Center Stage
Page 37

“You look like you’re ready to do some business,” he said with his slow Tennessee drawl. She’d missed home.
“I am ready.” She pushed open the door, and the man followed her to her desk and set down the box.
“My wife wanted me to mention that she’s a pianist. She’d be awfully excited to come help you out if you could use her. She plays for the church choir every Sunday.”
“I think that sounds wonderful.” Arianna turned and pulled a pen from a cup in the box he’d sat on the desk. She fished around for her notebook, too. “Here. Will you write down her name and phone number?”
“Sure. You gonna call her?”
“I think I might if she’s really interested. I have a show already in the works.”
“Neat.” The man went about writing down the information. “Thanks. I’ll let her know I talked to you.”
“And thank you for the help.”
“My pleasure.” He gave her a little wave and walked out of the office.
“Are you holding meetings with the plumbers already?” John’s voice resonated through the room.
“He helped me in.”
“You don’t usually get here this early.” There was a crease between his brows. She knew he was trying not to sound as angry as he was.
“I was just excited to move a few things in. I know the building isn’t done yet, but I have things in motion already. I should get to work, right?”
He walked toward her, placed a small kiss on her lips, and stepped back. “I’m not going to keep you from being here, I suppose.”
“John, everything is okay. You’re going to have to trust me to be down here alone at some point.”
He nodded. “I still don’t like it. You have your gun?”
“Yes.”
“Loaded?”
“Always.”
He let out a deep breath. “I have some things to tend to. I assume I’ll find you here?”
She smiled. “I have pictures to set up on my new bookcases. I have files already full of notes. I even brought some old scripts and sheet music to put in my closet.”
He gave her a chuckle and finally a smile formed on his lips. “You’re happy.”
“Don’t ever remember being happier.”
With a nod he was gone, and she was alone in her very special part of the world that Eduardo designed for her.
By noon she had a list of things that needed to be added to the room. She needed a fax machine, a printer/scanner, and a coffee pot. She’d seen John’s coffee pot in the trailer out back. It looked as though it were always full because of the grime of coffee on the inside of the pot.
Over the past few months she could say she knew him well enough to assume he’d say if it were cleaned it would ruin the taste of the coffee. However, having seen how he lived, she was surprised anything he owned was that dirty. Job site mentality, she decided.
She was on the phone with the company she would acquire the rights to produce Annie when John walked into the office with a burrito wrapped in tinfoil.
She motioned to him to set it on the table. He did so and then wandered around the office.
Arianna turned off her phone when she was finished with the call and looked up at him. “How is it you don’t weigh four hundred pounds eating those burritos everyday?”
“I never stop moving. I burn them off.”
“Well, I need to schedule some dance classes in this place soon so I can start to work mine off. I’ve see the way you look at me when I eat. It makes me nervous that it gives you such pleasure.”
He only smiled as he peeled back the foil on his lunch.
“Looks like you’re right at home here.”
“Getting there.”
“Ed said you’d need a table to spread out on. He said that’s what you’d do.”
She tucked her lips between her teeth to keep from smiling. She’d been pegged by a fifteen-year-old.
“I need to see what I’m doing. I’m a visual person.”
“And very appealing to my visual.”
“It’s a good thing you won’t be hanging around here much longer. I don’t know how I’d get any work done.”
He bit into his burrito. “When will you be done today?”
“I don’t know. I’m just plugging away. Why?”
“I think I’ll be late. I want to get a few more of these jobs done before next week. I want everything nearly complete before we leave for San Francisco.”
He took another bite and she watched him enjoy the homemade burrito. She on the other hand didn’t have an appetite for it.
“Maybe we should move our trip. Until everything here is running smooth.”
He nodded slowly. “Don’t want to go?”
“No, I didn’t say that. There is just a lot to do here.”
“Honey, there always will be.” He finished the burrito and wadded up the tinfoil. “I’m sure that even when this place is fully operational I’ll be spending my evenings here either popping popcorn, taking tickets, or building some set. As long as I’m with you everything will be perfect.” He stood and looked down at her. “Besides, I haven’t had a vacation in four years. I think I’m due.”
Arianna let out a sigh. “You’re right. So do you think anyone has ever been caught having sex on Alcatraz?”
That put some color in his cheeks and he was belly laughing by the time he rounded the desk to kiss her. “Younger women have some kinky ideas, don’t they?”
“Only to see if they can make their old men blush.”
He gave a grunt and a nod and left her alone in her office.
Arianna worked until five o’clock. It wasn’t until then that she realized the entire front of the theater had been deserted for hours.
The sun was still out, not that spring was pushing through, but there was a chill in the old building. It wasn’t enough to put on her heavy coat, but she’d want to bring a jacket and leave it in the office. Oh, and she should buy a coat rack too. She made a mental note as she walked out into the lobby.
The concession area looked almost ready for business, but she knew that was deceiving. She looked around. No one was there, but she didn’t feel alone.
“Is anyone here?”
There was no answer.