He squinted. “You had me a little worried early on.”

“Rightfully so. I apologize. I had a stage management team who knew how to handle me, though. Kudos to Lauren and Trip. I’m trying to be more aware of…others.”

“It shows.” He nodded. “Speaking of Lauren, the onstage romance since recast?”

“Yeah?”

He shook his head as if in disbelief. “There’s such a specificity to it now.” He used his hand to make a mind-blown gesture and then opened the pop-top on his Red Bull with a crack. “I don’t know how we’ve gotten there in such a short span of time with you two.”

She smiled at the compliment and understood that he likely didn’t realize fully what was happening offstage. She agreed with his sentiment, however. She felt it when they were onstage together. “She gives me so much to work off of. I feel like we have great chemistry.”

“I gotta tell you. It’s never been more apparent than today.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what you two did differently, but if we could find some way to bottle it and save it for our audiences, I’d be elated. There’s a large amount of sexual tension there.”

“You have no idea what you’re asking of me,” Carly said with a sardonic chuckle. She knew exactly what they’d done to create that tension—starve themselves of the one thing their bodies craved. Yes, they’d decided to wait for Lauren’s benefit and peace of mind, but apparently the show was reaping an unexpected reward. They were dying to rip each other’s clothes off, and somehow, that bled through to the characters’ relationship.

“What do we think, Ethan?” Sally asked, leading Lauren, wearing a sundress, back into the room. “I’m thinking if we cinch it right here”—Sally pulled the fabric a little more to reveal the lines of Lauren’s waist—“we’ll eliminate the droop we saw earlier.”

“Looks great,” Ethan said. “Are we set otherwise?”

Sally nodded. “After this last alteration, we should be prepared for full dress runs.”

Ethan tossed a fist in the air, likely relieved to have one more thing squared away. Carly shook her head. She never would have imagined how many moving parts went into a play. She had severely undervalued the experience. Never again. In fact, she could imagine herself doing more theater in the future. How crazy was that?

As Lauren slipped away with Sally, Carly followed her to her dressing room and waited outside for her to change. When the door opened once again, she pushed off the wall and stuck her head around the door. “Can I come in?”