It's Just Business (COMPLETED)

Chapter 1

Of course it was sleeting. Some sort of water was always falling from the sky in England, whether it was rain, hail, snow or, worst of all, sleet. And escaping to London hadn't made it any better for Roman, if anything it'd made it worse. Hurrying across the slippery streets, giving a non-verbal thanks to the drivers who stopped for him, Roman ran around to the back of the Old Vic and opened the stage door.

Inside, Roman shook the sleet off his red umbrella onto the doormat and ran a hand through his brown hair, shaking any sleet out of that too. Looking up, he approached the only other person in the hall, the receptionist behind their desk.

"Hey, um, I'm not late am I?"

"That depends on who you are." The receptionist said, not looking up from their computer. "If you're one of the actors for Van Leer Rose, you're early. If you're one of the actors for Heaven And Hell, you're one day late. So, who are you?" They looked up. "Apart from the physical embodiment of Gay or European?"

"I'm Roman. Roman Winston." The receptionist held his gaze with no idea of who he was. "I was in Twisted Thorns? The film?"

"Oh. I don't go to the movies much."

"And you are?"

"Mina." She said, tapping her name tag. "If you were in a stage show, I might know who you are but I've got no clue, sorry mate. Now, just put your name here with the time you arrived," she said, heaving a register file onto the desk and putting a pen beside it, "and then go to the Van Leer rehearsal room."

"Great." Roman pulled out his phone and checked the time. 7:35. He scrawled his signature and printed the time before putting the pen back down. "And that's where, sorry?"

Mina sighed and heaved the book back down under the desk. "Second floor, third green door on the left, has Van Leer Rose Rehearsal Room written on it in gold, you can't miss it."

"Right, thanks." Roman started to set off before remembering something and wheeling back around. "Hey, um, where should I put my um-"

"Umbrella stand by the door, Film Star." Mina said, not looking up from whatever she was doing but pointing to an umbrella stand by the stage door.

"Oh. Right." Roman hurried over to the door and put his umbrella down before turning around and bouncing up to the rehearsal room.

"Roman?"

Roman looked up and his mouth fell open into a half-shocked smile. "Aaron?"

Aaron ran up to Roman from the piano. "No way. No one told me we were working on the same musical!"

"You got past your stage fright?" Aaron laughed.

"Oh no, God no. I'm composing the music. Musicalifying the songs we've got."

"You write music?"

"Yeah. You know, after we graduated I went to uni and got into composing." Aaron's smile faltered slightly, for a second. "Surely you must've heard at least one of my songs. I was on loads of TV crap and I've got a couple of sing-"

"You're a pop star?" Aaron laughed at Roman's surprised tone.

"Um, yeah. Made the top charts last year. It's still sinking in." Aaron scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Did you not know?"

"No. I've been living under a rock since Twisted Thorns."

"I saw you in that." Aaron said admirably. "Sam couldn't believe that I used to know Prince Jonathan. You were amazing!"

Roman laughed slightly. "Thanks. But let's not focus on my achievements, let's focus on the guy who, until a minute ago, I didn't even know was a pop star." Aaron laughed.

"Yeah. Aaron Stanley, the guy every bi boy wants to be. It's so weird."

"Welcome to my world. Anything special you're composing for my character?" Aaron tapped the side of his nose.

"A magician never tells his secrets. What I can tell you, though, is that you've got a pretty killer Queen song."

"Which one?"

Aaron laughed and shook his head.

"Fine." Roman said, dragging out the word. "Why'd you chose to work this musical?"

Aaron shrugged. "I've really wanted to get back into making cover songs and a jukebox musical is the perfect way to do that. Also, musicals just hit different, you know?"

"Exactly! They do."

"And they wanted to use one of my songs and I wanted to compose the rest of the music and they said 'why not'." Aaron laughed. "If I hadn't had my lucky break when I met Sam, I'd say this was it."

"Sam?"

"My husband. His brother owns a huge recording company and Sam noticed me busking, got me on good terms with his brother."

"You're married?"

"Yeah. One year."

"Aaron, that's awesome! Amazing for you." Aaron nodded, his face looking like it was going to break from smiling. "Hey, um, you know who's acting opposite me?" Aaron shook his head.

"No clue. I think only the director and stage manager know. All I know is that the guy's got a brilliant range. Like, for one song, I was able to put it in this really low key but then I've been writing this other song really high and he can do both. He's gotta be an awesome singer."

"Hey, um, I'm not late am I?"

Mina looked up. "You with Van Leer Rose?" The man nodded. "Then no. Sign your name and time and go to the rehearsal room."

"Which is where, sorry?"

"Second floor, third green door on the left, has Van Leer Rose Rehearsal Room written on it, you can't miss it."

"Right, sorry."

"It's fine, just sign and go." He nodded and scribbled down his name and the time, 8 am to be exact.

"Um, bye."

Roman was flicking through his script, high-lighting all of his lines, when the door opened, making him look up. Someone proceeded to enter and trip over the floor, falling flat on their face.

"That was an elegant entrance." They muttered to themself, picking themselves off the floor. Roman realised he'd jumped half out of his seat and sat down.

"Are you okay?" The person stopped dusting themself down and looked up and Roman.

Virgil's mouth fell open slightly. "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me."

Listening to my Liked Songs playlist? Check.
Written the long-awaited first chapter? Check.
Mood? Through the roof, which is so much better than it's been for the past week.
I don't think I've ever been so excited to have written a first chapter.
Bye,
Blaize