Its Not New York Without A Dream

Two

My watch read 7:39 and Alex still wasn't home. I pulled out my phone and called him.

"Hello?" Alex sounded tired and worn out.

"Hey babe," I said happily into the phone, "I just called to see if you were coming home soon."

He sighed on the other end and I knew he was rubbing his face. "Hey I wish I could, but I still have to give out callback papers and get something to eat. Well I have to decide who to call back, and what for." He paused. "Just go on and eat without me, I'll be late."

"Okay," I said softly.

"I love you," he said apologetically.

"I love you more." I said back and ended the call. I pulled on a jacket and grabbed my wallet. If he still hasn't eaten he will love getting pizza delivered to him and the casting crew.

I balanced two boxes of pizza and a case of Coke in one arm and opened the door to the theater. I successfully made my way through the winding backstage area and found Alex with six other people in a small room. Papers were kind of everywhere and Alex looked beat. "Knock knock," I said quietly from the doorway.

Alex's eyes widened and he smiled brightly, "John! What are you doing here?" He asked engulfing me in a hug.

"I brought food." I said freeing myself from Alex's grasp. "I thought you'd all want some since you've had a long day." I set the pizza boxes on a nearby table and the Coke on the ground.

"Thank you so much," Alex said as the other people grabbed some pizza.

"It was nothing. You're hard at work and I wanna support you." I smiled at Alex's face, he looked so happy.

"You wanna see the callbacks for Lin?" Alex asked pulling me over to a stack of headshots.

"Pizza first." I handed Alex a slice and he immediately started devouring it.

"So, we have six candidates for the role of Lin," Alex said, his voice muffled by the pizza in his mouth.

I picked up the stack of headshots and looked over them. Three of the guys had a face that screamed Christopher so I didn't see them getting the role of Lin. "These are good candidates." I said putting the stack down. "What about Pippa, do you have the callbacks for her?"

Alex shook his head, "No we haven't gotten to any of the female roles yet." he grabbed another slice of pizza.

One of the girls on the casting crew came over to us. "Here are the headshots for the callbacks for Christopher," She said, "and John, you are a lifesaver."

"No problem Maria," I replied smiling.
"Okay I am gonna put my headshots for each role into their piles and we can leave, I trust the casting crew to finish the job, that's why they're my casting crew." Alex said shuffling through headshots.

I smiled and stood back against the wall, watching how happy he was, even if it meant he worked himself to exhaustion like he did in college.