This is the fourth chapter in a series of so far indeterminate length. The story is fun on its own, but to understand what is happening beneath the surface, I really recommend starting with Chapter One.
As with all my stories, should you be looking for 'Realism', just move on. I aim for 'Ridiculously Plausible'.
And thanks for all the views, favorites, follows and the high ratings so far. I appreciate your keeping up with the tale, and I'd love your comments too!
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It was our last week to rehearse our scene for Acting 101, so Steff and I planned to rehearse both Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The two of us had tacitly decided that these last rehearsals were too important and would be all business, no hanky-panky. We had a date Friday night for that, anyway. We had gone over the last few weeks from initially despairing that we could never pull off the challengingly sexy scene we had chosen, to certainty that we could nail it. All we had to do was put in the work.
Meredith was absent, still at work during our rehearsal on Tuesday. But Thursday, mid-way through our second run through, we heard the garage door open and the throaty roar of Steff's (ex)step-mother's powerful Mercedes echoed as it entered. Like the pros we were certainly not, Steff and I powered through the distraction and kept going. Aware that we were rehearsing that evening, Meredith let herself in and slipped directly off to her study with soundless steps... not an easy feat in the three-inch spiked heels she habitually wore to work. She must have been listening, because as soon as we finished our next-to-last run-through, she re-emerged and headed to the bar to make her usual after-work cocktail.
"Drink?" she called casually over her shoulder to us.
"Not for me, thanks," replied Steff friendlily. "I think we are on a roll here, so maybe later. Scott?"
"Yes, Scott," asked Meredith. "A Stinger, perhaps?"
I coughed and swallowed simultaneously at that, and had to gasp for air. "Ah, no. Thank you
very
much Meredith," I said when I was able. "I have a useless term paper due for a useless class, and I want to get it finished yet tonight."
Steff looked at me and then at Meredith's teasing grin and realized she was missing something. Her expression betrayed that she fully intended to get the Stinger backstory out of one of us. I realized with good-natured despair that Meredith would probably actually tell her.
Meredith carried her Martini over to the couch and plopped herself down, kicking off her heels as she did so. "Do you two mind if I watch your rehearsal?" she asked, having clearly already invited herself to do so. We both shrugged. An audience could be helpful when rehearsing, and while this one was only one woman, it contained multitudes.
Performing a sexy scene with a girl you are involved with is easier some ways, and harder in others. Performing said sexy scene in front of said girl's step-mother, who you are
also
dating, is... fraught.
Still, we did great, from opening awkward distance, through the fight, the despair, the reconciliation, to the final kiss not in the stage directions with which we had decided to end the scene.
Meredith clapped delightedly as we finished, and we both actually bowed a little. "Wow, you two!" she exclaimed. "You have come miles from where you were struggling before. You will bring down the house." She paused, then went on in a suddenly severe tone. "But Scott, really?"
"I beg your pardon?" I asked, non-plussed at what she was suddenly complaining about.
"I have ample evidence and testimony on the record that proves you can kiss better than that."
Having these two beauties in my life at the same time was too good, even for a dream come true. But in life, not matter how implausibly good things are, there are always challenges, from uncomfortable to terrifying... to just being laughed at.
When I pulled up at the house late Friday afternoon to pick up Steff, there was a huge white Escalade that I didn't recognize in the driveway. I parked behind it and rang the bell. Rather than Steff, it was Meredith who answered the door. See what I mean about challenges? She was dressed beautifully, of course, but very casually for a work day. "You are early," she declared, stepping back from the door to usher me in. "Steff isn't quite ready yet." She turned and waved at the two women I had not met standing by the dining table in the great room. They were stuffing gift bags. In a vacuum, either one of them would have been pretty hot. In a house with Meredith and Steff, they were the plain ones. "Scott, this is Brenda and Hanna, my 'posse'," she said by way of introduction. "Girls, this is Scott Talbott... of the Winston-Salem Talbotts," she added in a voice dripping with irony. "Scott is Stephanie's date tonight."
I quickly picked up that these two women did not currently need to know that I was also Meredith's date the
next
night, and simply nodded brightly to the two women.
"Stephanie!" Meredith called out casually, walking back to the table and her friends. I hoped Brenda and Hanna missed the hungry way my eyes followed her backside as she walked away from me. "Scott's here!"
I wandered over to the table curiously. "We are stuffing gift bags for our friend Tianna's divorce party," explained Meredith blandly. My eyes shot up at that little piece of intelligence.