AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Nadia was a boatload of fun.
Honestly, I was just looking for a friend. I’d gotten out of a shitty relationship a few months ago, which was one of the catalysts for moving to NYC and chasing my dream. I’d learned a lot about myself in that relationship. Now I just wanted a friend, a replacement for my sister, filling that gap now that I was in the city instead of Portland.
But Nadia…
Deep down, I knew it was rebound fever. The desire to not be alone, to fall back into a relationship to replace the ones I’d lost. I had to fight down the urge. To keep Nadia at arm’s-length in my emotional space.
But it wasn’t easy.
I found myself showing off for her more than I did when I was alone. I glanced over after every little dance or dramatic outburst to see if she was laughing, or even just smiling. That smile filled me with more motivation than the hundred bucks this crappy temp job paid.
Nadia lifted the empty cardboard box over her head like it was the Stanley Cup. “All done!”
“Woohoo!” I shouted, tossing her box to the ground and grabbing her hands so we could do a little dance. Her smile split her beautiful face and made me forget that I was trying to avoid a rebound. “That wasn’t so bad, huh? Let’s go get our pay.”
I teased her about Cats on the train back to Brooklyn, and then we debated the other great musicals of our generation. She’d never seen Starlight Express, so I insisted I take her the next time it was showing. It was one of my favorites; I’d loved trains growing up. Aside from that, she had a penchant for humorous musicals. Stuff like Avenue Q and Book of Mormon. I loved them too, but it was the dramas that captured my heart. A comedy could take place anywhere. But a drama was made for the stage.
After collecting our crisp $100 bills—which Nadia held with both hands and pulled tight, making a smacking sound while grinning—we headed home. Braden was gone, so we made sandwiches in the kitchen. I groaned when I opened the fridge drawer.
“You see this?” I held up an empty bag of lunch meat. “One of Braden’s negative traits. He puts empty food containers back in the fridge when he’s done.”
Nadia raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”
I tossed the bag in the trash. “Lunch meat bags, milk cartons, even boxes of cereal. So if you see something in the fridge, don’t assume it’s full without verifying first.”
“Good to know.”
“Fortunately,” I said, reaching back into the fridge drawer, “we have black forest ham.”
“Good enough for me.”
Nadia went upstairs after lunch, so I went out to the garden and relaxed with the book I was reading: The Fifth Risk, by Michael Lewis. But my eyes scanned the page without reading. I wanted to do more with Nadia. We had a little bit of time before our rehearsal. We could go for a walk, or maybe go shopping. I needed new shoes since my sneakers were wearing thin. I wondered what kind of invitation would sound totally normal and not at all creepy.
Before I could think of one, she joined me in the garden. She was wearing tight yoga pants and a sweatshirt on top, just as she had the other night. “Hey,” she said. “I don’t want to impose, but do you want to head to rehearsal early and practice?”
I shut my book with a satisfying thump. “Frankly my dear, I’d love nothing more.”
The nice thing about working in a dump of a theater—and one that was new—was that there weren’t other shows or practices scheduled during the day. It was totally deserted when we arrived, which surprised me because I’d expected Andy and Ryan to be here working on the lights. They must have gotten it all finished last night.
I placed a Bluetooth speaker on the edge of the stage, selected the song Nadia wanted to practice, and we got to work.
It was fun rehearsing with her. It was good practice for me too, much better than working by myself. And not just because she was fun and enjoyable to be around. When I practiced by myself, I had to imagine all the other actors moving through their tracks on the stage, and position myself accordingly. Having Nadia there, even though she was just one out of 20 cast members, helped take a load off my imagination. During the third number, Nadia was right there while I was side-stepping across the back of the stage, coinciding with the audio cue from the music right before we changed tempo from a three-step beat to a five. During my two lines of singing I had to saunter across the stage in an open space, and the boundary of that space was easier to visualize with Nadia moving around the outside on her own track.
I gave her helpful pointers in between songs. She was an attentive student, nodding along and clarifying certain points I made. And when we practiced the song again, I could see the change in her steps. Tightening things up, cleaning the sloppiness around the edges.
Most divas were arrogant and overconfident in their abilities. Actors like Tatiana were rarely receptive to advice, especially from another cast member. But Nadia legitimately wanted to improve her craft. To learn, to practice, and to get better. It was refreshing. Especially in an age where everyone pretended they were perfect on social media. The “fake it ‘til you make it” generation.
“How was that?” Nadia asked after one song. “I felt like my feet transition was smoother.”
I put my hands on my hips to catch my breath. “It totally was. Usually it takes a few days for me to hammer in a new change into my muscle memory. You’ve done it almost instantly.”
She blushed, which somehow made her even more beautiful. “I have a good teacher.”
There was a sound up in the catwalks, like metal slamming against metal. We craned our necks, but there was nothing to see except the gentle swaying of a light over by the edge, where the curve of the wall blocked the rest of the walkway. The floor of the catwalks was a solid length of metal, rather than a metal grate; from the ground we couldn’t see through it.
“Shit,” I said. “Maybe Ryan’s right and this place is haunted.”
Nadia smacked my arm. “Don’t even joke about that!”
