Page 60 of What I'm Looking For

I enter the kitchen and bend down to give Rufus a quick scratch under his chin. “Maybe I should get my own line.”

Deb shrugs. “How ’bout you just tell her that you share a phone?”

I drop my backpack on a kitchen chair. “It’s just that we’re both so busy.” I pick up the answering machine and turn it over. “Isn’t there a skip feature or something?”

Pam jumps up to paw through the junk drawer. “There must be a way you can program the thing so that the person chooses who to leave the message for. Aha! Got the manual.” She sits down, nose in the booklet. The woman loves her manuals.

Deb leans on the counter and gives me her are-you-okay look. “So, things got serious with this girl pretty quick.”

“You’re the ones who wanted me to get back out there again!” Pam snaps her fingers at me, eyes still on the manual. I put the machine in front of her and then open the fridge. I only have half an hour before I have to leave for work and I’m starving.

Deb reaches around me and pulls out a Tupperware container. “Just making sure you’re not getting in too deep, too fast. We don’t really know this girl.”

“Deb.” I grab a bowl and scoop up some of whatever’s in the container. “You said it was a good thing that she’s not from ‘our world.’ You said I needed to have fun.” I put the bowl in the microwave and hand the Tupperware back to her. “I promise you we have been having fun. In fact, last night we?—”

“Okay, okay. I don’t need to hear details. We just miss you. And you seem tired.” Deb tips her chin toward the microwave. “Don’t heat that for too long. It’ll get rubbery.”

“The show opens in a week, so I’ve been taking extra shifts at the bar when I can.” I pull the bowl from the microwave, and Deb hands me a fork. “And the late-night visits with Kate do cut into my sleep, but I like spending time with her. She’s different.” I shove a big forkful into my mouth. “What is this anyway?”

She peers at it. “Not sure. Something my mom sent home after we went over there for dinner. Some casserole.”

“Well, thanks, Mom.”

Pam waves the manual at us. “I figured it out. Going to program it now. But get ready, you’ll have to say your name into it when I point at you.”

As bossy and annoying as they are, I do miss spending time with these two. I also missed my basketball game this week. But things feel really good with Kate right now. It’s definitely worth a little lost sleep.

Once the show opens, I’ll have more time and things will balance out.

One way or another.

Chapter15

BEEP. Friday, 4:20 p.m.

Hey, it’s me. Just letting you know that there are tickets for you at the box office for opening night next Friday. Oh, and there’s a party after the show at our house. I hope I’ll see you before then, though this weekend is probably a wash since I’ll be practically living at the theater. Okay… see you soon, I hope.

KATE

“I feel like I’m dating a vampire,” I confess to Alice over our post-run breakfast Saturday morning. “It’s been weeks since I saw Will in the daylight.”

“That’s so romantic,” Alice sighs. She’s been grumping about the current drought in her sex life. “Does he have any cute actor friends?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t met any.”

“Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a way you could just look them all up? Like, see their pictures? Like the face books Harvard made for us. Those should be everywhere.”

“Maybe you should start that up.” Alice is always coming up with crazy ideas.

“Maybe I will. Anyway, Will sounds like the perfect guy to me.” She points at me with a piece of bacon. “Does he make a mess in your bathroom?”

“He’s never even left the toilet seat up.”

“Don’t know what you’re complaining about then.”

She’s got a point. I’m not lying awake at night worrying about my career anymore. Or running spreadsheets over and over through my mind. I’m still bothered about that Chase Mills situation, though, and all the other situations that I must’ve been blind to in the past where stockholder gains were worker losses.

Alice taps my plate with her fork. “So, how can I get me an actor?”

---