Fate. Love. Broadway.

Chapter 5

After a few insignificant songs and duets between other characters, Rod called Elliott and Riley up to sing their big love number together. It turns out their voice blended beautifully. Rod got very excited and began jumping up and down.

“I’m so good at this whole casting thing.” He sing-songed. Riley stared down at her music the whole time, focusing on the difficult harmonies she had. They nailed most of them. “Alright it’s dinner break time. You have an hour, so be back here at 6:45 PM sharp. Got that? We’ll go through the group numbers.” 

Elliott swung his bag over his shoulder and made a bee-line for Riley. “Hey, Riley!” he called, grabbing her attention. She was about to walk into an elevator. She turned around and waved.

“I’ll see you guys in an hour!” she dismissed her friends and walked up to Elliott. “Hey, Elliott. What’s up?”

Elliott wasn’t quite sure what he wanted. “Oh, um. Well, our voices seem to really go good together.”

Riley smiled. “Yeah, they do! That’s awesome. It’ll make the whole process a lot easier. Of course, we still have a few kinks to work out, but yeah. It sounded great.”

“And it really helps that your voice is just amazing.” His face flushed a bit. She smiled softly. 

“Oh, thanks. And your voice is awesome, too. Thank God or else this show would be a disaster.” She laughed, trying to lighten the situation a bit more.

They sat there in silence for a moment. Finally Elliott said something. “So do you want to grab dinner together? Get to know each other more and all that jazz?” 

She shrugged “Sure, I didn’t really have a dinner plan, yet.” Elliott hit the elevator button and they waited for it to arrive in silence. When it finally reached the 16th floor, they hopped in. “What was your dinner plan?”

“Oh, I know this great place one block away. Do you like genuine Spanish food?”

“Love Spanish food!”

The place literally was literally one block away. It was on 36th and 6th. “I discovered this place when I first moved to NYC after college and began rehearsing Romeo and Juliet: the Musical. It’s become a tradition to come here for dinner on the night of the first rehearsal of every show I’m in. Plus, I come here plenty of times besides then. I’ve actually come to know the owner and her family quite well.” 

To prove his point, just as they sit down a short, plump, hispanic woman comes waddling over. “Elliot? Hola, mi hijo! ¿Cómo estás?” The woman was loud and clearly excited.

What really surprised Riley was when he replied in perfect spanish. “Mama Rosa! Soy maravillosa, gracias. Y cómo estás?”

“Lo estoy haciendo bien. La familia está muy bien. ¿Ha empezado un nuevo musical?”

“Sí tengo. De hecho, esta bella dama es mi coestrella.” He gestured to me, smiling.  I wasn’t quite sure how to react, so I just smile and waved. I had no clue what he was saying. “Riley Masson, meet Mama Rosa. She owns the joint and is my New York mother.”