The Taming (13 page)

“I’ll even go shopping with you, if you want,” he said. “I’d like to see you modelling new clothes … just for me.”

I felt myself start to blush. It was my turn to examine my empty cup. Shopping required money and I didn’t—

“What’s wrong, did I embarrass you?” he asked.

I shook my head. “It’s just with the play and cutting down my hours at the bakery … I just don’t have …”

“It will be my treat,” he said.

“I can’t let you do that. You already pay for
everything
.”

“A man is supposed to pay for his date. Call me old-fashioned, but that’s the way I am. Can’t a guy get his girl a present?”

His girl
. He’d said it again. It was better each time.

“Consider it an early birthday present,” he said.

“But my birthday isn’t for months.”

“Hence the
early
part.” He paused. “It would be rude to turn down a present.” He flashed that smile and my feet practically melted. “Okay?”

I nodded.

“Good.” He got up, and right there in the coffee shop he bent down and kissed me. A lot of kids from school were still there. That sort of thing weirded me out a bit. I just wasn’t used to being kissed in public, or to being kissed period, which must have been why it felt so intense or something. Lisa said that he was addicted to PDAs, public displays of affection. She was definitely jealous.

“Let’s set a date and time,” he said.

Everyone was looking. “But, I work remember, and then there’s the play and homework. I don’t know when we can go.” That hadn’t come out right, but Evan still smiled at me. He was so patient with me, and I was such a dork.

“It’s okay, I’ll pick you up after your second shift on Saturday and we’ll spend the rest of the day getting you a few things that are up to your new standard.”

Then I remembered Lisa and Travis.

“Don’t worry, I’ll still get you home for a really early night. I know you’ll be tired.”

Saturday, Lisa and Travis were going to line up to get student tickets for a dinnertime jazz concert, and I’d made plans to join them for a set. I hadn’t really seen them over the past couple of weeks. Maybe I could see them on Sunday instead. I’d make up something.

“Yeah, wow, brilliant!” I finally said. “I’d love that!”

He pulled me to my feet. “And then, as a bonus, we can get together on Sunday, and I’ll help you run lines.”

Did I nod? How did this happen? He was so amazing. How did someone like
me
get someone like him? I must have said that last bit out loud.

“Stop that.” He pulled me into him. “Repeat after me.”

We were standing up together in the middle of the coffee shop. I felt singled out, like being on stage but different.

“Repeat after me,” I repeated, and he poked me.

“I am special,” he said.

“You
are
special.” I giggled.

He poked me again, this time harder, much harder, and then repeated, slowly. “I am special—say it.” It wasn’t a request.

“I am special,” I said.

“
You
made me special,” he said.

“
You
made me special.” I giggled again, but I believed it. He had made me special.

“So, I am special!” he said.

“So, I
am
special!” I said.

“There!” He squeezed. “I just saw you blossom right in front of me.”

“Well, you’re a good gardener.” I squeezed his hand and noticed the time on his wristwatch.

“Yikes, its late, I’ve got to get my special blossoming butt home before my mom gets there!”

Evan glanced back at the room. “Okay, we can go now.” Most of the kids were still looking but pretending not to. “I’ll drop you off, my blossoming little rose.” And then my prince actually kissed my hand. I could hear every girl in the place sighing. And so could he.

Chapter Twenty

T
ravis looked anxiously at his watch. Rehearsal should have started fifteen minutes ago, but Josh hadn’t arrived. It made it hard to have a full practice with the lead actor not present.

I sat off to the side in one of the seats. I guess I could have gone backstage and helped Danny, but he seemed to be doing pretty well without my help. Set design—actually, anything involving tools or manual labour—wasn’t really something I was any good at. And as my father always said, if you earned enough money it was easy to hire somebody to do that sort of thing.

“Could I please have your attention!” Ms. Cooper yelled as she came into the auditorium. “Could we have all the backstage people come out here as well!”

This sounded important. Well, as important as anything about this play could be. Slowly I got up from my seat and joined in with the crowd that was forming around her at the front of the stage. Katie settled in beside me. I slipped my hand into hers and I could feel her warmth.

“What do you think this is about?” she whispered.

I leaned in close. “Maybe Shakespeare called and said we couldn’t do the play.”

“No, seriously.”

“I seriously don’t have any idea … but Cooper doesn’t look too happy.”

“I want to start off by saying that he is going to be all right,” Ms. Cooper began.

The level of tension in the room suddenly rose. Who was going to be all right?

“You’ll all notice that Josh isn’t here,” she continued. “Because as we speak he is still in the Emergency Department of Credit Valley Hospital.”

Stunned gasps and muffled shrieks shot around the stage.

“What happened?” Travis demanded.

“At lunch he was involved in a car accident. He’s going to be fine, but the airbag of his car deployed and it broke his nose and jaw.”

More gasps and groans from around the room.

“But what about the play?” Danny asked. “If his jaw is broken then they’ll have to wire it shut, so there’s no way he can say his lines.”

“They did wire it shut,” Ms. Cooper acknowledged.

“Are we going to have to cancel the play?” Travis asked.

“The show must go on.”

“So we’ll delay … wait for him to recover?” Travis questioned.

“It will be weeks before they remove the wires, and we can’t wait that long,” Ms. Cooper said. “Josh has to be replaced.”

“Replaced?” Travis gasped. “But opening night isn’t that far away. December 10 is going to be here before you know it!” Travis started pacing. “There’s no way we can find somebody who can learn the lines in that time.”

“We already have somebody who knows most of the lines,” Cooper said.

I felt a chill go through me as I instantly I knew who she meant, and judging from how everybody turned to face me, they all knew too.

“Well, Evan?” Cooper asked. “You’re the only chance we have.”

I knew she was right.

“It’s such short notice that I won’t force you to do it if you don’t want to,” she said.

“So I can say no if I want?” I asked.

She nodded.

I let the question just hang in the air as everybody continued to stare at me. It looked like they were all almost afraid to breathe, waiting, anticipating, wondering what I was going to say. I liked keeping them waiting. It was like I had them all in the palm of my hand, like I was in total control of all of them … and really … I was.

I looked over at Katie. She looked like she was going to cry. I knew how much this play meant to her, and how much it would destroy her if it didn’t go on.

“Of course I’ll do it.”

A cheer went up, and Katie threw her arms around me. I hugged her back as the rest of the cast and crew surrounded me, slapping me on the back and offering thanks.

I looked through the crowd to where Lisa sat in the seats a few rows back. She didn’t look happy. Puzzled. That was it, she still looked at me like she was trying to figure me out. I guess it could have been worse—she could have
already
figured me out.

Chapter Twenty-One

I
t was like God was trying to make up for every lousy little thing all in one go. Evan Campbell, the love of my life, was not only the love of my life, now he was also my Petruchio! Maybe Evan wasn’t the most natural actor in the world, but I had a Petruchio who knew how to deliver lines, had them down cold AND actually knew what they meant. Ms. Cooper said that that fact alone put us ahead of 95 percent of all high school Shakespeare productions in the country.

Poor Josh. He was still at home sipping shakes because of the wires. Evan sent flowers on behalf of both of us. Like, wow. And that was exactly what I meant about him. I would never have thought of sending flowers, and even if I had, I wouldn’t have known how to go about it. Evan did it all on his iPhone in less than a minute. He has his
own
florist! Like I said, wow. Don’t get me wrong. I felt awful about Josh. We all did. Well, maybe not Travis. Travis looked relieved pretty much every time Evan opened his mouth and delivered a line.

The only one who didn’t like Evan taking Josh’s place was Lisa. She’d been late for the first practice with him and now, for the second, she’d barely shown at all. Lisa was officially our prompter. It was going to say so on the playbill and everything. When Cooper dogged on her, Lisa said that Evan knew the script better than she did, and that I didn’t “need her” any more. Cooper shamed her into promising to be a more prompt prompter. I didn’t care. Okay, I did, but not enough. I was starting to get tired of her being so moody.

Travis was cool. Of course, Evan getting the lead, plus being my boyfriend, was seriously perfect for his play. But, unlike Lisa, I also think that Travis
got
that I was delirious, crazy, happy. Or he would have got it, if he hadn’t been so preoccupied with the play.

When “we” sent the flowers to Josh, Evan asked what my favourite flowers were. Like, who does that?

Thing was, I didn’t know. No one had ever asked.

He didn’t laugh when I told him that. He just hugged me. Right there onstage after everyone had gone. Evan said to think about it. “It has to be some really special flower, Katie.” Then he kissed me on the forehead. “Because you’re special, remember?”

I would have followed that boy into battle.

I was still feeling pretty special as I ran up the eleven flights rather than wait for the elevator in our building. And I was special while I coated chicken legs in the dinky plastic bag they give you with the Shake’N Bake. When the front door slammed hard, I threw the legs into the oven while turning on the tap to rinse a head of iceberg lettuce. All of a sudden, I wasn’t so special.

“Hey, good timing, Mom, just making the salad here!” I cranked up the oven to 500. “It’ll be done in a sec!”

Mom came into the kitchen and went straight for the scotch cupboard. She drinks twelve-year-old Chivas Regal now. It’s $63.95. Johnnie Walker scotch is $44.95, almost twenty dollars cheaper. That’s what Mom drank before Nick Kormos introduced her to Chivas. Joey just drinks wine, expensive wine and lots of it, but he buys it and brings it.

I reached in for some ice and plopped it into her glass with my best “good daughter” smile. I was thinking maybe I should tell her about Evan. She’d for sure be impressed by his money, the car, his clothes, by so much.

Mom knocked the drink back in one go and poured another while eyeing me.

“What the hell you grinning at?”

Okay, so we’d save Evan for another time. I knew better than to answer. It was like walking on a razor’s edge when she was like this. She knocked back the second scotch and kept eyeing me.

“That outfit is too tight on you, makes you like you’re selling something,” she snapped.

Wow, and this from someone who wore gold lamé tank tops. That snide little thought was immediately replaced by the deeply uncomfortable realization that I must have had
her
taste in clothes.

“You think you’re smarter than me. But you’re not,” she said. Mom poured another scotch and got her own ice cubes. I braced myself by chopping the red peppers and green onions for the salad. I needed to be invisible. To not react. To keep my mouth shut.