Chapter 45
‘Excellent, excellent,’ cried Solly.
Nick held out a hand to Kitty and climbed to his feet, having rehearsed their tragic end in the play.
‘I thought that was wonderful. Didn’t you, Jack?’ Solly agreed with him.
‘Yes,’ said Jack. ‘Pretty good. As co-director, however, there are a few tweaks I’d like to make.’ He peered over the top of his glasses. ‘The acting was of a certain quality, I agree. But, Solly, do you not feel their performance was lacking a certain… passion?’
‘Passion? They’re not about to climb into bed together, Jack. Romeo’s just killed himself, and Juliet’s about to do the same.’
‘Yes, yes,’ said Jack irritably. ‘What I mean is, it was a little… and no offence here, Kitty and Nick … it seemed a little wooden.’
‘Hm,’ said Solly, leaning back in his chair. ‘You’re right.’ He turned to Nick. ‘When you found Juliet dead on the slab, or supposedly dead on the slab, perhaps you could have appeared more … more devastated or traumatised, rather than simply upset.’
Nick bridled. ‘This is only a rehearsal,’ he said. ‘I can put more effort into the real thing.’
‘Nick,’ said Jack in a weary-director tone, ‘every rehearsal has to be the real thing. We should go over this scene again.’
‘Agreed,’ said Solly. ‘And if I was Romeo and I found Juliet sprawled on a slab and not moving, I would do a lot more than stand and stare at her or pick up her hand and hold it in mine. Don’t you agree, Jack?’
‘Quite.’ Jack nodded. ‘Romeo is a passionate young man, not some elderly fellow come to visit his long-suffering wife in hospital. We need to see passion, Nick.’
Nick’s shoulders slumped. There was no point in arguing with the two brothers. When they combined, they were a force of nature. ‘What precisely do you suggest I do, chaps? Do you want actual tears?’
‘Well,’ said Solly, ‘Jack’s right. You’re not visiting an elderly woman in hospital. You’re visiting a beautiful young woman who you loved passionately and have, as far as you’re concerned, tragically lost. If I were Romeo and I found Juliet in that state, I would smother her with kisses.’
‘Smother her with kisses?’ asked Nick, horrified. ‘You’d smother a dead body with kisses, would you, Solly?’
Solly waved his hand in the air. ‘Stop being facetious, Nicholas.’
‘Don’t call me Nicholas,’ said Nick. ‘You might be director, but don’t let it go to your head.’
‘He’s got a point, though,’ said Jack. ‘Kitty, you agree with us, don’t you?’
Nick turned to see Kitty, her cheeks flaming. ‘I’m not sure smothering me with kisses is very appropriate for a family show. Do you?’
‘I’m not talking about him ripping your clothes off,’ said Jack.
‘Surely though, he would initiate some sort of contact.’ He shrugged.
‘If you can’t bear to kiss the poor girl on the lips, Nick, perhaps you could at least kiss her cheek, run a longing finger down across her face, smooth down her hair – anything to show a little intimacy.
At the moment, your onstage chemistry is non-existent.
You look like two strangers who’ve passed each other in the street, not two young lovers who’ve spent the past goodness knows how long in bed. ’
Nick shook himself from imagining smoothing Kitty’s hair. ‘They haven’t spent the past however long in bed,’ said Nick. ‘Romeo’s been exiled.’
‘That’s not the point,’ said Solly. ‘You see what Jack’s getting at. Now, let’s run that scene again, and this time let’s inject a little more passion into the proceedings, shall we?’
Nick glanced at Kitty. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’ She lay on the sheet that was standing in for a table. ‘They probably have a point. Just don’t go overboard, will you?’
‘No chance of that.’ Nick shoved his hands in his pockets.
He couldn’t have felt more awkward if he tried.
He’d been doing his best to think of Kitty only as a friend – to avoid touching her, avoid thinking of that kiss they’d shared.
And now he had two old geezers telling him to smother her with kisses.
He was beginning to wish he’d never volunteered for the role of Romeo.
‘Right,’ said Solly. ‘Juliet, you are lying down in your deep sleep. Romeo, let’s take it from the moment you burst in and find the love of your life lying dead on the slab. And remember, Nick, passion.’
‘Yes,’ said Nick, going to wait in the wings.
‘Ready?’ asked Solly. ‘Action.’
He spoke as if he were directing a Hollywood movie, not a condensed version of Shakespeare in the local community centre.
Nick responded to his cue, bursting onto the stage and rushing to Juliet’s prone form on the sheet.
He hovered over Kitty for a moment, closed his eyes, breathed deeply in through his nose, and channelled the love of acting he’d thought had long since died.
He tapped into how he’d feel if this were real, if it were Kitty, rather than Juliet, lying on the slab.
He crouched down, bending closer, running his hand across her cheek, cupping her face in his hands.
A flicker of a thought about how recently he’d brushed his teeth crossed his mind.
He pushed it away, leaning forward until he could feel the tickle of Kitty’s breath on his own lips.
With a convincing sob, he leaned down and began kissing her gently on her closed eyelids, then more passionately as he moved down her face and finally landed a kiss on her lips.
Nick was shocked into reality when Kitty kissed him back. That wasn’t supposed to happen. If she were in a coma, she’d hardly be snogging him, would she? Something more was going on. He let his lips linger on hers, enjoying the electricity that fizzed through his body.
‘I think you’re taking the passion element a little too far,’ came a stern voice from the far end of the hall.
Nick pulled away, threw himself onto Kitty’s body and launched into a series of overdramatic sobs. He heard clapping and stood up to see Solly and Jack grinning at him.
‘Much better! You’ve got it,’ said Jack.
‘I agree,’ said Solly. ‘A far more believable performance.’
‘Thanks.’ Nick looked at Kitty, sitting on her sheet, blinking rapidly. She caught his eye, blushed, and averted her gaze as Solly brought the rehearsal to a close.
Nick scrambled to decipher what was real in the moment they’d shared and what was performance. Kitty had kissed him back. It wasn’t his imagination. It had happened. With a silent sigh, Nick realised that performing alongside Kitty was going to be a lot harder than he thought.