Love and Other Drugs, Right?

-2-

I lazily fumble the keys into my locked apartment door, yawning. Dinner with Chris had turned into a night out with Chris. We had walked around town for a while talking. When I got home to my dark apartment I wished for probably the 100th time that week that I wasn't too busy for a dog. It would be so nice to come in and cuddle up with a Golden retriever right now, just like the dogs I'd had when I was a kid.

Instead the apartment was cold and empty, It was almost 9 o'clock but I had some freelance stuff to keep up with so I changed into a pair of joggers and a sweatshirt and then sat down with my laptop on the couch. Turning on the TV for some background noise.

I sat and arranged a photography shoot for a client and then once that was finished I started writing. Writing and acting were my secret passions, but I rarely got to act and all my writing stayed fairly private, unless I was doing it for a client and then the writing was pretty much always lame commercial shit. I liked writing spooky stuff and fiction, and sometimes movie scripts. I must have spent three hours writing because before I know it it's 1am. I shut my laptop and turn off the TV, stretching as I head to my bedroom. I climb under the sheets and falls asleep to the sounds of NYC.

-

My alarm beeps and I crawl out of bed, dragging my duvet with me and wrapping it around my shoulders as I head into the kitchen for a bowl of cereal. I've got to be at the theatre by 9am today. I sit down at the island and scroll through my phone as I eat. Around 8am I head back up to my room and get ready for the day.

I get to the theatre a little bit early, heading up to the sound board and turning it on, along with the lights considering I got there before Chris. I hear the doors open backstage and expect Chris to walk out onto the stage. Instead, Jake steps out, looking around the theatre and spotting me. He waves and I hop off my seat by the sound board, going down to greet him.

"Hey Jake." I say, "you're here kinda early for an actor." I joke, Jake laughs,

"Thanks?" He says, I smile,

"You're welcome." I nudge him,"Well I've got some setting up to do, you can probably just chill until Carrie gets here." I say,

"Actually, maybe I could check out what you do? Can't hurt to know my way around the tech side of this right?" He asks. I'm taken aback, I can't remember the last time an actor really, genuinely cared about "the tech side".

"Oh, yeah sure. Just follow me." I bring him up to the sound board. I start pointing out the rigging, show him the receivers, mic packs, etc etc.

I'm in the middle of showing him how I program the board when Chris comes up, carrying his satchel and wearing the same baseball hat I've seen him wear pretty much everyday of his life.

"Hey Y/n/n, Jake." He nods casually, dropping his bag next to the lighting board.

"Hey Chris. I was just showing Jake the sound set up." I say, Jake nods.

"This is a pretty great show to teach someone sound." He laughs, "only two stage mics, and a few odd orchestra mics."

"I might not even program it in, I could sit up here and run it myself." I say, Chris smiles,

"Oh yeah just like back in high school?" He says, he had been my tech director back in high School. Like I said Chris taught me everything I know.

"Yeah, next thing you know we'll be putting on a shit version of The Wedding Singer." I joke, Chris laughs, And Jake does too, lightly of course. He doesn't really seem to know what we're talking about.

"Chris was my tech director when I was in high school." I explain, "we put on a stupid amount of bad shows together." I laugh,

"And a stupid amount of good ones." Chris elbows me, Jake smiles,