“I don’t know. Some night at the hospital.”

“I shouldn’t have told you that story,” he said, admonishing his former self. “And it was under the front desk. I told you this in the hospital?”

“Yeah. Some night that Marlene was really sick and we got stuck there all night, and you were working on Romeo and Juliet. I think you were sleep deprived. You were trying to stay up to learn your lines, and I fell asleep on your shoulder and you couldn’t move.”

“Oh, right.” He nodded and set to work pulling up the mats from the steps. “I remember that. I still shouldn’t have told you. Can you forget that? Don’t do that.”

“Did you go in my room?” she asked.

“It was so long ago, Scarlett. It was back before I took my vow of celibacy. I can’t remember these things in my pure state.”

Scarlett shuddered and turned her attention to folding Mrs. Amberson’s yoga pants.

“Stephanie is really pretty,” Spencer said. “And really, really annoyingly professional.”

“Professional how?”

“She’s one of these serious types who believes you can’t date anyone you work with. It makes sense, but…”

This would have been the perfect time to ask the question about Eric, but just as she was working up the nerve, Spencer moved on.

“Oh, well,” he said. “Things can’t be perfect. Besides, this will all be over when we get caught tomorrow night.”

But they didn’t get caught.

Against all odds, this plan worked for two entire nights. Either the gods were smiling on them for once, or their basement was truly the place where no one could hear you scream. There were a few close calls when Scarlett had to throw herself at her dad trying to take down some recycling or when she and Spencer had run evasive maneuvers around Marlene. But for the most part, it went like a dream. They even stopped meeting in the park. Spencer just propped the side door open, and the cast let themselves in.

The whole time in the basement they only went over a handful of scenes, most of which didn’t involve Spencer or Eric. But the third night was different—they had just moved on to a major Rosencrantz and Guildenstern scene. Trevor was arranging the three actors. Eric and Spencer were doing something behind Hamlet where they had to keep passing an object back and forth very rapidly. It was obvious that the final effect was going to be entertaining, but Scarlett couldn’t see from where she was sitting. She got up and slipped against the wall to watch.

“Leroy, I think it’s going to be hard to hear you if you put your head in your hands like that,” Trevor was saying. “And, Eric, come around a little, upstage. There. I think that’s better. Frame him a little. Now we can hear you. Try it from there.”

“I can hear him fine.”

That voice came from the direction of the steps. The cast of Hamlet froze in their positions. Scarlett’s mother stood there, looking at the large group of actors who had assembled in her basement.