Always Never Yours(52)

“Well, I do care,” I fire back. And I want to prove it. I glance down at the script in my hand. “Right now I care about figuring out this scene.”

He stares at me disbelievingly for a moment, then scoffs. “I don’t know what to tell you, because honestly I’m killing it out there while my Juliet can’t even be bothered to look impressed at my flawless intonation. You have no idea the nights I’ve spent perfecting iambic pentameter—”

“Tyler, shut up for a second.” Surprisingly, he does, and I realize in an unexpected rush of inspiration what’s wrong with the scene. “This is exactly the problem. If you read the lines, Juliet is not impressed by Romeo’s wordiness. But there’s a point in the scene where something has to change, because by the end Juliet’s professing her love to him. I feel like we haven’t figured out that point.” I notice Tyler’s actually listening. “We need a moment where something softens her—where she falls head over heels.”

“What do you propose?” he asks.

“We need something genuine, where Romeo’s words get out of the way.”

He nods slowly, but his eyes are bright, and I can tell he’s with me. “Something physical?” he offers.

“Exactly.” I’m liking this interpretation. I only need to figure out how to fit it into the script. Looking past Tyler, my eyes catch the wooden stairs leading up to the balcony. I nod toward the set, the idea coming together in my head. “This is what we’re going to do. My genius boyfriend built the set so you can climb the trellis.”

Tyler starts to grin.

I find the page in my script and point. “Here.”



* * *





“Deny thy father and refuse thy name, or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.” I’m back on the balcony, doing my utmost to look like a teenage girl in the throes of irresponsible love.

This time, I’m not just trudging through the lines. I’m excited, and it’s making the dialogue come easier, more naturally. When Juliet asks, Wherefore art thou Romeo? into the night, she’s not flush with passion, not yet. It’s more like she’s trying the feeling out.

“What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,” I continue reciting, “nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man.” I allow Juliet a smirk, knowing what part she has in mind. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

When I finish my speech, Romeo leaps out of the bushes, and I immediately turn Juliet skeptical. I’m downright standoffish by the time she proclaims, “I have no joy of this contract tonight. It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden, too like the lightning, which doth cease to be ere one can say ‘it lightens.’” I’m enjoying delivering the lines, capturing the inflection. It’s almost better than watching actors navigate their lines when I’m directing.

“O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?” Tyler moans, and the rest of the cast laughs from the audience.

I haughtily raise my chin and ask him challengingly, “What satisfaction canst thou have tonight?”

I catch Tyler’s eye. He’s turned toward me, and the audience can’t see his face when he flashes me a quick grin. I hold my breath as he executes a running leap onto the trellis. In two graceful steps, he’s scaled up to my level, and out of the corner of my eye I notice Jody lean forward in what I hope is interest.

“Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine,” Tyler utters in a stage whisper.

Then for the first time in six months, Tyler Dunning’s lips meet mine. I give Juliet a moment of stunned recoil before I melt into the kiss. He smells the way I remember, but it’s not weird like I expected it to be. I don’t feel like Megan Harper kissing her cheating ex. I feel like Juliet falling in love.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting better at getting into character. Or maybe it’s because he’s not kissing me like Tyler Dunning, not reaching for my bra and parting my lips with too much tongue. He’s kissing me like I imagine Romeo would, his hands remaining on the balcony while he gently presses his lips to mine.

“I gave thee mine before thou didst request it, and yet I would it were to give again,” I breathe when he pulls back.

“Okay”—Jody’s voice cuts between us—“stop there.”

I turn to where she’s standing. Every ounce of excitement I just felt for the scene drains out of me, and doubt rushes in. The cast is hushed like I’ve never heard them during notes—except for Alyssa, who’s whispering in Courtney’s ear and sneering at me. I search Jody’s expression for any indication of what’s coming, whether she’s going to tell us to rethink the scene again or whether I’m finally kicked out of the role for good. I figure it’s one of the two.

But it’s not me she speaks to first. “Tyler, what could have possibly compelled you to climb the set and kiss your costar?” I hear nervous laughter from the audience. “Last time I checked, that wasn’t in the script or the blocking we discussed. When I told you to step through the scene in private, I didn’t mean come up with an entirely new, entirely dangerous staging.”

“It was Megan’s idea,” Tyler says unhesitatingly, jumping off the trellis. Well, so much for trying to take the fall for me.