To the Moon and Back

by Melissa Brayden

  “Because I had an amazing night.” He quirked his head to the other side, mystified. “It was so good, Rocky. I can’t tell you the details because you’re an innocent. Just know it was memorable in the best way.” Her body tingled at just the thought of touching Carly, her own body still sensitive to the attention it had just been paid.

  She deposited Rocky’s breakfast in front of him. While he went to chow town, Lauren checked her phone to find only a million messages with smiley faces and congratulatory texts. There was also a series of links. Aha, the reviews. She took a deep breath, preparing herself, and clicked immediately on the one for Broadway World, knowing it would be an important one.

  “Not a Cloud in the Sky as Starry Nights Shines Bright at The McAllister.” That headline sounded promising. Lauren continued to read.

  Audiences can rest assured that Starry Nights, the new play by Mariah White premiering at The McAllister, will make you long for a telescope and a fated love of your own. Carly Daniel, taking her first bow onstage, delivers a serviceable performance as Ashley, but it’s newcomer Lauren Prescott’s Mandy that stole the spotlight. Prescott turns in a performance rich in charm, tenderness, and wit.

  Oh, wow. Lauren could hardly believe what she was reading. She revisited the portion about her performance over and over again. She wished they’d said more about Carly, though. Serviceable was a polite way of saying fine in the theater community, and Carly deserved much more than that. She skimmed the rest of the article in which the reviewer praised the direction, the set, and the lighting design. Tacked on to the bottom of the piece was a link that opened a secondary article separate from the review entitled “Spilled Tea and Starry Nights.” She skimmed the content with a furrowed brow.

  Insiders at The McAllister say that Carly Daniel, in line with past rumors, was difficult to work with behind the scenes of the new play, Starry Nights. Daniel, a source said, became known in Minneapolis for holding up rehearsals, making incredible demands of cast and crew, and staging diva-worthy tantrums when she didn’t get her way. Some speculate it was Daniel’s behavior behind Evelyn Tate’s departure from the project early last month. Tate, when contacted, declined comment.

  Lauren closed her eyes and set her phone on the counter. That wasn’t fair. Carly had been a pain to work with in the beginning, and yes, she’d been late. However, she’d never spoken a rude word to anyone and had put so much hard work into the show. To turn a spotlight away from that and shine it on lies and rumors just seemed out of bounds. Her chest ached.

  “What were you reading?” Carly asked. Lauren turned to see Carly standing across the room with wet hair, soft looking jeans, and a pale yellow T-shirt. “The reviews?”

  Lauren nodded.

  “I’m ready. Lay it on me.” Carly folded her arms and smiled. Yet it wasn’t her standard grin. There was a guarded, unsure quality, signaling that she was nervous, vulnerable.

  “They liked the show.” It wasn’t a lie.

  “They did?” Carly let her hands drop. “That’s such a relief. You have no idea. What about us? I’m guessing if they liked the show then we fared okay, right?”

  “Yes, they were complimentary.” She didn’t mention that the reviews seemed to favor her. It didn’t feel right to say so, and it felt even weirder that they’d written it. Carly was amazing in the show and had come such a long way in terms of her work ethic.

  “You’re not saying much. Guess I better take a look.” She squinted at Lauren, headed back to the bedroom, and returned a moment later with her phone, already engrossed in what she found there. She raised her gaze to Lauren, beaming. “They love you. They absolutely do.”

  Lauren smiled back. “It’s nice of them to say those things.”

  “I’m so proud of you.” A pause. She held up her phone. “I don’t think they liked me as much.” She shrugged but seemed a little smaller as she stood there. “That’s okay. I’m new at this theater thing, right?”

  “They did like you. It’s just that my late casting probably made for an interesting spin on the write-up.”

  But Carly was continuing to click around on her phone now, and Lauren watched as her supportive smile dimmed. Damn it. She’d run into the gossip reports.

  “They think I started fights.” She raised her gaze to Lauren’s, dumbfounded. “But I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I like most everyone, and if I’ve been spoiled and shallow in the past, I haven’t treated anyone poorly.”

  “You haven’t. You were late and had a bit of a culture shock, but you were never hard to work with.”

  “Lauren,” she said, looking helpless. “I never threw fits.”

  “No. You don’t have to tell me that. I was there.”

  Carly kept clicking. Lauren’s stomach turned over as she imagined what she’d find as she surfed from one link to another. Likely, much what Lauren had: other media outlets had picked up the same nugget of gossip, making it look widely reported that Carly had been a problem child yet again. When Carly set her phone on the kitchen counter and looked up with a crestfallen face, Lauren’s heart broke for her. “I can’t win.”

  “Don’t look at it that way. Come here, please.” Lauren held open her arms, but Carly hesitated and ultimately backed away from the gesture.

  “I’m good. Not to worry.” Instead of the embrace Lauren offered, Carly wrapped her arms around herself, resembling a vulnerable child protecting herself from other kids on the playground. She gestured behind her. “I should finish getting ready. Get out of your hair.”

  “I don’t want you out of my hair,” Lauren said to Carly’s back as she retreated down the hall. No answer. She closed her eyes and let her emotions settle into a neat pile. Carly needed space to work through this atrocious rumor, which was the opposite of what she’d been hoping for. Though it was Lauren’s natural inclination to try to fix everything, there was very little she could do about the media and what they wrote. She gave it some time, tidied up the kitchen, and eventually picked up Rocky IV and carried him, infant style, into her bathroom where she found Carly putting the finishing touches on her makeup.

  “Someone wanted to say good morning.”

  Carly eyed her in the mirror. Her shoulders relaxed and the ends of her mouth tugged when she saw Rocky. It was hard to resist the face of a pug carried like a precious newborn. Rocky dropped his face over the back of Lauren’s arm and regarded Carly from his upside-down position, content to be adored and fussed over like the little prince he was.

  “Well, that’s certainly an unusual greeting.” Carly leaned down and let him swipe his upside-down tongue across her face. She scratched his head with both hands, and his curlicue tail set to wiggling, which was so much cuter than wagging. “I can’t say I’d ever turn away a kiss from this fur ball of love.”

  “Well, who would?” A pause. “You okay?” Lauren asked quietly. “You fled the scene earlier. I was worried.”

  Carly leaned against the bathroom counter and considered the question. Her hair was shiny and her lips were perfectly adorned, but her soul likely hurt. “Yeah. I’m sorry about that. I’m doing okay. I can admit that those were not the words I wanted to read this morning, but do you know what I can’t stop thinking about, the part that has stuck with me the most?”

  Lauren set Rocky on the floor and watched as he darted back to the living room for more sun spot snoozing. “Tell me.” She braced herself for Carly’s disappointment, knowing she’d feel it as strongly as she would her own.

  “What they said about you. I’m trying to be angry and feel sorry for myself, but all I can seem to do instead is smile about all the wonderful things they’ve said about you, because they’re all true. And then I have to look in the mirror, because who am I? I’m supposed to be self-involved and throw a Hollywood tantrum, but I feel more like a woman who can’t stop thinking about you.”

  “Carly.” Lauren played those words back. They’d reached inside her chest and took hold. She hadn’t expected them but now felt their warmth from the
tips of her fingers to the ends of her toes and back again. She smiled, stepped forward, and wrapped her arms around Carly’s neck. “Do you mean that? Of course you mean it, but do you?” That wreck of a sentence mirrored her scattered emotions.

  Carly nodded and placed a kiss on the underside of Lauren’s jaw. “I’m trying my hardest to be selfish, but I think you broke me. I’m Team Lauren now. Do we have T-shirts?”

  “We definitely do not. Team Lauren is quiet and unassuming and tries not to steal attention from the real stars.”

  “I’m revamping Team Lauren,” Carly said with a laugh. “It’s okay to celebrate your reviews, you know. You’ve earned every compliment.”

  Lauren’s heart and soul clenched, relaxed, and soared. “Thank you for saying that. I’ve never had a professional review before. This is new territory, so I’m not sure how to behave. I’m excited, though.”

  “And I’m excited for you.” Carly lips brushed Lauren’s. “I think we need to celebrate properly.”

  “And how would we do that?” Lauren asked.

  “How about I take you to brunch and then bring you home and have my way with a celebrated actress? And I mean thoroughly have my way.”

  Lauren’s entire body reacted in great favor of that statement. Today was turning around nicely, and she had Carly to thank. “I can get behind this idea.”

  She and Carly finished getting ready, sharing the space and touching each other here and there as they passed. When Carly returned to the living room shortly after Lauren, she was wearing a sky-blue hoodie on top of a white tank top with the word Lauren scrawled across the front in what looked to be a permanent marker.

  “Did you steal that shirt from my closet?” Lauren asked, laughing.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Carly said and slid her purse onto her shoulder. “But it’s mine now. Shall we?”

  “You’re wearing that to brunch? Nooo.”

  Carly turned to face her in proud challenge. “Try and take it off me.”

  Lauren blinked, and her stomach fluttered. She had a vision of doing just that. “Incredibly temping, given what I know is underneath.”

  Carly gasped and turned on her heel, as if hyperbolically shocked. “If you’re going to objectify me all through brunch, then we’re going to have a hell of a great afternoon.”

  Lauren laughed and watched Carly make her exit, hips swaying, blond hair flowing, sass on display. Just the way Lauren liked her.

  Chapter Twelve

  Carly had been off her game. The performance she was capable of delivering had slipped through her fingers earlier that night, and she hated herself for it. As she lay in bed at her theater-supplied apartment, sleep mocked her. Instead, her brain took over, reliving each and every moment of her second live performance in gory and embarrassing detail. She’d flubbed lines, bumped into furniture, and was late for an exit because, like tonight, she couldn’t stop thinking. She knew exactly what had gone wrong. The reviews had gotten into her head. She heard the word serviceable before each and every scene, and then, because she was truly masochistic, began to insert words of her own. Hack. Fraud. Nothing but a pretty face. All of them believable. None of them helpful.

  “Coming over?” Lauren had asked after the show. She rested her cheek against the frame of the door. Her eyes were bright. Too bright for the end of a long day, but that was Lauren, always put together, and ready to take on the world. She envied her.

  “I think I’m going to take a rain check and get some of that sleep we so desperately have been skipping over.”

  Lauren laughed quietly. “Oh yes, that old concept. I keep forgetting—sleep and I used to be buddies.”

  “But don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily. Don’t enter into a torrid affair with rest. I’d be so jealous.”

  Lauren came farther into the dressing room and took Carly’s face in her hands. “Never.” She kissed her sweetly. “Good night, Carly. I’ll see you tomorrow when we get to do this all over again.”

  “Remarkable how that happens.”

  Lauren laughed. “Right?”

  It turned out that rest had no interest in an affair with Carly. In fact, rest was an elusive bitch. Sigh. Lauren would have been the perfect distraction from Carly’s scattered thoughts. She flipped herself over for the ninth, maybe tenth, time. She’d meant every word she’d said to Lauren the day before. She had been thrilled for Lauren’s positive reviews. But when the exaggerated nighttime doubt crept in from behind the walls, Carly began to question her own self-worth in a way she never had before. Her career was in shambles, and as excited as she’d been for Starry Nights to help pull her from the trenches, it was looking less and less like that might happen. Fear arrived by her bedside next, and she hugged her fists against her heart as it raced out of control. What would she do with herself if her career ran out of gas entirely? Guest spots on game shows? Sure, until those invitations washed up, too. Her line of thinking felt irrational and premature, yet she struggled for air all the same. Gasping, she sat up and turned on the small lamp next to her bed, hoping to jar herself out of her downward spiral. She listened to the sound of her own ragged breaths. Finally, she reached for the glass of water next to her bed just as her phone rang. It was three a.m. Who in the world would be calling?

  She checked the readout on her phone and quickly took the call. “Hey,” Lauren said when she answered. “I’m sorry to call so late.”

  Carly closed her eyes at the sound of Lauren’s voice. “It’s okay.” She swallowed. It was all she could manage.

  “I woke up and, I don’t know, felt like I needed to call. I was worried about you for some weird reason. Is that crazy?”

  Carly looked up at the ceiling, her eyes filling. “No. It’s actually not weird at all. I should have come over, I think. Rough night.” Maybe Lauren had detected something earlier. Maybe she had some sort of sixth sense that pulled her from sleep. Maybe they were developing an intense connection. Whatever it was, Carly was grateful for the rescue call.

  “How about Rocky and I drop by?”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Carly said, but everything in her reached for that idea.

  “I think we want to, though. We just took a vote. We’re coming over.”

  Carly paused, releasing the remaining fist from its place against her chest. “Okay. I’ll leave the door unlocked.” She swallowed in enormous relief.

  Fifteen minutes later, she heard the door click open and closed, followed by the sound of the lock. “Hey, you,” Lauren said, dropping a backpack at the bedroom door. She slid into bed behind Carly, wearing yoga pants and a T-shirt, having never looked more snuggly.

  “Hi, guys,” Carly said to Lauren and an exuberant Rocky, who promptly licked her face six times and then curled into a ball at the foot of her bed. With Lauren’s arms around her waist from behind, she felt everything in her relax. For tonight, she felt safe and solid. The what-if game still played in the back of her mind, but she refused to give it her attention. Lauren had her for now, and that was everything.

  “Shall we sleep?” Lauren asked.

  “Yes, please,” Carly said. She switched off the light and let everything float far, far away.

  * * *

  “Ms. Prescott, this is Elissa Newman from Telsey Casting calling again about setting up a meeting regarding a project you might be right for. Call me at your earliest convenience. Do you have representation I could get in touch with?”

  As she sat at her dressing table before Saturday’s matinee, Lauren shook her head in response to the voicemail. No. She didn’t have representation. In fact, she’d never had an agent.

  “You good, Lala?” Trip asked, popping his head into her dressing room. “All set for a wild two-show day?”

  “I’m all good, Trippy. You’re doing a bang-up job.”

  “You say that to all the first-time PSMs,” he said and tossed his hair dramatically in departure.

  Lauren scrolled to the next voicema
il and hit play. “Hiya, Lauren. Dave Pell from Playbill Online. Would love to ask you a few questions about your Cinderella story working on Starry Nights. I think our readers would love to hear about it. Give me a ring.”

  She jotted down Dave’s number for later, still not believing that Playbill was calling her.

  Next message. “Good afternoon, Ms. Prescott. Jim Lawson from United Talent Agency calling to chat. Hoping to hear from you. I think we could do some great things if we worked together.” Well, there was that possible representation Elissa Newman was asking about. UTA was a top agency. She took his number down, too.

  Lauren smiled at the warm lips on the back of her neck. “Antonio, we have to stop sneaking around like this,” she whispered. The nibbling didn’t stop. “But I must say your kissing has improved. Your lips, they’re amazing.” She turned, gasped, and covered her mouth in mock surprise. “What? Famous actress Carly Daniel!”

  Carly straightened. “Do I need to challenge this Antonio to a duel? I’ll need to ask Trip for a sword.”

  “I think they use pistols for those things, but no way. I kicked Antonio to the curb the moment I felt those amazing lips.” She fluttered her eyelashes dramatically.

  Carly met Lauren’s gaze in the lighted mirror. “Fantastic. Now talk dirty to me. List some office supplies.”

  Lauren laughed and dropped her voice as Carly kissed across her exposed shoulder blade. “Stapler. File folder. Rubber band.”

  “God, yes,” Carly murmured. “More.”

  “Sharpened pencil.”

  Carly sucked in air. “I can’t fucking believe it’s sharpened. What are you trying to do to me?”

  Lauren chuckled and pulled Carly into her lap. “How are you feeling today? Better?”

  Carly’s smile dimmed. “I’m good.” She shrugged. “Talked to Alika about lining up some meetings for when I get back to LA. Auditions, too. I have no problem proving myself all over again. If anything, this experience has taught me about the value of hard work.” She nodded. “I’m ready to do it.”