For as long as Allison could remember, she'd wanted to get into acting. But coming from a strict, religious family, she was discouraged from pursuing it as a career.
When she was 21, she married her high school sweetheart, who wrote part-time at the local newspaper and freelanced for magazines. She worked at a temp agency and made a good living. They were happy together and had decided to wait a few years before trying for a family. Three years after the wedding, her husband Michael decided they should move to LA because he'd been offered a good job at a national publication. She was overjoyed. She couldn't wait to visit Hollywood!
Three months after they moved to LA and armed with an impressive resume from the various projects she'd worked on, she got a job as a receptionist at a talent agency. She was excited about seeing her favorite celebrities, though she knew she'd get in serious trouble with her boss if she so much as spoke to any of the big name actors who walked through the doors.
She became good friends with a girl named Lisa who worked for one of the highest-paid agents. Lisa was a struggling actress, and Allison was in awe of the beautiful redhead, who seemed to have plenty of stories of life on the sets of movies she'd had bit parts in. Eventually, Allison shared her desire to act with Lisa, who was thrilled. "Oh, Allison, that's great! You'll have to join my acting class. I've learned so much from the teacher. But the class is mostly men, and I'd kill to have a friend to sit with!"
After much thought, Allison talked her husband into letting her sign up, and though she was terribly nervous about acting in front of a group of people, she was willing to put aside her fears and give it a try. It was her dream, after all. At first, she felt terribly out of place. She recognized a few male students from soaps she'd watched, and Lisa seemed to really know her stuff too! She was surprised to see their acting coach was a tall black man named Jeffrey Hagood. Her father had always been terribly racist, and though she personally didn't have anything against blacks, neither had she dealt with them much. She was shocked when Lisa leaned over once and whispered about Jeff, "Mmm-mmm. That man gets me so hot sometimes, I could just cream right here in this seat."
Allison had never found black men attractive, though once Lisa's comment was out in the open, she began to study Jeff closer. She supposed he was quite handsome for a black man, and he had an impressive resume of credits on his resume. He certainly showed a lot of patience with her and told her he saw a lot of natural talent in her acting skills. The true test, he said one day during class, was how well she handled love scenes. He called up one of the students, a handsome older man named Seth, and gave them a scene to act out. Allison was playing Seth's wife and was supposed to surprise him with a romantic dinner, which in turn leads to romance in the bedroom, Jeff directed. They began the scene--she could barely concentrate, she was so worried about the other students watching them--and when Seth tried to pull her into a kiss, she froze.
"Hold it!" Jeff yelled. "Allison, you gotta relax. Just pretend Seth is your husband. Remember how much you love him and want to show him affection. Come on. Try again."
They tried three more times, and each time, she froze whenever Seth tried to press his lips to hers.
After class, Lisa told her everyone froze when they tried their first love scene. "Though once you get used to it, believe me, it really gets you hot. Sometimes it's hard to control yourself long enough to get through the scene."
Allison didn't believe a word of it, and told Michael so later that night. He seemed worried that she was taking the class too seriously, and said, "Sweetie, maybe it's time we started a family. I think a child would help you feel more secure in general, and Lord knows we'll have fun trying." She wasn't sure if it was time for them to start a family or not, but Michael persuaded her to stop taking the pill anyway.
Weeks passed, and she thought she was getting better at the love scenes, but both Lisa and Jeff told her she had a long way to go before she was a professional at it. "You're still too wound up," Jeff told her. "Someday you'll let your mind go, and it'll just all click into place. Don't worry. You'll get there."
Jeff, of course, knew that Allison was already pretty good at doing love scenes. He'd had his eye on the tall white woman since the day she'd walked into his class. He'd had plenty of opportunities to sleep with white women before, but he'd never had the desire. That is, not until he met Allison. When he was a teenager, he'd had a major crush on Mrs. Helen Jenkins, his English teacher, and a sexy white woman. But when he'd tried to make a move, she'd left him feeling like scum for even daring to try and touch her lily white skin. He'd vowed then and there not to mess with white women again, but Allison was too tempting to resist. Truth be told, she was the image of his perfect woman. She was tall and slim, but very voluptuous, and had long, honey blonde hair that seemed as natural as her pretty supermodel face. Since he was involved in a relationship already, he'd tried to ignore his attraction to the married woman, but eventually, he decided enough was enough. He was going to fuck her brains out if it was the last thing he did.
He put his plan into action one night after Allison had aced a scene with one of the white boys in the class. "Allison," he told her. "That was good. So good, in fact, I think you're ready for your first performance. A director called me today and he's looking for a woman that fits your description to act in his play. Only..."
She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. "Only what? What? Tell me, Jeff," she pleaded. "I'm not sure you're really ready for it," he told her. "Here...this is the script. Take it home and read it, then tell me what you think."
That night Allison eagerly gobbled up the script. When she got a few pages into it, she had to stop in shock. The story was an interracial romance, and the director had included some pretty realistic, not to mention nude sex scenes between the couple it was about. She told Michael she didn't think she could go through with acting out a nude sex scene with a black man. "But I know you, honey," he argued. "If you don't at least try, you'll always regret it." "You won't be jealous?" she asked softly, curious about his answer. In high school, he'd always been very possessive, but since coming to LA, she knew he'd tried hard not to be, for her sake. "Of course I will," he smiled. "But I know it's not real, right? Isn't that what you're always reminding me of?"
The next day in class, Allison told Jeff, "I read the script."
"And?"
"And I want to do it. It's a great part. A good story. I want to do it."
Jeff smiled to himself before sharing the last detail with her, "Great! I guess I should tell you--I'm your co-star!"
