Life on the Naughty List, or What the Elf!

15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I had just enough time to get into my apartment and throw on some pajama bottoms and a sweatshirt when I heard the knock on my door. I walked over and opened it.

“Gurl,” Johnny drawled. “I come bearing alcohol. From your texts, I could tell it was wine-o’clock.”

“Thanks,” I said, holding the door open for Johnny. Bootsy made a quick dash for the door, but I got it shut before he could escape. Seeing that he was defeated again by his human adversary, Bootsy made his way back to the couch and curled up in a ball.

I walked into the kitchen and pulled out the wine opener and a couple of glasses. Johnny had the corkscrew out in no time and poured me a glass.

“So, spill it. What happened?”

I spent the next thirty or so minutes going over the date in every detail, from the initial handshake to watching Darrin flee.

“Wow, the gall of that guy! I can’t imagine what that was like.”

“Exactly!” I said with frustration. “No wonder I’m single. The guys in this town are gay, married, or crazy.”

“Just remember, good things come to those who wait,” Johnny reassured me.

“I remember your dating life. You didn’t exactly wait that much,” I said, lifting the corner of my mouth in a smile.

“Hey, tell me about it. I had to kiss a ton of frogs before I met Amani. Eventually, you kiss enough frogs—or lawyers—and one is bound to turn into a prince.”

“Or you end up with a bad case of warts. With my luck, I’m going to kiss one of those Amazonian rainforest frogs that secretes a deadly toxin.”

“Come on, Erika. You’re getting back into the dating saddle. You’re going to hit a few rocky patches before you get into the swing of things. As of right now, your batting average isn’t great, but it can only get better. Look at that, I made a sports metaphor.”

“I know you’re right, but it’s tiresome after a while. After Asher, I couldn’t deal with a lot of stuff. And now that I finally think I’m ready to date again, the men I find are totally damaged goods.”

“Give yourself time. I’m sure the right guy is out there for you. Just be open to finding him. When the time is right, he’ll step into your life, and you’ll be amazed that it took that long.”

We spent the next hour talking about everything going on in our lives. By the time Johnny left, I was tipsy. From the wine at the restaurant to the half bottle I drank with Johnny, I was pretty much gone. I made my way into my bedroom and collapsed on the bed.

The alarm woke me the following day at 6:30 a.m. Part of me wanted to throw the blasted thing across the room, but I knew I needed to get up and get my act together. I threw on my workout clothes and headed down to the gym. By the time I finished my morning jog, I was a bit more together. I went back to my apartment and ran through the shower before throwing on my clothes, drinking a protein drink, and leaving for the day.

I made it to the theater at 8:59. I wasn’t the last one there, but I was darn close. The last person strolled in right at 9:00 a.m. on the dot. Unfortunately, the last one who strolled into the theater was Rebekka Eldridge. Oh great, what new, fantastical idea has she come up with now?

“Good morning!” Eldridge said with a giant smile. “I hear things have been progressing amazingly this week, so I’m just an audience member. Pretend like I’m not here.”

“Can we pretend like she disappeared forever?” Peeter whispered next to me, which caused me to stifle a chuckle.

“Okay,” San Nicolás said. “Let’s run the show from the top. Eugene and Tyreek have been working on a few new songs. When we get to those parts, I’ll stop and have them play. Let’s begin.”

Eugene started the intro to the opening number, and we all joined in. The whole show was running around three hours at that point, but there were several starts and stops, so it wasn’t too surprising that things were slower than they should be. When we finished, Eldridge clapped enthusiastically.

“Let’s break for an early lunch,” San Nicolás said. “We’ll see you back in one hour.”

Katherine caught up to me as I tried to leave the theater. I had hoped to avoid her, but I knew that was highly unlikely.

“So, how did it go last night?”

“It was an interesting experience,” I said, attempting to sound noncommittal.

“Uh-oh, what happened?”

I sighed and said, “If you really want to know, I’ll tell you all about it over lunch.”

We walked to a nearby Mediterranean restaurant. Since we were early, the place hadn’t filled with lunchtime crowds yet. We headed to a private table in the corner next to the window. We ordered, and I spent the next fifteen minutes painstakingly describing the date.

“He didn’t?” Kathrine gasped when I told her about his critique session. “I can’t believe he did that. He was always so nice. I’m dumbfounded.”

“Yeah, he’s not what I would call much of a people person, from what I can tell.”

“I thought he was awkward. Now, I’m wondering if there’s something else going on there.”

“Who knows,” I admitted. “Thankfully, that is one experience I’m not going to have again.” I turned my attention to Katherine and asked, “What about you? What’s going on in your dating life?”

Katherine perked up and talked about several guys she’d been casually dating. Unlike me, Katherine had no problem amassing a large number of guys to date. I’m sure I could date as much as she does, but I don’t feel the need to date. I’m looking for quality at this point in my life, not quantity.

After lunch, we headed back to the theater. We hadn’t stepped into the building when Aarya approached us with a clipboard. “The elves are all meeting in room Flying Circle C.”

From previous experience, I knew that the room she was directing us to was on the third floor, so we headed to the escalator, ready to climb. To my surprise, the escalator worked. I hesitantly took one step on it, and it started going right up.

“Wow, this place is feeling like a real theater,” I said.

“Who knows, maybe we’ll have a musical ready to go before opening night,” Kathrine quipped back.

We made our way to the room and found Peeter was already in there with Eugene and Tyreek.

“Nice of you ladies to join us,” Peeter said, looking down at his watch.

“Technically, we still have thirty seconds to spare,” Katherine clapped back.

“Okay, let’s get this show on the road,” Eugene said, clearly wanting to avoid any more tension in the room. “As you know, we have been reworking the script with Mable to update the ‘festiveness’ of the whole show. We did our best to keep a lot of the original material while updating it to reflect the fact that you are now elves and not industrial tycoons.”

We spent the next two hours going over the new material. Thankfully, several songs we’d learned a couple of weeks ago would stick around. They had to rework the lyrics because we were now Santa’s little helpers and not multi-millionaires playing with people’s lives.

Peeter quietly said to Katherine and me during one of our breaks, “I’m not sure if this is an upgrade or a downgrade yet.”

“I know the feeling,” I admitted. “Every time we think we have some kind of grip on what this show is, everything gets changed.”

“Exactly,” Kathrine said. “I don’t see how we open in four weeks.”

The rest of the afternoon was a bit of a blur. Before we went home for the evening, San Nicolás brought the entire cast into the theater for a quick pep talk.

“I am amazed at how things are progressing. At this speed, we will have an amazing show in absolute shipshape in no time. Give yourselves a round of applause for all your hard work.” He started clapping enthusiastically, so the cast joined in. We may not have been the loudest clappers in the world, but we were at least genuine. “I have some good news for everyone. After talking with the lovely people at Macy’s, we’ve been invited to preview our opening number at the Thanksgiving Day Parade.” I don’t know if he expected us to be thrilled or scared, but the room was silent. “Don’t worry, I have no fear that we’ll have the opening number ready to go in the next couple of weeks. It’s going to be a magnificent time.”

After San Nicolás’ grand announcement, he released us for the day. I headed straight home. I was still a little hungover from the previous night’s drinking, so I wanted to take a bath, have dinner, cuddle with Bootsy and go to sleep, which is precisely what I did.