Leading Lady

CHAPTER 3

After spending another hour at the coffee shop with Cliff, he offered to give her a ride home. Lucille smiled politely and quickly turned his offer down. The last thing she wanted was for him to see the kind of place she lived in.

"What are you going to do, take a cab? Save yourself the money."

"I'm going to meet my friend Sarah, she must have finished her audition by now," Lucille said nervously. "Seriously, I'll be fine. I had a wonderful time, Cliff."

"So did I," he smiled, his eyes intently on her. "Well, if you're sure. I'll be seeing you soon, I hope."

"You most definitely will."

Before leaving, they exchanged numbers and Lucille was alone again. She sighed and grinned as she crossed the street to go back to the building where the audition had taken place. Much to her surprise, she saw Sarah leaving the building and heading towards her car.

"Sarah!" Lucille shouted excitedly and ran to her friend.

"Lucille?" she turned to her friend, surprised. "Goodness I thought you had already left!"

"You will never guess what happen!"

"What, what happened?"

"I met the most wonderful man," Lucille answered dreamily.

"You met a man," Sarah repeated with a smile, feeling relieved Lucille didn't seem bothered anymore about what happened earlier. "How in the world did you manage to do that?"

"Oh, it was fantastic! It was just like out of an old Hollywood movie: I walked out of the building cryi- well, a little overwhelmed by what happened and next thing I know, we bumped right into each other. Just like that. I nearly fell to the floor, but he caught me just in time!"

Lucille continued to explain the rest of the story. She told her about how he was also an actor and how he had shown up for the audition too and then changed his mind so he could go have coffee with her. Lucille also mentioned how he was going to help her get an audition at the Rosebud playhouse.

"Please tell me you're joking," Sarah exclaimed as they got into her car. "That is the best playhouse in the city. Do you know what this will do to your career if you get hired? This is a big deal!"

"I know!" Lucille squealed with happiness. She took a deep breath in and let it out. "It's the Universe finally working in my favor. It definitely pays off to affirm all your wishes out loud. And here you always laugh at me for doing it. But do you see? Do you see the kind of opportunity that appeared immediately after this horrible audition? It's kismet, Sarah, I was meant to meet Cliff for this very reason!"

"Maybe he's your soul mate," Sarah winked at her after pulling out of the parking lot.

"I wish," Lucille sighed and looked out the window. "But I'm afraid he can't give me what I need."

"What do you mean?"

"We're both struggling actors," Lucille shook her head, "We both need to keep our focus on our careers and making it big in this business. This isn't the regular typical boring career, Sarah, come on you should know better. Aspiring actors can't afford to get distracted by love. We could miss our chance in the blink of a love-sick fluttering eye."

For the rest of the ride Sarah told Lucille about the remainder of the audition but Lucille found herself not listening. She couldn't stop thinking about Cliff. Her heart swelled with happiness at how nice he was, her stomach filled with butterflies when she recalled the way he looked at her with his gorgeous dark eyes. She found herself nodding at Sarah but not really knowing what she was saying.