“Yes, that one. I felt like I was all over the place and not zeroing in on my objective or the connection to Mandy. At that point? It should be undeniable that these two are meant to be, and it just…isn’t.” It was the last scene before intermission, when the first version of the couple was at their peak of happiness, the moment a romance novel would have come to a close. The goal, as Ethan had described it, was to build the couple up as so in love, destined to be together, that the audience is dumbstruck to see them miss out on the relationship entirely in act 2 and instead witness how their lives play out if they’d never met. “If there’s no lost relationship, the narrative fails. Nobody will care.”

“Got it,” Lauren said, as she located the scene. Carly, newly off-book for act 1, didn’t need her script.

She looked over at Lauren, who would be reading the first line in the scene. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“So, we’re doing this?” Lauren said, reading the line as Mandy.

Carly, as Ashley, took a deep breath. “Do you know what you’d be getting into? I let teakettles whistle too long on the stove. I scream when spiders show up. I know I’m not the easiest person to love. I’m pretty sure I just lost my job, and my cat moved out. I’ll probably be homeless myself in a matter of—”

“Ashley?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re talking a lot.”

Carly grinned. She liked the way Lauren said that line, with a kind of playful affection. She’d never heard it delivered that way. It gave her a shiver. She kept going. “Should I stop now?”

“You should definitely stop,” Lauren read. “I have a lot of things to figure out, but one of them is definitely not you. You’re staying.” She’d lifted her gaze to Carly’s for that last line and inspired another shiver. Carly was struck—this was what it was supposed to feel like between them.

As they got farther into the scene, Lauren brought warmth, comedy, and a very human vibe to the character of Mandy. Carly felt like she’d stumbled upon a gold mine with this rehearsal session, as it informed so many new choices she hadn’t yet considered. When they finished their fourth run-through of the scene, she stared at Lauren, who still sat on that rehearsal couch against the wall.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Lauren asked, with a curious grin.

Carly shook her head. “I just didn’t see that coming. Have you ever acted before?”

Lauren sighed. “It’s all I ever wanted to do when I was younger. Be onstage, tell amazing stories, hear the audience applaud.” She shrugged. “Wasn’t meant to be.”