The Virgin, the Marine and the Footman.

Tech week rolled around for 'Les Liaisons', and we were all getting pretty excited. "Tech week', for those not in the theater (although I think everyone who reads this is to some extent), is the week before opening or previews when all of the technical aspects of the show are addressed. So it can be - and usually is - quite chaotic. And stressful, and exciting. It can be a LOT to cram in to one short week - depending on how complicated the production is.
In this case, for instance, one thing the ladies were getting used to quickly, were extremely heavy dresses with pretty authentic corsets. My first dress of the show weighed 40 pounds. Just on it's own. It really made you think about how people lived and moved around the time of the French revolution. When the curtains opened, I was sitting on the floor at my mother's feet - so my first little challenge was figuring out how to get up gracefully and quickly (Adrian wanted me to 'bounce up')with a corset that cinched my waist to a mere 18 inches, wearing a FOURTY POUND dress.
It was all very exciting.

At the beginning of this tech week, one of the crew asked me if I'd like to have lunch with him.He asked me in a very casual manner. Didn't make it seem like a DATE - at ALL - so, I thought it would be ok. This guy was an X-marine, who looked like someone you'd cast in a movie as a psychotic X-marine. He had a body builder type of body, with a thick neck, and intense, dark, scary eyes - punctuated by thick, scary eyebrows.
He tried to pay for my lunch, and I wouldn't let him. Then, I thought that I made it perfectly clear over the course of lunch that I was not interested in him romantically, but, you know - we could be 'friends'. Although - truth to tell, I didn't even think I wanted to be friends with him after our short lunch. This guy just scared me.

So we went back to the theater, and I had one of those internal "sheesh" kind of moments.Glad I had made things so PERFECTLY CLEAR.
Well, for the next three days - DURING TECH WEEK - everyone scampering around, tensions high - people yelling and things sometimes crashing - me with quite a few VERY quick changes - right off set - no time to make it to a dressing room - this GUY decides to follow me around like a wounded puppy. And I mean FOLLOW. Like three inches behind me. Even when I'm trying to get my quick changes down, with the help of my dresser. And it was CREEPY!

He was leaving me notes, and flowers - I told him several times (in what I thought was a nice way) to STOP.I returned his flowers to him. But he didn't listen, and he didn't leave me alone. And finally I just LOST IT - in front of everyone. Well, everyone who was backstage, anyway - and that was mostly everyone.
I peeled around from my quick change, half dressed - he was TWO INCHES away from me - and yelled at him. "You HAVE to stop! This is where I WORK!!! This is NOT OK, it is NOT professional, you are SCARING ME, and I WILL NOT ALLOW IT! LEAVE ME ALONE - THIS IS HORRIBLE!" I yelled at him.

He looked kind of horrified, and began to back away - but not quickly enough.
My dresser chimed in, completely on my side "YEA! Jeez! Let the poor girl WORK, what are you DOING?!" she yelled at him. She had already well noted how creepy it was that this scary marine was always two inches away from me when I was changing backstage with a hungry look on his face. He made me feel like less than a person - I felt like I was a steak to him, and he was a hungry, mad dog. He actually kind of looked like a pit bull, come to think of it.

Well, the marine finally got it when he looked around and saw everyone's faces, full of disgust, and quit on the spot. But, unfortunately for me, he came back a week later - carrying a BIBLE with him - very VISIBLY - everywhere he went. And trying his best to look like a martyr.He took great pains to avoid my path, and when he did have to pass me, he averted his eyes in an overly dramatic manner.Good grief!

Opening night went well. I could not have asked for a better response from our audience during and after that big crying scene of mine. Everyone was good - well, certainly all of the Dallas cast. Every one was in a great mood - in a mood to celebrate. And luckily, we had a fancy opening night party to go to afterwards.

I hadn't had a boyfriend, or even a date (besides that tragic Marine 'date')since Peter. But there WAS one young man that had caught my fancy.A strikingly handsome young man from SMU that was playing a footman in our cast. He was my age, and I had been sort of watching him from afar. I figured that he was either quite arrogant, or a little shy.He kept to himself for the most part, seemed to study everything that went on on stage, and with Adrian's directing, quite intensely.He was often in a corner of the theater with a book.

I found myself falling into a mad crush on him before I even knew his name. But I figured, someone my age - a normal person, wouldn't want anything to do with a single mother. So I tried a hundred times to pretend that he didn't exist. Then, one beautiful afternoon as we were all heading out to 'lunch' (theatre meals are all later than normal meals)he strode right up to me, motorcycle helmet in hand.
"You want to go for a quick ride?" he asked. (Oh YES I DID!)
"umm...sure." I tried to say very casually.He was SOOOO beautiful!
So, he popped me on the back of his motorcycle and took me for a ride. We zipped down Turtle Creek, with all those grand old mansions on one side, and the creek lined with azaleas and big trees on the other side. The creek I'd fallen into one Christmas as a kid, ruining my Christmas dress, because I was feeding the ducks too enthusiastically.

Let me just say, here and now - that taking a girl on a motorcycle ride may be THE most effective pick up move EVER! I mean, REALLY. Think about it. How else are you going to get a girl to wrap her arms and legs around you and hold on tight before she even knows you?

I can practically feel that ride now. My crush was sealed. He had come close enough to ask me that I knew he didn't have bad breath or anything, and then - the way that he felt right next to me. The way that I felt! And the smell of his hair, and the fun of zipping around on a motorcycle on a beautiful day,his perfect body right next to mine, and - just all of it! I was intoxicated.

But he paid little to no attention to me afterwards at rehearsal. Polite, and no more. I thought, "Ah well, I have more important things to think about. He probably heard about Max and that was the end of things. Or he has a girlfriend - or - who knows." And I tried not to think about him. With little success.

But that night - opening night! I am here to tell you - that LITTLE else compares to a great opening night party! The adrenaline is high, the air is full of good energy, all the actors and every one love each other, it feels like a reward for lots of hard work - it's pretty great! And of all of the opening night parties I've been to - this one was the best.
It was at a nice restaurant with a great big outdoor patio area that had a fountain right as you entered. Waiters were walking around with champagne, I walked in with Adrian Hall hugging me, introducing me all around - it was so much fun!
And a few glasses of bubbly in, that handsome, wonderful, motorcycle crush found me. His name was David.Of course.
I don't remember what we talked about that night - it was all like a good dream. And at that time, that age - it only took about three glasses of princess water to have my brain bubbling up around the ceiling - or clouds in this instance. All I remember is that we had so much fun. And that every moment I spent near him I liked him more. He revealed himself as more charming, more intelligent, more funny and fun, and sexy even than I had dreamed up in my fantasy versions of him.

At the end of the party he dared me to jump in the fountain.
"I'm not jumping in there!" I exclaimed.
"I will if you will.." he answered with his charming smile. We both jumped in the fountain to every one's delight. I thought I heard Adrian's voice calling out, "NOW it's a party!"

And then he offered to give me a lift home on his motorcycle.
"Thanks, I'd love it." I said. I felt as shy and akward as a thirteen year old girl.I hopped on the back of his bike, and then he tossed over his shoulder, "Unless you want to come to my place first.."
Oh Lord! My head was swimming. The gorgeous, sexy, charming footman that I had been fantasizing about for at least a month was asking me to his PLACE!
"OK. Sure." I managed. My heart was RACING as I clung on to him during that chilly ride.

We got back to his apartment, me feeling as akward as I ever have, and nervous, and the first thing he did was to take my hand and whisper to me conspiratorially, "I want to show you something.."
David led me to the hallway right in front of what must have been one of the bedrooms and plopped down on the floor, gently pulling me down after him. He laid down on the carpeting, and patted the spot next to him, suggesting I lay down, too.I did. It was dark. He rolled away from me for a moment, and brought forth... a KITTEN! And then another!
"Look at these guys." he whispered. "Aren't they the sweetest?" and with that, he put one of them right on me.
They WERE the sweetest! The kittens he had produced were just at that perfect kitten-calender age - the age that is JUST beyond when they still look a little like aliens with their eyes closed or mostly closed, and have JUST come into their fuzzy cutest.It was (pardon me, but I HAVE to) CAT NIP for women.

There I was, laying on his apartment floor, next to the most gorgeous, sexy man I had EVER laid eyes on, after a perfect opening night of THE THEATRE, and Mr. Handsome had put a KITTEN on my chest. The kittens were purring like two little motors and snuggling up to both of us, and all I could think right there and then was....this has GOT to be a dream.