Backstage: A Fake Marriage Romance, page 12
“The production might go on for longer than you expect”, I say. “It could be an extended run.”
Sophia shrugs. “That’s okay”, she says. “I like the part, and the money’s good after all.”
“I like the part too”, I confess, pulling her into me to breath in her smell again. “It’s a lot of fun working with you.”
“Saying goodbye to William and Elouise is going to be a lot easier now”, she says. “We don’t have to say goodbye to them at all.”
“I can’t tell you how happy that makes me feel”, I say, “I was worried we’d lose contact after the play, and then you’d go back to France and we’d never see each other again.”
Sophia twists her body towards me. “Really?” she says.
“Sure”, I admit. “That’s one of the things I hate about acting. You get to spend an insane amount of time together in this really intense relationship and then all of a sudden it’s over and you have to just cope with getting on with your own life.”
“It doesn’t always have to be like that”, Sophia says.
“No, it doesn’t always have to be like that, but it invariably is.”
“We would have stayed friends”, Sophia says, leaning against me again. “You know, if we hadn’t decided to get married that is.”
“You know that’s going to be the best decision of your life, don’t you?” I joke.
“Without a doubt”, Sophia agrees.
A silence settles in around us while we wait for our marriage licence to be processed, the magical piece of paper that anyone getting married here needs to bring with them in order to do it officially.
From time to time I hug Sophia into me and kiss her head, and she squeezes my thigh or buries kisses against the sensitive part of my shoulder, while we quietly try and guess nationalities and backgrounds and life stories of those people around us.
Either sitting here chatting, or sitting here just in each other’s company, I feel relaxed, restful and extremely happy. There is a seriousness to what we are doing here I don’t feel the need to address, and something terrifying about the idea of commitment in general that would frighten the life out of me if it were with anyone else, but because this is Sophia and because of the certainty of the way I feel about her, this whole thing seems like about as big a deal as deciding what to get for lunch. For all that it matters, Sophia and I could be waiting for a prescription or a product to be delivered, not a licence to wed.
It takes the best part of an hour for our names to be called, and when they are, we practically jump out of our seats, more excited than we are capable of hiding.
“Sophia Grace Moreaux and Ryan Carter Speed”, the attendant says again, this time a little quieter. My heart is beating like the bass line of a techno track while we wait for her to hand over the certificate.
“You’ve got sixty days”, she says, dropping the certificate on the counter and spinning it around with a deft flick of the wrist so it’s the right way up for us to read. “After that you’ll have to apply again.”
A perfunctory glance tells me the information is all correct. “And we just come back here?—” I ask.
“If you want to get married here at the office, just come back here with at least one witness, the marriage license, the same ID as you’ve just used now, identification for your witness, a bottle of champagne and some confetti, or whatever it is you people like to celebrate with, and we’ll get you seen as soon as we can.”
“That’s it?” Sophia asks.
“Welcome to America, honey”, the attendant says plainly. “Have a nice day.”
“Thank you”, I say, and we make our way quickly back outside, just in case they change their minds.
Outside, we pause to look more closely at the marriage license.
“That was a lot easier than I thought it would be”, Sophia says. “I don’t know what it’s like in France, but I doubt it’s as easy as that.”
“I’m surprised too”, I say. “I thought we’d have to convince someone we were doing this for real.”
“We are dummy”, Sophia says, and it takes me a moment to realize she’s in character.
I put the marriage license in my bag and sling it over my shoulder. “I’d suggest lunch, but I’ve just spent my last thirty five dollars on our future”, I say.
Sophia hooks her arm in mine and pulls me into her. “Don’t worry about that”, she says, “I’ve got you.”
“You sure?”
“Sure I’m sure”, Sophia says. “You can get me back when we’ve got so much cash we don’t know what to do with it.”
As we begin to walk, I let my hand slide down Sophia’s back to rest against her bum, and every once in a while I give it a squeeze just to make sure it’s still there.
Chapter Sixteen
Sophia
This new role feels so natural for me, I have to remind myself from time to time that what we are doing is still acting. The kisses, the hand holding, the bum squeezing, and the gooey looks are all so convincing, it’s easy to get confused.
Either Ryan’s an even better actor than I thought he was or there’s something else going on here that I’m not sure I should dare myself to even consider, because what we’re doing right now is turning me on enormously.
I have to be careful I don’t give away how I really feel about him, because the last thing
I want to do is freak him out. This is a business relationship after all, and even though we need to make it look real, I can’t lose sight of the fact that we are both supposed to be playing a part.
If Ryan isn’t acting and the way he touches me, looks at me and kisses me is for real, I might just explode in excitement.
Our task for today is simple. We need to convince everyone at the theatre that we are an item, and not just a brand new item either. We need to convince the entire team, cast, crew and Marshall himself that we have been keeping our relationship secret for the entire length of the production but because we’ve moved onto the next stage with each other, we felt like it was time to confess all.
Hand in hand and on the way to the theatre we discuss our plan for how to tackle the Sophia and Ryan publicity machine.
“Even before the first auditions”, I say, “we were sleeping together.”
Holding hands isn’t entirely necessary right now - not every couple hold hands all the time, after all - but I love the fact that we are. If this version of Ryan represents the true version in any way at all, I absolutely love how affectionate he is. Some men are so tightly wound up they won’t dare show any signs of affection in public, but for me it’s extremely important and I absolutely love it. Ryan has either read me perfectly or he’s just naturally the kind of guy who’s not reluctant to show his emotional side. It’s not just hand holding either with Ryan, it’s the whole package, but hand holding is definitely near the top for me. Some people make hand holding about as dull and contactless as you can make something that by its very nature is about contact, while others make the whole thing an art form, and Ryan definitely belongs to the latter group. Little squeezes every now and again, a change up of interlocking fingers to a kind of full fingers mitten grab and then my favourite of all, which is the little circles he makes in my palm with the top of his thumb that make me think of what he could do given the right amount of time with a much more delicate area.
“Do you think he’ll buy that?” Ryan asks.
“If we sell it to him well enough, he will”, I say. “Remember there was a reason he chose us to be William and Elouise. He saw our chemistry.”
“Hey, I’ve just thought, maybe we should get matching tattoos”, Ryan says. “You know, like two sides of a heart, or whatever. That’s got to be the next stage after facebook.”
“Absolutely”, I say. “I’ll get your name tattooed across my left breast.”
“You’d do that for me?” Ryan asks.
“Right after you get Sophia Grace Moreaux tattooed along your dick.”
Ryan laughs. “Ouch”, he says. “Maybe we’ll hold off on the tattoos for a while.”
“I’m going to tell Tracy we fucked in the dressing room after the first show.”
Ryan’s eyes go wide. “Are we going to say anything about the wedding?”
I shake my head. “I don’t think it matters does it?”
“I don’t know”, Ryan says. “We’ve just got to do enough to convince the right people we are for real. I guess it couldn’t hurt to mention it, only they’ll probably all want to show up.”
“That would be weird”, I say, thinking about how we marry every day on stage and how strange it would be to have the same people surrounding us when we do it for real. “And my parents would freak if they knew the director of my play was invited and they weren’t.”
“Yeah, mine too”, Ryan says.
“Let’s just leave it between us and our witness. Do you think Alex will be cool to come tomorrow?”
“I hope so”, Ryan says. “Now that we’ve got the license, I want us to get married before anyone changes their mind.”
I squeeze Ryan’s hand a little tighter. “I told you I’m not backing out. If I make my mind up about something, I stick to it.” It briefly occurs to me he might not have been talking about me, and I suddenly get a little worried. “You’re not having second thoughts are you?”
Ryan looks at me. “Me? Not at all”, he says. “I’m just paranoid that something bad will happen and we won’t be able to go through with it, I don’t know. I’m just—.”
We’re outside the theatre now and Ryan stops me. “I’m having fun”, he says. “I know we’re not doing this for real, but all the same, I don’t know, I’m having fun. It’s been really nice hanging out with you for the last few days, and I’m looking forward to us spending more time together. I don’t know what I’m saying—.”
“Shut up and kiss me”, I say.
“What?”
“Just—.”
I can’t wait any longer, pull Ryan’s gorgeous face towards mine and give him a heart stopping kiss that nearly makes me float. When I’m done, my lips are tingling with his taste and our tongues have done that reacquaintance dance I love so much, I let the reason for my impromptu episode sink in.
Ryan looks at me with a mix of desire, lust and contentment, before the penny drops and he hears Marshall clapping. I would have enjoyed kissing him anyway, but it makes me excited to know that for a moment at least he thought I was doing it because I wanted to, and not because someone important was watching us.
“You’re not supposed to be doing that until the end of the performance”, Marshall says cynically.
“Fuck”, Ryan says slowly, breaking into a laugh. “We were just—. Oh man.”
“Hey Marshall”, I say, while Ryan wipes my saliva off his lips with the back of his hand.
I make a point of stepping away from Ryan ever so slightly and then making out that it’s a total surprise that we’ve been caught.
“Practising”, I say with a huge smile.
“Is that what you call practising?” Marshall says. “It looks like you are both experts already.”
Ryan and I look at each other and I can feel myself going red. “I hope this—”, Ryan begins again. “We were going to tell you.”
“I can’t say I’m entirely surprised”, Marshall says, holding a book of scripts against his chest and rocking every so slightly on his heels like he has a tendency to do, perhaps from so many years of continuously moving around. For a portly guy, he can buzz around like someone half his age. “You’ve hidden it well, I have to say.”
“We didn’t know if it might have changed things”, I say, looking from Ryan over to Marshall. “We didn’t want to fuck things up for you.”
Marshall shakes his head. “If anything it helps”, he says. “It explains all that sexual tension up on stage. You know there was a reason I picked you two to do this. I could see this happening a mile off, I’m just surprised it took so long.”
Ryan and I look at each other and giggle. “Yeah, not all that long “, Ryan says, pulling me into him.
Marshall allows his mouth to drop open theatrically. “Then I must be losing my touch”, he says, “a perfect time to retire.”
“You won’t say anything, will you?” I ask, absolutely certain that the first thing he’ll do when he gets inside is tell someone, even more so now that I’ve asked him not to.
“Your secret is safe with me”, Marshall says, pretending to zip up his lips. “But if you were keeping this hush hush on my account, don’t feel like you need to continue. A little bit of romance in the theatre is good for the blood, just don’t touch each other under the duvet covers because that thing doesn’t fit in a normal size washing machine. Save that until you get back home.”
Ryan can’t help but laugh. “Okay”, he says. “I promise we won’t do that anymore.”
Marshall’s mouth drops open theatrically again. “Of all the dirty things—. I’m going in, I can’t bare to think about your naked bodies grinding against one another any more. All that sexy skin, hard muscle and tender flesh.”
“Marshall!” I remonstrate.
“Just channel it into your character”, he says. “You can fuck in the dressing room, but not on stage, this is a family friendly play.”
I laugh. “Thank you, Marshall”, I say. “We’ll keep that in mind.”
“Unbelievable”, Marshall says, shaking his head at us. “You know this could make a play of its own. That would make Chekov look like a weed smoking sophomore student.”
“I guess we have to thank you”, Ryan says. “We wouldn’t have got together if it wasn’t for you.”
“Naturally”, Marshall says arrogantly, already beginning to believe the story we’ve invented for him. Either this fake relationship thing is a lot easier than I thought or people just expected us to get together at some point anyway.
“I thought you were going in”, I say, when Marshall’s still doing nothing but staring at us.
“I am”, he says. “Don’t you worry about me. I was just thinking about what this means for William and Elouise.”
“About what means for William and Elouise?” Tracy says, pulling up alongside us. “Hey guys.”
“This”, Marshall says, waving his free hand at us.
Tracy looks at us, back to Marshall and back to us again. “No”, she says, “I’m still not getting it. Have you changed your hair, Soph?”
“Come on Tracy”, Marshall urges, “it doesn’t take a genius.”
“No, I’m still drawing a blank”, Tracy says. “You’re not quitting are you?”
“They’re fucking”, Marshall says tersely. “Apparently they’ve been at it for ages.”
“Holy shit”, Tracy says, her eyes and smile widening. “That is not happening.”
Ryan sighs. “Marshall”, he says. “I thought you said—.”
“Tracy doesn’t matter”, he says dismissively. “I thought you meant people outside of the theatre.”
“Wait, what?” Tracy says. “This isn’t true right? This is something for the character, you guys are acting right now aren’t you?”
I shake my head. “It’s for real. We didn’t want to say anything in case it messed up the production.”
“No way”, Tracy says, her hand over her mouth. “Wait until I tell Connor and Paul, they are going to freak.”
“Tracy”, Ryan insists. “We were trying to keep this quiet.”
“So how did Marshall find out?” she asks, her eyes going from us to our director.
“They were out here sucking each other’s faces off in the plain light of day, outside our theatre no less.”
“This is the backstage entrance”, Ryan is quick to point out, “and you guys are way earlier than usual.”
Tracy wrinkles up her nose. “I knew it”, she says. “How long has it been going on? I knew you two were at it. Even before we began, I knew there was something going on between you two. Elouise and William.” She shakes her head. “That’s so funny. No wonder those kisses gave everyone the goosebumps.”
“Can we go inside now, please”, I insist, trying my best to look uncomfortable.
“Maybe you two want to spend a bit more time out here practising”, Marshall says.
“I think we’re okay for the moment”, Ryan says, pulling me into him. “I guess we won’t need to hide it anymore though. With you two gossips the whole world will know by the end of the day.”
“You guys do whatever you want”, Tracy says, her shoulders lifted into a shrug. “I can’t say I didn’t expect it.”
“You looked shocked when you found out”, Ryan points out.
“That’s because I’m happy for you guys”, Tracy says. “You guys are hot together, aren’t they Marshall?”
We’ve been out here so long Marshall has begun to smoke a cigarette. “They look great together”, he says. “It’s why I picked them. Ryan reminds me of a young me.”
“You know who would freak about this?” Tracy says. “That review guy from the metro.”
“Come on Tracy, we’re not the first couple to get together during a theatre production”, Ryan says.
“Yeah, but I bet you’re the only ones who have an entire six year relationship on stage every night and are actually an item outside of it too.”
“Who’s an item now?” Paul says, pulling up to join the group. “And what the hell are we all doing outside anyway?”
Tracy claps her hands together excitedly and I can almost see the words flowing out of her mouth like water from a blocked drain. “Can I tell him?”
I sigh. “Ryan and I are in a serious relationship, and we have been for some time”, I say. “We were keeping it hidden to not create issues with the production, but Marshall just caught us kissing and then told Tracy. So here we are, confessing.”
“Wow”, Paul says. “Good for you guys. I’m going inside, it’s fucking freezing out here.”
Marshall drops the end of his cigarette to the ground and stubs it out under the toe of his boot. “Me too”, he says, hugging the scripts against his chest and falling in alongside Paul. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do”, he calls back to us over his shoulder.
