Page 48 of Forget About Me

"You’re My Best Friend" - Queen

Lucy’s May the Force Be With You Mixtape, Song #1

BEN

“Hullo, stranger.”

Mira Chakrabarti’s smooth voice never fails to calm me. Born in London but raised in the Boston suburbs, her chameleon-like accent’s dialed to posh Brit at the moment. That usually happens when she’s in director mode. Take her out for a few cocktails, though, and she backslides, rattling off the “Lake” lingo she picked up hanging out at a coffee shop in Nonantum with a bunch of old-timers. If she tells you to “cuya moi, you divia mush,” she’s either super pissed or she loves you. Luckily, I’m usually on the latter end of things.

I love her, but that doesn’t mean I won’t give her shit. “Stranger? Who’s the stranger here? You talked me into staying in town, and then you disappeared.”

My best friend from college is the reason I’m working at Shakespeare Boston. The week beforeRomeo and Julietrehearsals began this summer, Mira asked me to step in to play Romeo after the actor she’d originally cast broke his leg. I’d only been in town for a week and Kirk was already bugging me to come back to LA. My dad was on the mend, but I was still worried about him. Plus, I was terrified to return to the stage.

But she bullied me into doing it, and now she’s off directing something somewhere in the Midwest. “Where are you, anyway?”

“Indianapolis, for now. We open here in ten days. Then I’m off to Syracuse to direct a holiday show. How are you, darling? I miss you. I’m a bit miffed that I had to find out from Janet that you’re doing another show. Launce, eh? That’s quite a leap from Romeo. And you’re using a real dog? Whose is it?”

“His name is Puck, and he’s mine, I guess. He just showed up at my house and no one has claimed him and he ended up in the show.”

“A live dog. I’m surprised that fuddy-duddy Nicholas was willing to take a risk.” There’s a competitive edge to her voice making me wonder if there’s a story there that I somehow don’t know about, but before I can ask, Puck—who has joined me on the couch and is enjoying a belly rub while I talk—groans with pleasure.

Mira laughs. “That good, eh?”

“Uh, that was Puck. The dog. He’s a bit of a hedonist.”

“Hmm. Sounds like he’s a good influence.”

I ignore that and skip back to one of her earlier questions. “Anyway, I think it’s going well. We’re about to head into tech. It’s been a good challenge, and I kind of can’t wait for an audience at this point.”

“But…?”

Mira can always hear subtext. It’s one of the reasons she’s such a good director. I just don’t know if I’m ready to talk about whatever it is that’s happening—or not happening—between me and Lucy. Mira is pretty much the only person who knows everything that happened my senior year of college, but we haven’t talked about it for years. “Um.”

“Oh my god, you’re in love. Who is it? I know it’s not Jessica. You two didn’t have any real chemistry offstage. Is it that lovely Bella? She’s very talented.”

“No. I mean, yes. I’m in love. But it’s not Bella. She’s great, but… Ugh. I’m so confused.”

“All right, lay it out for me. You know you want to,” she singsongs.

My heart’s suddenly slamming against my ribcage, but maybe it’ll help to talk it through with someone I trust but who isn’t in the thick of this mess. “You remember Lucy?”

“The girl you ran away from?”

“Well, to be fair, I wasn’t just running away from her.”

“Mm-hmm, you tell yourself that all you want. What’s happening?”

“Well, I ran into her again because of Puck, and we’ve been seeing each other—notseeingeach other seeing each other, although a big part of me would like that. In fact, we did kiss, but it got interrupted. But the point is, she’s the dog trainer we used for Crab.”

“You’ve got yourself tied up in quite a knot over this girl, darling.”

“You could say that. But that’s not the only problem.” I hesitate, wondering if I want to hear Mira’s career advice. This is the one thing she might judge me for.

She clears her throat. “The only problem? I don’t have all day here, Benedick.” Mira uses my given name when she’s revving up to boss me around.

“I had a talk with Kirk.”

“Ah, the hardworking Kirk Vancouver.”

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