Playing the Part

1. All characters are 18+

2. No characters resemble real people

3. Enjoy the fiction

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CHAPTER 8

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"Hi, Pat."

"Kelly." More than any emotion, it was shock running through my brain. I had never considered the possibility that my ex-wife would return to town. Not sure why I hadn't - she still had family here. But I knew she'd left town for many reasons, one of which was that everyone in town knew she had been unfaithful. Gossip like that knows no boundaries.

"It's good to see you." The familiar smile appeared on her face.

My shock turned to anger in an instant. "Why are you here?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"I came for the Gala. I came to see your show."

I looked around briefly, but I saw what I expected to see. Several people were glancing over at our reunion, but pretending not to notice. I spotted Betsy about ten feet away. She was very much not looking in our direction. I knew she'd set this up.

"Betsy invited you?" I asked, almost rhetorically.

Kelly nodded. "She thought I'd like to see you, since you're the lead."

I glanced around again. Serena was nowhere around. I looked back at Kelly. "I can't say I'm glad to see you, Kelly." I was short with her and I hoped it hurt.

"I know," she replied. "I know we didn't part on good terms."

"That's putting it mildly," I huffed. The last time I saw her was across the table in an attorney's office, signing divorce papers. Her parents had begged me to forgive their daughter, so I also cut off contact with them. It hurt, because I loved them, but her infidelity was unforgivable for me.

"Can we talk privately?" Kelly asked. I think she realized how public this conversation was as much as I did.

"Not really, no." I answered, and felt good about it. "If you'll excuse me, I have to friends to talk to." I turned, but felt her hand on my arm, stopping me.

"Wait, please, Pat. I just want to talk. You owe me that much."

"I don't owe you a damn thing," I said, pulling my arm away. It wasn't loud, but it was loud enough that people overheard me. "You may have a ticket to the show, but you don't have any claim over what I do. You sacrificed that when you spread your legs for another man." It was hurtful, and somewhat crude, and more public than I wanted, but this time when I turned to leave, she didn't stop me.

I was going to the men's' room, but that seemed too public. Instead, I made my way to the backstage area. Everyone was out in the lobby enjoying the Gala's festivities, so this place was deserted. I found a seat in the men's' dressing room, put my face in my hands, and cried.

I'd been there a few minutes when I heard Serena's voice. "Patrick? Patrick, where are you?" She opened the door, spotted me, and rushed to my side. Jen and Heather poked their heads into the room.

Serena wrapped her arms around me tightly. "Patrick, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn't there," she told me. "I would have ripped her eyes out."

I looked up at the teen girls who stood behind Serena. Jen spoke up, "We saw her. We saw everything. When you left, we went to find Serena right away."

"Thank you for finding me," echoed Serena. "They told me what she said to you. What you said to her."

"It was Betsy," I murmured. "She set this up. She invited her."

"I know," said Serena comfortingly. "She did it to hurt you. To hurt us. She's still being a bitch." She raised my chin, looking at me in the eyes. "Do you know how we're going to get back at her?"

"How?" I was curious. Had Serena concocted an evil scheme in mere minutes?

"We're going to put on the best damn show ever, that's how." Serena stood up, and helped me to my feet. "Betsy wants us shaken. She wants us to fail. The best way to fight that is to succeed instead."

It made sense. I nodded. "Okay."

"Do you want to go back to the party?" she asked.

"Not really."

"Okay. We don't have to." Serena turned to the girls. "You two can go back if you want."

Heather and Jen looked at each other. It was like best-friend telepathy between them. "We'll just get some food and come back," said Jen.

Heather added. "Patrick, you're our friend, and friends stick together."

I forced a smile. "Thank you."

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We spent the rest of the party in the dressing room. The girls snuck away plates of food, so we had our own party. Even Chuck stopped by to check on us. We told him about Betsy's scheme and he was furious. He decided that he would not announce his retirement tonight after all. "That would only encourage her," he said of Betsy. "She'll think she's in line for my job. I need to find someone I can trust to replace me." We encouraged him to go back to the Gala party anyway, as he was a VIP, and he agreed and left.

I enjoyed our backstage Gala more than any of the others I'd been to in previous years. We had the same food, and the conversation and friendship were better. I'd hear later on that some bigwig donors were disappointed they couldn't meet the famous Serena Walters, but she was adamant on staying with me. Heather went to the restroom for a minute, and I took the opportunity to ask Jen how things were going. She told me that Heather was 'curious', for lack of a better term, and was willing to try new things, so Jen was willing to go slowly with her best friend.

As showtime approached, several of the men entered the dressing room to find me there with three women. Jen and Heather excused themselves, telling us to break a leg, per tradition. Serena and I went into the hall, finding a private corner to speak quietly, before we had to separate and get dressed in costume. "I'm sorry you had to sacrifice your Gala night for me," I told her. "Your dress is amazing. It's a shame no one else got to see it."

"Thanks, Patrick. But I don't care about the others. As long as you think it's amazing, that's what matters to me."

I was still a little upset, but I was getting over it. "Let's put on the best damn show," I said, echoing Serena's thoughts from earlier.

She hugged me. "That's the spirit."

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One minute before showtime, I was in costume, peeking through the curtain. I spotted Kelly settling into the front row, where my parents and Eric had been the previous night.

Serena found me. "Don't pay attention to her," she warned me.

I sighed. "She still bothers me, even after all this time."

Serena grabbed my face and forced me to look at her. "Don't let her." Then she kissed me. It was forceful and firm, not in a violent way, but as a resolute reminder that she was there. Then she said something I didn't expect. "I love you, Patrick."

"Wha - What?"

"You heard me."

"I love you too, Serena."

"PLACES!" came Chuck's call, and we parted, off to our starting places on stage. The music started, the curtains opened, and we were off.

Serena was her usual confident self on stage. I marveled at her performance. Last weekend, she'd been so afraid of saying 'love' to me, she was almost paralyzed by it. Now, she'd just said it and was suddenly on stage, being her normal self.

At my cue, I took a deep breath and stepped onto the stage. I was fine, until I looked at Kelly. In the stage lights, the whole front row was lit up, so I saw her clearly. I stumbled on a line, then caught myself.

I looked at Serena, who winked, then continued her lines. In that wink, I saw her reassurances. Everything would be okay. I rebounded and finished the scene with no more errors.

Backstage, Serena only had a breath to talk to me before she had to go back on stage. "Look at stage left, not right," she said, and was back into the spotlight. I looked where she had indicated. Jen and Heather were sitting there. I smiled. I could focus on them, not Kelly. I looked more closely and realized that they were subtly holding hands. I wasn't sure if that meant anything, but I was happy for them nonetheless.

When my solo came, I put everything I had into it. I saw the girls both grinning. I could swear I saw a tear in Heather's eye. When I finished, I heard loud calls of 'BRAVO' from the audience, including the voices of both of them. The curtains closed, and it was intermission.

Serena ran to me and I wrapped her in my arms, kissing her. I didn't care who saw. It didn't matter. We were in love and that was the only thing that mattered.

When we broke the kiss, she whispered to me, "That was the best you've sung it, I swear."

Only Chuck could break us up. "Come on, change costumes, you two," he said, swatting us on the shoulders with a rolled-up paper script.

The second half went just as well. Serena and I, and the rest of the cast, performed the rest of the show with no errors at all. I knew Kelly was sitting there and I didn't care. As Serena and I kissed on-stage, the emotion was real and beautiful. I admit that I had a small selfish thought of how my former lover was watching me kiss my new lover, and I hoped she was jealous. But it was only a brief thought, as the rest of my brain concluded that it didn't matter what Kelly saw or thought. I was no longer shackled to thoughts of her.

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Since we'd missed the formal event, I decided to take Serena back to Bensons' Steakhouse for a few drinks. It wasn't until after the show that I thought about how Serena had disappeared in the Gala. "Where were you, anyway? I asked.

"Oh! I completely forgot!" she said. "I met the Blumhouses."

"The Blumhouses are back in town?" I asked. "But they rented you their house."

"I know."

"Are they asking for it back?"

"Well, I already paid rent until the end of the show. They told me they can stay with friends until then."

"That's three more weekends," I pointed out. "And it's their house."

"I know, I offered it back to them, that I could stay in a hotel for the rest of the show, but they didn't like that." She sighed. "They said there's no good hotels around here."

I nodded. There was one hotel in town, and it wasn't very nice. Not nice enough for Serena, anyway.

"Stay with me." I said it, then realizing how it sounded, I added, "please?"

"You want me to live with you?"

"Yes. I love you. Why wouldn't I want you to live with me? Plus, this way you don't have to stay in a hotel, and the Blumhouses get their house back."

Serena thought about it. It was torture for me to wait for a response. Finally, she answered. "Yeah. Okay. It makes sense."

"Yes!" I cheered and kissed her. As usual, no one there was staring, but everyone was watching. It didn't bother either of us at all.

"Want to finish your drink and head back there?" she asked. "You can help me pack, or maybe you can help me get out of this dress...."

I gulped down the rest of my drink. It burned going down my esophagus. "Let's go!"

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