Page 32 of What I'm Looking For

Deb scoots closer to Pam. “Okay. Which thing should we talk about first?”

Pam snags a piece of sausage from my plate. “Work thing first. You know that’s what’s most important to him.”

“I know, but that’s the problem. He hasn’t dated since Callie moved to L.A. Our boy is never going to leave the nest if he doesn’t stretch his wings.”

“You can’t say things like that,” Pam warns. “You’ll freak him out, and then he won’t even consider asking her out. We have to convince him that it’s okay to just go on a date with her.”

“You think I can’t hear you or something?” I mumble with my mouth full.

Deb ignores me. “I know what you’re saying, but the date thing is simpler. The work thing is going to take some real convincing.”

Pam sighs. “You might be right.”

Deb shrugs. “I’m always right. The sooner you two figure that out, the happier we’ll all be.” She turns to me. “Here’s what you’re going to do.”

I hold up a hand, and miraculously Deb holds her tongue. “I hate to admit it, but you’re right. About Kate, anyway. We have already made plans for Saturday.”

Deb grabs Pam with one hand and splays the other across her heart. “Really?”

“Yes, really. But I can’t do the film. I’m not going to back out of commitments I’ve already made at the theater.”

“But you don’t know there will be a conflict,” Pam points out. “Just let them know your performance schedule when you audition. Maybe they’ll be willing to work around it. And you don’t even get paid for coaching the kids. Let somebody else do it for a change. Randall was saying he wanted more teaching experience on his résumé.”

I point my fork at the machine. “I’m not calling Jay. Or I guess I should call him and say I can’t do it.”

Deb gets up to pace her way into full-on bossy mode. “Will.”

“Deb,” I counter, matching her tone. “I’m on the board. I have to take on extra projects.”

“You’re already doing the fight choreography for both shows on top of playing Bertram and Mercutio.” Deb’s voice rises an octave over the course of this sentence.

Pam kicks me under the table. Gently. Sort of. “Just call him and see what he says.”

I swallow a sigh. They’re right. As is often the case. I just hate all this change. I was happy with things the way they were.

Then again, at yesterday’sAll’s Wellrehearsal, Dave had challenged me to take more risks playing Bertram. Maybe I need to shake things up on other fronts, too.

“I might not even get it,” I point out.

Deb scoops up my empty plate and carries it to the sink. “Well, you definitely won’t if you don’t call Jay and get that script and work on the audition. Call him.”

Feeling bullied, but knowing they want the best for me, I throw up my hands. “All right, I’ll call him. Give me the phone.”

Deb hands it to me, her smile triumphant. She grabs Rufus from Pam’s lap and kisses him. “See, I told you he’d listen to reason.”

“Can I have a little privacy?” I ask.

“No,” Deb says, as if it were obvious. “We don’t trust you.”

“You are so?…”

Deb flutters her eyelashes. “Lovable?”

“Not the first adjective that comes to mind.”

Jay answers so fast he must’ve been sitting by the phone. I explain my schedule conflicts, but he doesn’t think it’ll be a problem. Moments later, I have the details on the audition and some bike messenger is on the way to our house with a script. That’s a first. Makes me feel kind of important.

I hang up, finish my beer and get up to put the dishes in the dishwasher. “I’ve got to take a shower, and then I have to read the script and work on the audition. Are you going to supervise all that as well?”

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