sweet,” he said, once he had our attention.

“Sure, sure,” I called from the other end of the table. “You don’t know how to be ‘short and sweet,’ who are you kidding?” Everyone laughed.

“Okay, okay, I’ll try,” he said, grinning at me. “I just wanted to say thank you to all of you for being such wonderful people to work with, and for working so hard to make our show what it is. Without you, we wouldn’t have a show, and I can safely say, I can’t recall ever working with a better group.”

“That’s because you’re getting old and your memory’s failing,” Lisa said loudly, and we all laughed again. Nick hated the idea of getting closer to 40, even if he still had four years to go. “So it’s not that we’re the best, it’s that you can’t remember any other crews!” She grinned like the Cheshire cat as Jeremy kissed her cheek. She took a sip of her beer as colour flushed her cheeks.

“As I was saying,” Nick said, pretending to be annoyed, but he couldn’t keep the grin from his face. “You guys are the best, and I love you all for it. So here’s to our nominations, to Charlotte and Adam for being recognized for their work, and to all of you for making it happen.” He paused. “Oh yeah, and here’s to me, for being the best damned director on Broadway.”

We laughed and raised our glasses, clinking them together and drinking happily. I wished Orlando had been there to share our joy with us, but I pushed it aside and took another sip of my own beer.

“Where’s Orlando?” Lisa said to me as everyone settled in to their various conversations around us. “Why didn’t he come?”

“He’s having a bit of a crisis at home,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “He didn’t feel like coming out.”

“What’s going on?” Adam asked from my other side. “Is everything okay?”

“I think so,” I said. “He’s just trying to decide if he wants to do a movie with his ex-girlfriend, and he’s freaking out about how busy he’ll be next month, with the new Pirates movie coming out and all.”

“He doesn’t know what he’s missing,” Lisa said, a ravenous grin on her face as a plate of chicken wings was placed in front of her. She smiled warmly at Jeremy. “We’re going to have to work these off later,” she said, winking at him.

“Oh, I’m sure that can be arranged,” he said in his deep voice. He reminded me of those announcers who do TV commercials. “You just eat enough to make it worth our while, okay?” He kissed her.

I smiled at them and looked away, not wanting to watch them make out at the table. I turned my attention to Adam.

“So have you heard anything about going to London?” I said, reaching for a French fry from his plate. He’d been waiting to hear about a revival of Aida in London, England, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go.

“They’re starting in November,” he said, taking a fry for himself. “I don’t know if I want to be that far away from the boys, you know? If I sign on, I’ll be gone for two years, and since Cybele is staying here, it’ll be really hard to see them.” Cybele was Adam’s ex-wife, and she had custody of his two sons.

“Two years? Really?” I said, fighting off the sadness I felt at the possibility of not seeing him every day. “That’s a long contract. I thought the average was eight months.”

“It is, normally,” he said, taking a sip of his beer. “But if I’m going to uproot my life, it needs to be more of a commitment, so they offered me two years.”

“When will you have to let them know?”

“I have until July to decide,” he said. It was only early May now. “I kind of want to see if my contract here will be renewed before I decide anything.”

“If?” I chuckled. “I somehow don’t think that will be an issue.”

“Yours is coming up soon, isn’t it?” He wiped his hands on his jeans and reached for a nacho from the plate just down the table. He was always hungry like this after a show, and it made me sick, because he didn’t have to watch everything he put in his mouth the way Lisa and I were supposed to do.

“End of the month,” I said, grabbing a carrot from my own plate. “I know it’s being renewed, but it all comes down to the monetary end of it.” I had a feeling my Tony nomination would only make me more valuable. “I just hope everything goes well. I’m not ready to leave yet.”

“What about if Orlando gets a movie that doesn’t film here?” Adam said, his eyes searching my face. “Will you really want to stay?”

“We’ve been apart before,” I said, shrugging, trying to pretend the idea of Orlando going away again didn’t bother me. “It’s nothing new.”

“Look what happened last time, though,” he said, referring to the break-up we’d had earlier that year, when Orlando had decided it was too hard to live without me. Luckily he’d come to his senses before too much time had passed.

“I don’t think we need to worry about that,” I said softly, munching my carrot. “We’ll just take it as it comes, like we always do.”

“Even if he’s working with Kate?”

“Are you trying to play Devil’s Advocate tonight?” I teased, lightly slapping his arm. I loved Adam, I really did, but sometimes he was too serious for his own good. “Kate’s just another actress, he works with them all the time. He knows he’d better not touch her.” I laughed, to keep my comments light. “Look, I don’t want to talk about that right now. We don’t even know if he’s going to take the job.” I stood up and set my beer on the table. “Come on, we need to dance, to loosen up a bit. You’re bumming me out.” I grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.

I went over to the jukebox in the corner and Adam put in a dollar as I looked through the songs. I settled on Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten,” and moved over to our friends, pulling people out of their seats. Lisa dragged Jeremy up, and we all started laughing and dancing, much to the amusement of the other patrons in the restaurant. Most of them were used to the crazy Broadway people on adrenaline rushes from successful performances by now, and it rarely bothered them.

Lisa, Jeremy, and I finally went home a little before one-thirty, and we were more than a little tipsy. In fact, I was pretty much dead drunk. I fumbled with my keys as I unlocked the door.

“Hi, Orlando,” I said, a little too loudly, as I went into the bedroom. I could hear Lisa and Jeremy attempting to make coffee in the kitchen as I closed the door behind me. Orlando was sitting on the bed, with the TV on, a script in his hands. He looked tired, even through my alcohol-induced haze. I kicked off my shoes, vaguely noticing one of them landing on my nightstand, and began stripping off my clothes to get into bed.

“I see you’ve had a good time,” Orlando said, grinning as he took my shoe off the nightstand and tossed it to the floor. He came over to help me maneuver my belt, since it was giving me real problems, and I was having trouble standing up straight. I guess I’d had more to drink than I’d thought.

“You should have come with us,” I slurred, holding on to his shoulders as he unzipped my jeans and slid them down my legs. Suddenly his hair was fascinating to me, and I had to touch it. I plunged my fingers into it, probably a little more aggressively than I’d intended, because he flinched.

“Have you eaten anything recently?” he said, standing up and dislodging my hands from his hair. “Or did you just drink?”

I laughed, even though it wasn’t funny, and the laugh sounded loud to my own ears. “Ssshhh,” I hissed at my reflection in the mirror, then laughed again. I felt my blouse being pulled down my arms, and soon I was only in my undergarments, holding on to Orlando’s shoulders to keep from falling down.

“Where’d my clothes go?” I said, looking around. The room was getting fuzzier by the second. A nightgown was yanked down over my head, and I swayed where I stood.

“Okay, I’m going to get you some water and toast, and hopefully that will help,” Orlando said, leading me to the bed and sitting me down. I tried to stand up again, but gravity and I just weren’t getting along, and I fell back on the bed. The ceiling became the most interesting thing in the world for the next few minutes.

Orlando came back before long, an amused expression on his face, a glass of water and a plate of toast in his hands. He set them on the dresser, then sat down beside me, helping me into a sitting position. Even though he was blurry, he was still beautiful. I touched his face.

“You’re so gorgeous,” I slurred gently, rocking back and forth a bit, my fingers exploring his skin. “You’re the beautifullest guy in the world.”

He chuckled and pulled my hand away. He handed me the glass of water. “Drink this, love,” he said, helping me bring the glass to my mouth. I sloppily downed the water, and he gave me a piece of toast.

“I don’t want that,” I said, pushing it away.

“You need it,” he said, giving it back to me. “It’ll ease the effects of the alcohol, I promise.”

Obediently I ate, unable to look away from his face. I was feeling no pain, and everything seemed so much brighter than normal. I guess all the beer and coolers I’d had were really hitting me hard.

“Okay, one more glass of water, then it’s bedtime,” Orlando said, his accent sounding so much thicker than it usually did. I loved that accent, and I told him so in no uncertain terms. He grinned. “You’re drunk, love,” he whispered, smoothing my hair off my forehead.

A short time later, Orlando was tucking me into our bed, and putting a garbage can beside me on the floor. He quickly stripped down to his boxers and climbed in beside me, wrapping himself around my back. He kissed my ear as I snuggled against him.

“Did you have a good time tonight?” he whispered, his hand stroking over my arm while I played with the fingers on his other hand.

“Yup,” I said, giggling as his warm breath tickled the back of my neck. “You know, Orli, you shouldn’t bite your nails. They’re just too sexy to chew on.”

“You never call me ‘Orli,’” he said, sounding amused. “That’s what my mom and sister call me.” I felt him sigh. “As for my nails, we’ll talk about it tomorrow, love,” he said, sounding even more tired. “You just get some sleep.”

“Orlando?”

“Yes, Charlie?”

“I love you.” I yawned and snuggled closer to him.

“I know you do, darling,” he said softly. “And I love you.” He kissed the back of my neck, and reached over to turn the light off. I cuddled against him and drifted off to sleep.