Page 95 of You Spin Me

“Nice to see you too,” we echo, giving the older woman a hug.

“I suppose you two can find your way to your seats.”

Once we’re settled, Bella elbows me. “So? Hot sex? C’mon, you know I live vicariously through your sexcapades.”

“Well, I have to admit that is part of it. But mostly it’s that his schedule and mine do not match up. He doesn’t get home from work till after two a.m., and I can’t seem to sleep past seven. Plus, I’m running all over town trying to make an actor living.”

“We’re only young once, though, right?”

“I guess youth is relative.” Scanning the program, Rhonda’s name jumps out at me. “Oh, to be twenty-two again.”

“Uh-uh.” Bella shakes her head. “You couldn’t pay me enough to go back there.”

Before I can argue, the lights dim, and she whispers, “Hope it’s good. I don’t want to have to fake it when we talk to them after.”

“Me neither.”

When I hear the first words of the performance, I send up a thank you to the director for cutting the script. There’s no way I’d last through a four-hourHamlet.

I’m also entranced. The play shifts back and forth between highly theatrical bits that almost have the feel of Greek tragedy—starting from the top with the entrance of the king’s ghost—to hushed, furtive intimacy. Will is fantastic, as are pretty much all of the players. Eva Marie as Polonius blows my mind. It’s not that she’s playing a male character. It’s that she’s playing the role like her character is putting on an act, and it works. Everyone in the world they’ve created is always playing a role, so none of them can trust each other.

When Hamlet raises a dagger to stab Claudius, the scene blacks out with a boom of thunder, and the entire audience gasps.

After the lights come up, signaling the intermission, Bella grabs my arm. “Suddenly, I can’t remember. Does Hamlet kill Claudius at this point?”

I shake my head. “No, but they made it pretty convincing. That’s a brilliant spot to take the break.” Fanning myself with my program, I slump back in my seat. “Wow. Unless they totally fuck up the second act, we won’t have to lie at all when we tell them ‘good show.’”

“Not at all,” Bella agrees

“Even Rhonda,” I pout.

Bella whacks me. “Come on, girl. It’s not a zero-sum game. When you’re talented and work hard—both of which apply to you—the work will be there. It may not be what you think you want, but it’ll be what you need.”

“Okay, Yoda. I’ve got to run and pee before intermission is over.”

By the timethe lights come up at the end of the show, my body feels like half the characters onstage: dead. Between my ever-present exhaustion, throbbing pain in my lower back that’s been bothering me for a few days—exacerbated by sitting in uncomfortable theater seats for three hours—and the emotional journey of the play, all I want is for Scotty to beam me up so I can crawl into bed.

We can’t leave without congratulating our friends, however, so Bella and I follow the rest of the crowd to the lobby, where we find Lucy, along with Kate, Will’s fiancée.

After giving Kate a big hug along, with my congratulations on their engagement, I turn to ask Lucy where Ben is.

“He’s in rehearsals in New York,” she says. “So I’m Kate’s date.”

Bella hooks her arm in mine. “Girlfriends are often the best dates, anyway.”

Kate laughs. “Agreed.”

Lucy leans forward to whisper, “I’m glad I had Kate to explain what was happening. I did get a little lost at times. I still don’t really get what those guys with the German names were all about.”

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?” I ask.

Lucy nods. “Those guys.”

“Don’t worry. Nobody really does,” Bella stage-whispers.

By the time the actors appear, the four of us have laughed so much that the grief of the play has washed out of me and I’m ready to give the cast hugs and tell them how well they did.

If I were more responsible, I’d go home to my apartment, but I can’t say no to the prospect of Cal’s warm body next to mine—even if it’s only for a few hours. So I steer my little car in the direction of his place instead. Good thing his voice coming through the speakers warms me from the inside out because the heater in this beater is useless and the warmth of the day’s sunshine has disappeared. Spring in Boston is an elusive creature.

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