When we finish eating, Willa heads down to the theatre so she and Jude can get the rehearsal space ready for this evening, and I report to my afternoon work assignment. Glory smiles and offers me the usual peppermint, but she seems even more nervous and awkward than usual.

Over the next few hours, she teaches me how to update the contract databases on her computer. She shows me where all the office supplies are and how to change the toner in the copy machine. The trick to replacing the ink in the ancient printer that sits on her desk. I learn how to handle Brody’s calls and what to do with his emails.

Jude wasn’t kidding when he said Glory knew this place inside and out. It’s wild, seeing how much of Whisper Cove’s day-to-day operations depend on her. There’s plenty to keep us both busy, but almost every time I look up, I find Glory staring at me. And I figure that’s because she’s heard the news.

Nicole Kendrick’s daughter is back from the dead.

She never brings it up, though, and I’m grateful. Talking to Willa was so good, but it left me feeling a little overwhelmed. I’m not used to talking that much.

Or feeling that much.

So I’m happy just to sit in silence with Glory and stuff envelopes. We work together all afternoon. Side by side. And there’s a kind of comfort in being with Glory. There’s something about her peppermints and her frizzy hair and her nervous smile that makes me feel at home.

My breathing is easier.

My heart rate is slower.

And my palms are less sweaty.

And it takes me a long time to realize what that feeling is. It takes all afternoon. But by five o’clock, I’ve figured it out.

It’s familiarity.

I remember Glory.

ACT I: SCENE 7

At dinner, everyone is gearing up for the announcement of the cast list and our first rehearsal. They’re telling themselves not to get their hopes up because they probably won’t get the part they want. But secretly, their hopes are all so high. They always are. They have to be. Otherwise there’s no reason to audition.

I’m especially counting the minutes, because I know that becoming someone else will give me some room to step outside myself and breathe. No matter which role I end up with.

That’s a big part of what’s always drawn me to theatre in the first place. To leave myself behind, even if it’s just for a few hours, always feels like such freedom.