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Finn Heller was a well-known Hollywood actor who was recently famous for leaving his film career to start a community theater program in a small town out west somewhere. When he was introduced holding the hand of his handsome, slightly older husband, I expected the two of them to compliment the show and shake a few hands.
None of us expected him to make an announcement.
“I’d like to invite you all to bring the show to the Aster Valley Theater program this summer.”
A ripple of surprise went through the assembled actors, and even Dawson looked impressed, which suggested they all knew something I didn’t. Maybe Dawson had been right when he’d said I didn’t pay attention to the press as much as I should.
“You may have heard that we’re debuting a Shakespeare company as well as a one-act summer stock program,” Finn went on. “We’ve got some great actors attached to the project already—”
“I heard a rumor Renee Elise Goldsberry was involved,” someone whispered.
“I heard that guy from Grey’s Anatomy,” someone else said.
Finn neither confirmed nor denied, but his smile widened as he continued. “—and we’d love Not My Alfred to be the headliner as we kick off our season. The new theater school facilities are currently under construction with completion scheduled for early May. We would want you to perform twice in early June to help bring in some big crowds for opening weekend. Since your show is one of the hottest onstage right now, I thought it would be an excellent choice to help generate buzz. I’ve already discussed the details with management, but I wanted to extend the invitation personally and let you know how honored we’d be by your participation.” He and his husband worked their way around the room shaking hands and congratulating us.
By the time we’d left the theater to head to our celebration at the Retro, we’d learned the details of the deal. Finn had called in favors with a bunch of his Hollywood friends to begin his summer stock program, and the invitations were some of the most coveted in the business. He and the other investors of his theater program were paying out the nose to bring us to Colorado for this event. Each of us willing to travel for the event would get supplemental pay and equivalent time off later in the summer.
It was a no-brainer for me. “June in Colorado? Don’t mind if I do,” I said to my roommate Chris after we took seats around a few tables someone had managed to snag for our group.
“No shit. I’ve heard they have a ski lift there and tons of hikes and shit on the mountain. But count me out for the rock climbing, dude. I saw Finn’s last movie, and it freaked me out.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Isaac said slyly. “I heard Finn met his husband while he was out in Colorado filming that movie. The guy saved his life or something. I wouldn’t mind dangling off a cliff if it meant I got to hook up with a hot-as-fuck silver fox after the director yelled ‘Cut!’”
“Truth,” Chris allowed. “I read that Finn’s hubby is a sheriff or something too. I wouldn’t mind letting him stick his gun in my holster.”
They collapsed into raucous laughter, and I rolled my eyes.
“What about you?” I asked Dawson.
“Me? Oh, nah.” His lips twitched. “I mean, Declan’s hot and all, but Finn doesn’t seem like the kind to share—”
I elbowed him lightly. “Asshole. I meant what do you think of the Aster Valley idea?”
My brain was already picturing the two of us enjoying a semi-vacation together. I wondered if we could tack on extra days to stick around and see the area.
“Mm. Not sure yet,” he said, sounding distracted. His phone was buzzing in his pocket. “Sorry, this is my mom. Gonna find a quieter place to take it.”
He got up from his seat and made his way toward the back, where the hallway to the restrooms would give him a more private place to talk.
“He probably won’t be here,” Kota said from the seat on the other side of me. He nodded toward Dawson’s back.
“What do you mean?”
“Dawson won’t be coming to Colorado,” he clarified with a shrug. “He got the lead in Pillow Talk. I heard it from Lad, whose boyfriend is the director’s assistant.”
My stomach dropped. “Dawson got another role?” My lips felt numb, and my fingers tingled. That couldn’t be right. He would have said something to me.
Wouldn’t he?
“Yeah. That’s what I heard, anyway. Supposedly he auditioned a couple of weeks ago, got called back last week, and went in today for the offer. Lad said he saw him there this morning when he brought his boyfriend a coffee.”
My head spun with dueling arguments. On the one hand, why should he have told me? We hadn’t been more than coworkers until yesterday, for god’s sake. But on the other, we’d talked for hours last night about all kinds of things. We’d left each other this morning with a giant unspoken future between us.
