Kit threw her hands out in front of her. “No way. Not taking any chances.”
“Me either,” Sophie confirmed as she lifted her whiskey sour.
Jules pressed a hand against her heart, drawing Sophie’s attention to the plunging neckline on her blouse and the cross pendant glinting there. “So many skeptics at this table.”
“I haven’t sworn off love forever,” Sophie told her. “I’m just not at a place in my life right now where I have much room for it.”
“Fair enough,” Jules said, glancing at Sophie. Her eyes were a deep brown, highlighted by thick eyeliner and a shimmery eyeshadow that sparkled under the bar’s track lighting. And her hair…well, she looked like she’d walked out of a shampoo commercial. It was long and wavy, with golden highlights in her natural brown. Combined with her charismatic personality, it was no wonder she was an actress. If Sophie ever got the chance to see her on stage, she was certain she wouldn’t be able to take her eyes off her.
Right now, she’d settle for Jules’s number. She’d mentioned a boyfriend, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t bi or pan. Surely she wouldn’t have auditioned as Bianca today if she wasn’t at least curious, would she? Usually, Sophie had excellent gaydar, but she couldn’t quite make up her mind about Jules.
On the table between them, Jules’s phone began to ring. The name Pierce showed on the screen, and she let out a little gasp. “My agent,” she said breathlessly, grabbing her phone and rushing for the door as Sophie had done earlier.
“What are the chances?” Sophie muttered, reaching for her drink.
“Does this mean you’ve both made it to round two?” Gia asked, looking delighted.
“Maybe. We’ll see,” Sophie said as she drained her glass. She walked to the bar for a refill. By the time she’d made it back to their table, Jules had reentered Dragonfly with an unmistakable bounce in her step.
Sophie caught her eye with an inquiring lift of her eyebrow. “Good news for you too?”
“Yes,” Jules confirmed. “And my agent says that unofficially, there are only two of us in contention for the role.”
“Oh wow.” Sophie gulped. “So, it’s between you and me?”
“Sounds that way.”
They stared at each other for a beat of loaded silence before Sophie lifted her chin with a smile, putting her attraction aside for now because Jules was the competition. “Better bring your A game on Friday, Vega.”
Jules met her gaze, amusement sparkling in her eyes. “I’m not worried.”
“You should be.” Sophie lifted her glass, tapping it against Jules’s. “May the best woman win.”
2
Sophie buzzed around the apartment on Friday morning, too restless to sit still. She dressed in her go-to outfit for a dancing audition: stretchy jeans that felt more like leggings, paired with a snug-fitting black top and jazz shoes. She put her hair in a ponytail and styled big, loose curls into it. After polishing her makeup, she went into the living room to warm up.
Thankfully, Nathan and Anthony were both working at the moment. Yes, she lived with men, and they were great roommates, except for the fact that Sophie didn’t actually have a room. She slept on the pull-out couch. Since all three of them were Broadway performers with unreliable incomes, it had been a mutually beneficial situation.
But she was dying a little bit week by week, having no true space of her own. No privacy. Her clothes and belongings limited to an armoire in the corner. The waterproof vibrator that she occasionally brought into the shower with her was the only action she’d seen in over a year. How could she date when she lived like this?
The role in It’s in Her Kiss would provide her with a steady paycheck for the next few months, enough that she might be able to upgrade her living situation. It wouldn’t allow her to afford her own apartment, but maybe she could upgrade to a roommate arrangement where she’d at least have her own bedroom. And hopefully, this role would be a steppingstone to more reliable work.
In the living room, she stretched and warmed up her muscles. Luckily, since the audition was here in Brooklyn, she could walk there, which would make it a lot easier to keep herself warm on the way. She put on the music her agent, Estelle, had sent and ran through the dance routine several times before adding her vocals, rehearsing until she’d worked out all her nerves.
She drank the rest of her tea and chased it with a Grether’s Pastille while she packed up. After a quick trip to the bathroom, she was on her way. As she jogged down the stairs to the street, she wrapped a thick scarf around her neck to keep her vocal cords warm.
Thirty minutes later, she entered the waiting room where she’d met Jules earlier that week. Today, there were a handful of other women in the room, all rehearsing the same dance routine Sophie herself had spent the last two days perfecting.
Unofficially, there are only two of us in contention for the role.
Who were these other women? Had Jules’s agent been mistaken? Or was something else going on? Sophie checked in with the receptionist and took a seat along the back wall, one foot tapping restlessly as she hummed the song under her breath.
One by one, the other women were called, until Sophie was the last person in the waiting room. Why wasn’t Jules here? An uncomfortable feeling took hold in the pit of Sophie’s stomach. Something wasn’t right.
As soon as she stepped into the audition room, her fear came to fruition.
“Sophie Rindell,” the casting director called out, announcing her, “performing for a role in the ensemble.”
And there it was. She hadn’t been called back to audition as Bianca at all. Now she was fighting for a position in the ensemble, one of the nameless dancers who would support the main cast. This was something her agent should have communicated to her but hadn’t, and it wasn’t the first time Estelle had let her down.
Sophie pushed past her disappointment, plastering a bright smile on her face as the music began to play. She could roll with the punches with the best of them, and she gave her all to this performance, laying every ounce of her talent on that black-tiled floor.
Afterward, she thanked the casting team for the opportunity, gathered her bag, and left. Like she’d done on Wednesday, she headed next door for a coffee. Today, though, she had to be at work in an hour, ready for a long afternoon of waiting tables for demanding tourists.
Where was Jules? Had she actually gotten a callback for Bianca? Probably. It didn’t seem likely that both of their agents would have screwed up. Sophie scuffed her foot against the dusty floor as she poured cream into her coffee. Dammit. She’d worked so hard for this. She shouldn’t be disappointed, not when she still had a chance at being cast in the production.
But still, as she left the coffee shop, she felt an all too familiar bitterness rising up inside her. After ten years, she couldn’t believe she was still clutching at the fringes of her dream, that success kept slipping through her fingertips. She stomped on a leaf on the sidewalk, producing a satisfying crunch.
The truly ridiculous thing was that if she hadn’t initially been up for the role of Bianca, Sophie would be so freaking thrilled that she’d received a callback at all. So what if she was a member of the ensemble? At least she’d be on stage. Yes, it was off-Broadway, but the Sapphire Theater had a reputation for housing quality productions, and the production company was renowned as well.