Hell, Look at Me

Chapter 2-2

Pat left, saying he’d see them in a few hours, and Jace followed Charlie into his office. “Is your arm all right?” he asked when he saw Charlie rubbing it.

“Yeah it’s fine,” Charlie snapped in reply. Then he tempered his tone. “Stressing it like that pulls the scar tissue. I wasn’t,” he said wryly, “in the mood to do my stretching exercises for it this morning. Guess I got them anyway, but without moisturizing first.”

“Do you have to do that every day?”

Charlie nodded. “Two or three times, usually.” He chuckled. “One of the joys of my life, but by now it’s just become a habit, like brushing my teeth.”

“I hope you remembered to do that before you left this morning,” Jace said with a grin.

Charlie laughed. “I did, and showered. So I’m presentable.”

“You always are,” Jace murmured softly, immediately hoping that Charlie didn’t hear him. In a normal tone of voice he quickly said, “So where are these designs you need help with?”

“Thanks for the compliment,” Charlie said as he went over to his drafting table. “As unrealistic as it was.”

Jace winced. He did hear. I need to keep my thoughts to myself. Deciding not to make matters worse by protesting Charlie’s words, he remained silent.

Charlie took a sheaf of rough sketches from a drawer, spreading them out on the table. “I have a meeting with Steve tomorrow. Most of his ideas for what he wants are valid except for this.” Charlie tapped one of the sketches.

“Ouch,” Jace muttered. As the one responsible for seeing that the sets were built, he knew what Charlie meant. “If you go with that angle…”

For the next ten minutes they discussed how to create what the director wanted without risking the lives and limbs of the actors.

“Finally,” Charlie pronounced, sketching out the final revision from the front and back views. “What would I do without your input at times?”

“You’d have figured it out all on your lonesome. You just weren’t seeing it from the technical angle at the moment.”

“I should have,” Charlie protested. “It’s what I’m trained to do.”

“Stop putting yourself down. It takes years before you know everything there is to know and you’ve only been doing this for what? Three years? Since you were hired here?”

“That would be one and the same. I was hired the fall after I graduated, because they were desperate to find someone with even a trace of scene design knowledge after Mr. Newman quit.”

“Nope. Because they knew a good thing when they saw it. Matt and Steve showed me some of the designs you submitted, to get my opinion on their practical feasibility. You were good then and you’re better now. And don’t you forget it,” Jace said, lightly jabbing Charlie’s chest.

Charlie stared at Jace. “Did you just poke me?”

“Yeah. And?” A wicked image of him ‘poking’ Charlie flittered though Jace’s mind. He quickly suppressed it. But he couldn’t help grinning.

“Now what?” Charlie asked, eyeing him warily.

“Nothing I’m going to tell you about.”

“Come on, that’s not fair.”

“Actually it is. If I told you, you’d never speak to me again.”

“Jace…”

“Charlie…” Jace chuckled. “You’d better get those—” he pointed to the sketches, “—in order, so you can present them to Steve in the morning.”

Charlie did as Jace suggested, muttering, “Someday you’re going to tell me what you were thinking.”

Not in this lifetime. Not with you so hooked on Ricky. “Okay, I’m going to get out of here and leave you to it. I’ll see you tomorrow and you can tell me how much Steve raved over the designs.”

“Or rework them when he suggests changes. You know that will happen.”

Jace smiled as he headed to the door. “Maybe for once he’ll surprise you?”

“In which case you can come pick me up off the floor of his office because I’ll have fainted from shock.”

Laughing, Jace left.

* * * *

I feel like a bug under a microscope. Ricky didn’t mean that because he was on stage, with an audience out front intently watching and listening to him—and his fellow actors of course. It was due to the fact he could almost physically feel the presence of Jace in the wings, his gaze locked on him. What the hell is he doing? And why?

During a lull when he wasn’t actively involved in what was going on in the show, he glanced surreptitiously off toward the stage left wings. He could just make out Belinda waiting to make her entrance. Beside her, arms folded, stood Jace.

Don’t tell me. He’s finally decided to make a move and see if I’ll try seducing him. Not likely. Talk about a man who’s not even close to interesting—or gay. Ricky’s musings were interrupted when he heard the cue for his next line.

Much later, when the curtain had fallen after the last bows, Ricky hustled through the actors heading off stage. He shook off Belinda’s hand on his arm, muttering, “Not now,” and went in search of Jace.

He finally found him in the scene shop with one of his crew members. Ignoring the fact they were deep in a discussion, Ricky strode over, tapped Jace’s shoulder to get his attention, and said, “What the hell were you doing tonight?”

Ricky knew Jace was trying to get his goat when he smirked and replied, “Just making sure the stage right wagon was working properly. There was a problem with one of the wheels last night.”

“Hate to point this out to you,” Ricky barely refrained from saying ‘i***t,’ “but you were in the left wings.”

“Easier to watch from a distance,” Jace replied without missing a beat. “Now if you don’t mind, I need to get back to what I was doing.”

“I do mind,” Ricky spat out. “You spent the whole night staring at me.”

Jace bristled, his brown eyes darkening angrily. “Look, you conceited excuse for an actor, watching you is on the bottom of my to-do list. Right after cleaning the johns.” With that said, he went over to the crew member, who had moved away to let them talk. “Insufferable prick,” he growled.

“I heard that.” Ricky called out.

“Good. Now get your ass out of my shop. Go pretty yourself up for whatever…female is on your to-do list for tonight.” After giving a sharp nod toward his office, Jace and the other man went inside and closed the door.

Fists clenched, telling himself it wasn’t worth it to go after Jace and smack the sneer off his face, Ricky stalked off to his dressing room. When he saw Belinda just coming out of hers, he realized she was exactly what he needed to relieve his tension. “Give me ten minutes. You and I are going to my place for a drink or three.” Without waiting for her reply, because he knew she’d be there when he got back, he hurried in to change.