TEARS FROM THE MOON

Chapter 8.

Our run of  A Secret Smile, was now sadly coming to an end, and with only a few more nights left I was feeling a little sad about it.
I had really enjoyed playing to a packed house every night and simply loved my role as Amanda.  In fact I would go as far as saying that my confidence in acting had positively soared over the last few months.
We were all getting rave reviews and everyone was buzzing with excitement at the start of each performance. Of course Hugo kept on congratulating himself on his stroke of genius in getting Alan Rickman to agree to direct us in the first place, and having him being on our production team was undoubtedly the reason why people had come.
But I would also like to believe that they had enjoyed the play on its own merits despite the inclusion of the famous film star.

To be honest, now that the play was nearing it's end, we rarely saw Alan at all. It was as if it was job done for him now and he was just letting us role along with it.
Occasionally though, I would catch a glimpse of him backstage talking to the others and giving them some last minute encouragement before they stepped out onto the stage.

He would sometimes glance over at me, but would never speak.
Not that I particularly wanted him to anyway.

  Sometimes I would also see him stood at the very back of the auditorium as the lights went up at the end of the performance, but he never stayed.

By all accounts though, he was very pleased with how it had all gone..............but he didn't express anything to me.
Well why would he?
I wasn't doing it for him.  I hadn't  wanted to impress Alan Rickman, that was never my intension.
I was really doing it me, for the company but ultimately I was doing it  for the theatre.  Our poor old dilapidated, run down old theatre that was in desperate want for some much needed renovation work.
It would be nice to think, that any profit that we made would actually be spent on some sort of restoration of the old building that we had all grown to know, love and feel at home in. I think we owed it that.
Sadly though, I believed that our company was so much in debt from previous performances that any money which we made would actually be spent on trying to clear these.

I was deep in thought about the sadness of all of this, that I hadn't heard Marcus come in, and he made me jump suddenly with his presence.

"Oh sorry Gwen".  He apologised.  "Only, Hugo  was about to lock up and I saw the light was on in here from under the door............so I just came to check that everything was alright".   

"Everything is fine thanks".   I smiled,  "I just didn't realise that I'd  been here for so long".  

I then got up from the seat in front of the mirror.
The women's  changing room here at the theatre was small and cramped, with its cracked and peeling paint work and its musty smelling aroma. But somehow, I didn't mind at all and felt at ease and very comfortable within the confinements of its walls.

I picked up my backpack from of the floor and smiled wearily at Marcus standing there in the doorway, his stunning pale blue eyes twinkling at me.

"It's quite sad isn't it".  He said with a sigh.  

"What is?".  I asked, suddenly looking around me.

"Oh, that we won't be playing these characters for very much longer.  I've  actually become very fond of Amanda you know" He stated.

I gave him a shy smile.

"And I've become very fond of Roger too.....................in fact, I'd go so far as saying that I've developed quite a little crush on him, truth be told".   

Marcus laughed and looked down at his feet and for a moment I thought he might be actually blushing.

"Sorry".  I corrected myself, sensing his apparent awkwardness,  "I didn't mean to................."