The Taming (18 page)

“T
hat was really, uh, how shall I put this … NOT VERY GOOD!”

Travis yelled. “What is with you two this morning?”

I looked over at Katie. She looked down at the floor. She’d hardly been able to make eye contact with me during the whole rehearsal. That was good. If she’d been able to meet my eye I would have had difficulty meeting hers.

“It’s Monday morning … early Monday morning,” I mumbled.

“I know that you’re not happy about practices being two a day now,” Travis said. “I know no one is, but we’re coming down to the short strokes and we have to do it right … a lot righter than this has been going this morning. Okay, once more, from the same place, line 23 … Katie … you have the first line,” Travis called out. “And please, with a little feeling, a little emotion, and some
connection
. Now go.”

Katie took a deep breath and I knew she was getting into character once again.

“
Husband, let’s follow to see the end of this ado
,” Katie said.

“
First kiss me, Kate, and we will
,” I replied.

“
What, in the midst of the street?
” she demanded.

“
What, are thou … thou … ashamed of me?
” The word stuck in my mouth. I
did
feel ashamed.

She hesitated. I was positive she knew the next line. She must have been thinking the same thing I was.

“
No sir, God forbid, but ashamed to kiss
,” she said.

“
Why then, let’s home again. Come sirrah, let’s away
.”

“
Nay, I will give thee a kiss
.”

Katie looked up at me—practically for the first time all morning. This was where she was supposed to lean forward and we were to kiss. Neither of us moved.

“Come on!” Travis yelled. “It’s not like the two of you haven’t kissed before!” I heard giggling from the peanut gallery.

We both leaned in and gave each other a little peck.

“You’re not kissing your mother up there!” Travis yelled. “I’ve had more passionate kisses from some of my aunts … and I’m still scarred for life! How about if we all take a break so you can rethink this and I can scrub my mind clear of those images of Aunt Sophie. Everybody back in five!”

I reached out and took Katie’s hand. “We need to talk.”

I led her off stage. She didn’t resist. She came along willingly. I looked out and caught Lisa looking at me—there was real anger in her eyes. Had Katie told her what had happened? No, that look didn’t mean anything—she already hated me.

There were people backstage. There were people everywhere.

“I don’t want an audience,” I said.

I pushed open the stage door and we headed outside. The door closed behind us and we were alone. Now I just had to figure out what to say.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Just a little confused … you didn’t call.”

“
You
didn’t call either. I thought you wouldn’t want to speak to
me
,” I said.

I’d spent the day sweating whether there was going to be a knock on the door—the police asking me questions about what had happened—that she’d woken up and thought about the whole thing. I guess I should have been there when she woke up but I just couldn’t face her.

“I feel so bad about what happened … can you ever forgive me?” I asked.

“Forgive you?”

“I got you drunk.”

“We both had too much to drink,” she said.

“But I brought the alcohol, I poured the drinks, it was my idea.”

“You didn’t force me to drink.” She paused. “I just thought you wouldn’t want to see me … after we …” She let the sentence trail off.

“How could you even think that?” I asked. “You were drunk and I took advantage of you.”

“I wasn’t
that
drunk. You didn’t force me to do anything.”

“Are you sure?”

“Completely,” she said, unconvincingly. She looked up at me and tried to smile but didn’t quite get there.

I held up my phone. “And I wanted to talk to you about the pictures I took.”

She nodded her head. “I wanted to talk to you about them too.”

“You know I’d never show anybody.”

“I know that. But … I don’t know … it’s just …”

“That they make you feel uncomfortable,” I said. “I knew that when I was taking them, and I know that now. I had too much to drink too. I never would have done that if
I
wasn’t drunk.” I almost believed myself. “But you don’t have to worry. They’re gone. I erased them. You can check if you want.”

“I don’t have to check.” She smiled. “I believe you. Besides, I don’t even know how to check.”

“It’s right here,” I said. I pressed two buttons—the second to show the image. “This is the only picture I kept.”

I showed Katie the first shot I’d taken that night, the one when she was still dressed. It was nice. She was pretty … no, not pretty, she was beautiful. It almost surprised me. I’d been looking through the pictures all weekend and now, boom, there it was. She was
so
beautiful.

“Could I use it as the wallpaper on my phone?” I asked.

“Of course!”

“Then, is all forgiven?”

“There’s nothing to forgive,” she replied. “When you didn’t call I just thought that after what happened, and after you saw where I live, that—”

“That I wouldn’t want to call you?” I asked.

She nodded her head.

“Now you should be apologizing to me if you think I’m that shallow,” I said.

“I don’t! Honestly! It’s just that, you know, compared to where you live.”

“Where I live doesn’t matter, just like it doesn’t matter where you live. What matters is who you are. Speaking of which, when are you going to introduce me to your mother?”

“Never!”

“Are you ashamed of me, like in the play?” I asked.

She laughed. “I’m proud to be your girl. It’s just that you don’t know my mother.”

“And I won’t until I meet her.”

“That’s not what I mean. You have to understand, she isn’t like your parents. They’re so nice and supportive.”

“You don’t know my father!” I blurted out before I could stop myself. “He’s a lot of things but I wouldn’t include
nice
or
supportive
on that list.”

“But he seems so …”

“
Seems
and
are
are so different. He’s … he’s … I don’t know how to explain it exactly. It’s just that you’re an innocent,” I replied. “People can fool you.”

That may have been the most honest thing I’d ever said to her. She looked bewildered.

“And your innocence is one of the things I love about you.” I pulled her close and kissed her and she kissed back—long and deep and passionate.

“Hey!”

We stopped and looked over. Travis was standing at the stage door, peering out.

“That’s the sort of kiss I was looking for. Now you two should either get back up on stage or get a room! And I think I’d prefer the former!”

“You go ahead,” I said to Katie. “I’ll be there in just a minute.”

She hesitated. “Go.” I gave her a gentle push. “I’ll be there in just a minute.”

Travis held the door for her and the two of them hesitated, looking back at me.

“I’ll be right there!” I yelled out. “I’m not running away from home. I just want to gather my thoughts.”

They disappeared inside. I pulled out my phone and tapped the app for tape recorder and then pushed play. Katie’s voice came out.

“
I wasn’t that drunk. You didn’t force me to do anything
.”

“
Are you sure?
”

“
Completely
.”

I now had her saying it. Just like I still had those pictures of her on my laptop at home. I had two types of proof, but even more important, I had control of the situation, control of her.

You’re in charge, you’re in control
, a voice in my head said. But it wasn’t my voice. It was my father’s.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

H
e still loved me, and nothing else mattered. Really. In fact, Evan had said he loved me more than ever because I had proved
my love
for him by trusting him and everything. Of course I trusted Evan. I
loved
Evan.

And that’s what I told Lisa when she interrogated me in the dressing room. She kind of barged in unexpectedly after Wednesday afternoon’s dress rehearsal and caught me changing. She saw.

“What the … is he … ?”

“It’s okay.” I put my hand up as if it were a singular force field that would block out her words. It worked. Lisa shut her mouth. And then opened it again.

“Katie?!”

“It’s not what you think,” I said, buttoning up my blouse as fast as I could. The marks that she could see were mainly on my arms. They were purple and angry-looking, and while they looked worse than they had a few days ago they didn’t hurt. Any more.

“What I think? What
I
think! You have no idea what I think.” She walked all around me. “Travis said he thought there was something hinky going on between the two of you at Monday morning’s rehearsal. Katie …”

“Evan simply doesn’t know his own strength when he’s gripped in the throes of passion. Of course,
you
wouldn’t know about that.”

I don’t know why I added that snotty little tag, or why I was talking to her all snotty-like to begin with. Lisa looked genuinely sad and scared for me. Maybe that was it. Yeah. How dare she? I didn’t want or need her pity party. I’d never seen this side of her before. She seemed to think that she was some kind of all-seeing, all-knowing Buddha.

“Oh my God, Katie. You didn’t, did you? You did, didn’t you? Did you?” She sort of fell back into the basin we were using as a makeshift makeup table. “Not with a guy like …” She ate the rest of that sentence, which was just as well.

I was having real trouble buttoning up anything and I couldn’t remember where my jeans were. The cold of the granite floor shot up my legs and shocked my heart. I tried to read her expression. Was Lisa angry at me, or just surprised that a boy like Evan would even want me?

“And for your personal info,” Lisa said, “I’ll have you know that I have made love before, Katie, with two lovely young men and one complete jerk,
none
of whom left marks on me. Grip of passion? He has a grip on you, all right.”

Three guys? I did the math. When? What was that about? The jerk? What about the jerk—did he force her, make her do things she didn’t want to do? It would explain so much. A
friend
would know about that. A friend would have shared that with me before she was using it as some lame excuse to lecture me. When the shock wore off, I resumed my righteous pose.

“Evan got completely and totally lost in how much he loves me, and that’s okay because I love him, too.” At last, I located my socks. “Evan Campbell is my everything, and if you cared at all, Lisa, you would be thrilled for me. Unlike your
three
guys, he is the real deal for me.”

I didn’t look at her after that little soliloquy, which was hard, it was really tight in there. I thought she’d tear me limb from limb, or leave slamming the door. Instead, Lisa just sat down and nodded.

I gave up on the complexity of buttonholes and concentrated my shaking hands on socks. Just then the door swung open and Travis came in butt first because his arms were loaded down with three grande frappuccinos.

“Hey, girlfriends, I’m here for coffee intervention!”

“Travis!” I yelled. “Travis, I’m practically naked here!”

He looked me over from top to bottom. “Honey, I hate to crush you, but the sight of your floral panties doesn’t do a thing for me.” He tilted his head. “I think I’d like more action in the chest area.”

“That’s just rude, and that’s not the point!” I stomped around in my socks and buttoned blouse. I was still searching for my pants when Lisa threw them at me.

“What did I miss?” Travis asked.

“She and Evan are doing it,” Lisa said.

“Just once … it’s not the same thing.” But then I held my breath both so that I could successfully zip up my new jeans … and because I was afraid she’d tell him about the marks.

Why was I afraid?

“Well, it was only a matter of time. It was inevitable,” Travis said. “And if you didn’t I might have.”

“Travis!” We both groaned.

“Well, sure, he’s a bit intense, but he’s pretty darned pretty …”

Lisa tossed someone’s orphaned sock at him.

I grabbed my drink and sat down on the cold granite bench, semi-naked, and it didn’t matter. I was with my friends and they were razzing me. This felt right. I was safe and I was loved. Okay, if not loved, at least liked a lot.

“Thanks for the frappuccino, Mr. Director.”

“Anything for my leading lady.” He squinted at me. “You need more of them. Are you losing weight?”

“Well, Evan is used to dating very fashionably slim—”

“Anorexics. Lollipops, all head no body!” snorted Lisa. “Remember, I know the schools he went to, I know the type.”