Chapter 22

Gideon opened the door to the building with the address Matt had emailed out and had to yank it closed when the wind caught it. He smoothed his hair and took in the room. Simple office space with chairs, a desk that sat unoccupied, and a water cooler in the corner.

Randall and Cassie were already there, as was Melissa, but it looked like the others hadn’t arrived yet. He glanced down the hall and saw Matt exiting a room that must have been the studio.

Matt looked up and smiled. “You made it.”

“I thought I was heading to a logging mill or something.”

Matt chuckled. “It’s in a strange location, but the equipment’s good.” He strode to the cooler and filled up a cup that looked like a mini ice cream cone with water.

“How did you find it?”

Matt took a drink. “From a reader actually. They emailed me when they read about the competition in the newspaper.”

Gideon nodded. “Supporting local businesses. Well played.”

“Exactly.”

The door whooshed open, letting in a gust of wind along with Alli. Her glossy black hair was tousled on top of her head, and she quickly worked to put it back in order. Behind her came Layla and Sean. They all made small talk for a few minutes, and Gideon waited for one last gust of air from the door, but it never came.

Megs hadn’t responded to his text the night before. He hadn’t gotten an email back from his department head either, which meant his entire body was filled with a delightful concoction of nervous energy and dread.

"Alright, let's get started.” Matt threw his cone cup in the trash and walked to the hall. “We’ll go one at a time. Gideon, I was hoping I could have you with me in the booth, in case there are any issues with the equipment.”

Gideon nodded, and Melissa raised her hand to go first.

“I have to get to my daughter’s play rehearsal tonight.”

Matt pointed to the others. “Figure out who’s next, it doesn’t matter to me which order you go in. And remember, I only want you to have fun with this. Bring it to life.”

When Melissa was standing at the microphone, and Gideon and Matt were alone in the booth, Gideon asked, “Didn’t they provide an engineer for your session?”

“They offered, but I knew you’d be better.”

Gideon shot him a look. “I’m flattered.”

“You should be.”

Most of the settings were as they should be, but Gideon made a few last adjustments, then piped into the studio to let Melissa know she could start. He wasn’t sure if he should stay or go, but Matt didn’t shoo him out, so he sat and listened.

Melissa was good. Even in her pacing and consistent with her projection. Her male characters felt a bit contrived, but he was sure someone could say the same thing about his female voices.

When she finished, Matt lavished her with praise, then welcomed Sean into the studio. Gideon adjusted settings to handle a deeper bass sound. On second thought, they probably should’ve had Alli go second so he wouldn’t have to switch back and forth.

Sean strutted up to the microphone with a confidence Gideon wasn’t sure he could back up. The guy was good looking, he’d give him that. Audio narration might not be playing to his strengths.

"Ready when you are.” Sean shook out his hands like he was getting ready to run a marathon.

Matt gave him a thumbs up, and Sean’s rich voice filled their headphones. It was nice to listen to, but he was overreaching. Too dramatic for Gideon’s taste, and he’d listened to a fair number of audiobooks.

Next up was Alli, and Gideon tuned in when Matt asked her if Megs had arrived yet. Alli shook her head, and Matt frowned. It took him a minute to tell her to go through the door into the studio. As Alli started, Gideon pulled out his phone. Where was she?

His level of concern was ratcheting up by the minute. She’d left the fall festival in a rush, hadn’t shown up at class, and now wasn’t here at the audition, which he knew was important to her. Skipping class he understood. He’d had high blood pressure sitting at his desk and thinking about what happened on Monday.

Gideon texted again.

Megs, please just let me know you’re okay. We’re at the studio

He set his phone next to the mixing board, and listened as Alli finished. It was a solid audition. He wouldn’t have expected anything less. He smiled and gave her a thumbs up as she exited the booth.

Randall and Cassie filed in one after another, and Gideon watched his phone screen as he adjusted the settings. Finally, Matt put a hand on his shoulder.

“Your turn.”

Right. He had to audition. For a minute, he’d dropped into recording mode and had forgotten why he’d shown up in the first place. “I don’t have to. I think you have some great options.”

“I want you to. If you’re willing. I know you didn’t want to enter this competition, and I hope you know how much it means to me.”

Gideon adjusted the sliders for his voice, then stood and stretched.

“Is that your pre-audition routine?”

Gideon ignored him and pointed to the red circle. “Just press that button before I start and again when I’m done.”

Matt chuckled and gave him a thumbs up. Here goes nothing. This was not an ideal time to record, considering his heart felt like it was going to lift off. What if something happened to her? He wasn’t normally anxious, but zero contact? That didn’t seem like Megs, even if she was angry or upset.

Gideon stepped up to the microphone and held out the script on the tablet Matt brought. He cleared his throat and started.

“Elena's eyes darted around the park, finally settling on the familiar figure of Nathan sitting alone on a concrete bench. She hesitated, but her feet refused to turn back.

“‘Nathan?’ Her voice trembled as she approached. ‘After all this time, you show up out of the blue?’

“He looked up, and the anguish in his eyes was a chisel to her heart, cracking a line through the center. ‘I had to see you. I had to explain.’

“She bit the inside of her cheek. ‘Explain? Do you have any idea how much pain you caused? How many nights I cried myself to sleep, wondering what I did wrong?’

“Nathan's voice cracked. ‘I never wanted to hurt you, Elena, but I had my reasons.’

“‘Reasons? What reasons could possibly justify leaving without a single word? Leaving me to pick up the pieces?’”

He flowed through the piece, getting lost in the rhythm of it, but the ticker tape never stopped streaming across his consciousness. Where was Megs?

He blinked when he realized there was only white space left on the page. Finished. Gideon took a step back from the microphone and lifted the tablet from the stand.

Matt opened the door before he could reach for the handle. His friend’s eyes were glassy. “Wow. Gideon, that was . . . wow.”

"Thanks," Gideon barely registered the compliment. He slipped past Matt and grabbed his phone, then stepped out into the hall and dialed Megs’ number. The ringing seemed to go on forever before it finally cut off to her voicemail.

Hi! This is Megs! Leave a message and I’ll ring you back.

"Hey, Megs," Gideon started after the beep. "It's me. Please call when you get this." He hung up and ran a hand over his face. It’s me? Would she even recognize his voice over the phone?

“What’s going on?” Matt stood in the door to the studio.

Gideon dropped his phone into his pocket. “Nothing.”

“You were calling Megs?”

Gideon couldn’t stand still. He turned and stalked into the other room to get a drink from the water cooler. “Yep.”

“You have her number?”

Gideon squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them to fill his cup. “Long story.”

“It can’t be that long can it? You met at auditions—”

“Megs and I met before the auditions. At a coffee shop. Then she ended up in one of my classes.” Gideon’s chest was so tight, he thought it might crack.

Matt clicked his tongue. “She’s your student and you have her—”

“Don’t even start with me.” Gideon turned and took a drink. “I met her before she was my student.”

Matt held up his hands. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate anything.”

Gideon crumpled the cup and threw it away. “I don’t understand why she didn’t show.”

Matt sucked in a breath and held it. “I might have an idea.”

Gideon froze. “Did she send you a message or something?”

“Oh she sent me a message all right,” Matt muttered, and Gideon frowned. “At the festival. I . . . may have explored whether she was interested in me and it didn’t go well.”

“Explored?” Gideon’s blood started to simmer.

“Nothing terrible. I thought there was something between us, so I did the thing. You know, where you break the touch barrier, and then when she seemed into it—”

“You tried to kiss her?”

Matt cringed. “Try is a strong word for what I—”

Gideon ran his hands through his hair and started for the door. Where had he put his jacket? “Matt, seriously?”

“What? It’s not like—”

“You are her boss right now. You’re offering her the chance to win five thousand dollars and a narration contract, and then you tried something like that?” Gideon found his coat and snagged it from the corner of the desk. “What was she supposed to do?”

Matt opened and closed his mouth like a guppy.

“Did you do it in the corn maze?” The look on Matt’s face told him all he needed to know. “You tried to reenact the scene from your novel?”

“It just happened! I wasn’t planning to—”

“Do you have her address?” Blood rushed in Gideon’s ears.

“What?”

“From her audition materials, do you have her address? We had to fill out those audition forms, and I think—”

“Isn’t she your student?” Matt stalked across the room to grab his phone. “Couldn’t you look up her record?”

“No, Matt! I can’t just pry into a student’s personal information.”

Matt stared at his screen, tapping and swiping, then finally turning the screen toward Gideon. “There. She lives on Redbud Avenue.”

Gideon took a screenshot and spun toward the door, but Matt grabbed his arm.

“Gideon, I want you to do the narration. You’re excellent, and—”

“Megs hasn’t auditioned yet.”

Matt’s lips flattened into a line. “I don’t think—”

“Megs hasn’t auditioned yet.” Gideon gave his friend a final look, then stormed out the studio door.

Megs curled up next to her mom on the bed under a flannel blanket. Their lone island in a sea of boxes. The widescreen illuminated their faces as they watched Arachnophobia with Bobbi through the laptop.

"Oh my gosh, the blow torch!" Bobbi groaned.

Megs laughed. “How? How does that not kill it immediately?”

“Or burn the house down.”

This was perfect. It had been months since the three of them had a girl’s night, and Megs didn’t realize how much she missed it.

On Monday, they’d leave this house. It already looked nothing like home, with all the pictures off the wall and the shelves emptied. Megs reached down for her phone and realized she’d left it charging in her room.

Gideon had texted her the night before, and she’d tried to come up with a response but couldn’t. So she was avoiding it. Her special superpower.

“You okay?” Her mother rubbed her shoulder.

“Mmhmm.” Megs nodded and focused on the exterminator’s on-screen battle with the eight-legged monsters. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes. If she cried during Arachniphobia, Bobbi would never let her live that down.

She wasn’t sad about what she’d said in the admin office. That had been easier than expected, almost a relief if she was being honest. She was sad because she missed him. It had only been a couple of days, and already her body felt starved.

Megs saw his face when she closed her eyes. The way Gideon’s eyes focused when he explained something in class, or the dimple on his cheek that only appeared when his smile was wide. Or when he sucked on a straw, which still didn’t make sense to her.

She missed his sense of humor, and how easy it was to talk to him. To be herself.

“Remember when you girls built a fort in the living room and broke the chandelier?” her mom asked.

Bobbi snorted. “You weren’t that chill about it when it happened.”

“Hey, I was a single mother with twenty-three dollars of wiggle room in my budget.”

Megs turned to her. “How did you replace it?”

Sylvia smiled like she had a secret. “Frank had an extra.”

Bobbi leaned into the camera, and her face distorted on the screen. “Mom, that was fifteen years ago. How did it take you so long to finally get together?”

Their mother scoffed. “Oh, as if you can lecture me on taking too long to get together, Bobbi.”

Megs burst out laughing. “Where is Ben tonight, by the way?”

“He’s on a backpacking trip.”

“You didn’t want to go?” Sylvia raised an eyebrow.

“Mom, it’s going to be negative twenty tonight.”

Megs sighed. “Are you really already talking in celsius?”

Bobbi started to defend herself, but a banging sound made Sylvia and Megs perk up like house cats.

“Is that the door?” Megs asked.

Her mom was already throwing the blanket off. “It might be Frank. I told him he didn’t need to take another load over to the house, but he’s an overachiever.”

Megs turned back to the screen and took another sip of her herbal tea. Muffled voices wafted down the hall, but she didn’t pay attention until her mom called her name.

“Yeah?” she called back.

“Can you come out here?”

Megs sighed and set her tea on the nightstand, then stood and wrapped the blanket around her since she was braless in a soft cotton pajama shirt. She walked out into the hall and stopped dead in her tracks when she looked up.

Gideon was standing in the entryway.