Page 15 of Forget About Me

She stands in front of me, hands on hips. “Don’t worry. It’ll just look like I’m interested in your coat. Which I kind of am, actually. Did you hear we’re doing a sixties military thing for this show?”

Prying my arms open, she pulls me up, dumping Puck at my feet. “Oh my god. He’s adorable!”

Pam’s Brooklyn accent cuts through the crowded room. “Yeah, yeah, pretty much everyone in town knows Ben’s adorable. I mean, those billboards are everyw—Awww!”

Puck’s on his hind legs to greet his new fans. I slump back in my seat, giving up.

Pam picks him up. “Who is this?”

“His name is Puck.”

“Puck? How could you name a dog after something that gets hit with a stick? That’s awful.”

Deb swats her. “No, dummy, like the fairy inMidsummer.” Deb kisses the dog on the nose. “It fits him.”

“Oh, that’s better.” Pam nods. “Hey, did you bring him forTwo Gents? I thought we were going with a puppet or, like, one of those leashes where it looks like there’s an invisible dog.”

Deb looks behind her to the other end of the room, where the director sits. “I don’t think it’s been decided yet.” Deb takes Puck from Pam. “Are you a smart puppy? Are you? Are you gonna be a famous actor?”

After tucking him under her arm, where he pants happily, both designers turn the spotlight on me. Pam cocks her head, looking me up and down. Deb puts Puck on my lap and steps back. They look at each other, back at me and then at each other again.

Deb crosses her arms and nods briskly. “We think you should audition for Launce.” She draws a frame in the air around Puck and me. “I like this look. A lot.” She points at my two days’ worth of beard. “This, too—grow it afterRomeo and Julietcloses. It’ll make you look older as well as… rougher.”

Pam nods. “Yup. Let’s go tell Nick. We’ll make him love it too.”

“Wait, I—?” Before I can say that I’m not sure I’m confident about auditioning for one of the more difficult clown roles in the canon, the women bookend Nick Dorset, the director ofTwo Gents.

Eyes, framed by glasses so big they’re almost comical, study Puck and me while Deb excitedly shares her “design” ideas, which are more than likely also directorial ideas. She’s good at getting her way, but Dorset seems like he might be tough to bully. He nods, his wide mouth stretched into a polite smile. When Shakespeare Boston’s artistic director calls the meeting to order, Nick raises a brow at me before giving her his full attention. Thankfully, no one seems to mind Puck’s presence.

As the meeting drags on, the few bits of Launce’s dialogue I know play through my mind. It would be a challenge. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt funny. I was pretty good at getting laughs in high school and college shows. That goofy guy hardly feels like me anymore, while Romeo’s tragic tale seems to fit me like a second skin.

I wasn’t confident about acting at all when rehearsals started, but my rusty acting skills came back quicker than expected. Maybe it’d be the same with clowning.

Puck has settled down now that he’s not trapped in my coat. He drops his chin on my knee and huffs out a soft sigh.

And then it hits me.

If Puck were to play Launce’s dog Crab in the show—which is a possibility, even if I play a different character—he’d need some training. I just happen to know someone who is very good at training dogs. As Puck’s current caretaker, that would mean Lucy and I would have to spend time together.

These thoughts lead to other thoughts. Memories of Lucy. Memories which have me shifting Puck onto the chair next to me and crossing my legs to ease the tightness in my groin.

“Ben! Hi! Want to see pictures of the baby animals I bottle-fed this summer?”

Lucy skips down the back steps of the Minolas’ house, boobs bouncing under a thin tank. Tony and I are leaning against the old trampoline in the backyard, trying to work up the energy to ride our bikes to the community pool.

I swear that when Lucy left to go away for the summer, she’d been more… spherical. Adorable, but still the little kid that was part of the neighborhood gang, the little pest that followed her big brother everywhere.

Now? She turned fifteen while she was at her cousins’ up in Vermont, but really, it’s like she skipped teenager and went straight to totally hot babe. The sight of her has my dick throbbing in my shorts. Part of me’s praying she’ll clamber up and jump on the trampoline so I can feast on the sight of her shapely thighs and ass and those boobs?—?

A sharp elbow catches me in the ribcage. “Ow! What the fuck, Tony?”

His eyes shoot lasers at mine.

Yeah, I’m probably drooling as well as staring at Lucy, but I’m only human.

When she tugs on my hand to pull me closer, Tony practically growls in my ear. She’s saying something about lambs and kids and calves. Reminding myself that my eighteen is really a lot older than her fifteen, I try to sound normal as she snuggles in next to me to flip through Polaroids.

“Oh yeah, they are cute!”Focus on the baby animals, dickweed, not the smokin’ heat of your best friend’s little sister.“Wicked cute!”

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