Page 28 of Cast to be Mine

And just like that, he was Micah again. The character fell off him like a coat.

But he didn’t say anything right away. He just looked at me, and there was something in his expression I couldn’t quite read.

“What?” I asked, suddenly self-conscious. “Was that bad? I can do it differently. I have like three other versions. Too much, right?”

“That was great.”

“I can make the fear bigger. Or smaller. I wasn’t sure and obviously it will depend on Jack’s mannerisms.”

“Grace.” He held up a hand. “That was great. Do you not believe me?”

“I do,” I quickly said, because he was the director and I didn’t want to go against him.

But I expected criticism.

“Let’s do the generator room scene. Act two, the argument.”

We ran the generator room scene. Then the radio scene. Then the scene where Elena confronts Cole about the lie at the center of their partnership—the one where she has to be furious and betrayed and still desperately in need of him, all at the same time.

And it worked. Every scene worked.

With Micah playing opposite me, everything clicked into place in a way it hadn’t at the table read. He gave me something real to react to. He wasn’t reading lines off a page or delivering them in that flat, checked-out way some actors did in rehearsal.

He was present.

And without the script in my hands, without Jack Montana’s judgment boring into the back of my skull, the words came out like thoughts instead of recitations.

We finished the marina scene and I sat down on the edge of the catwalk, letting my legs dangle. My heart was pounding. My palms were sweaty.

I felt amazing.

I felt like an actress.

Micah dropped down beside me. “That is the woman who auditioned for me.”

“You sound surprised.”

“Relieved.” He stretched his legs out, leaning back on his hands. “I’ll be honest with you. After yesterday, I was worried.”

“After yesterday, I was worried too.”

“You shouldn’t have been. That was on me.” He looked over at me. “I threw you into a room with a script you’d had for less than a day. I expected you to perform at the level you auditioned at. That’s not fair.”

“It’s Hollywood. I thought that’s just how it worked.”

“What you just did in those scenes? That’s the performance I knew was in there.”

Pride bloomed in my chest. I tried very hard not to let it show on my face and failed completely. I couldn’t stop the smile.

“So I’m not fired.”

“You were never fired.”

“Thanks for trusting me.”

“Is there anything you’d like to go over before we do the next rehearsal with the cast?” he asked.

I chewed my lower lip. We’d skipped around and did the more dialogue-heavy scenes, but there were a few I was nervous about.