The House Guest - Mark Edwards Page 0,24

were wide. ‘You haven’t seen her since Friday?’

‘No. Did she come to rehearsals on Saturday?’

She shook her head. ‘She was a no-show, which was totally weird because she’s never been a second late before. Sally’s assistant kept trying to ring Ruth and Sally was not happy.’ She paused to build the drama. ‘And then someone called, saying that Ruth wasn’t going to be able to make it.’

‘What? Who?

‘I don’t know. A woman, I think.’

‘Eden?’

Cara looked blankly at me. ‘I have no idea who that is.’

‘It doesn’t matter. What did this woman say?’

‘That Ruth wasn’t feeling well and that she was going to take a couple of days off. And Sally went nuts and told this woman that if Ruth didn’t drag herself out of her sickbed and get to the studio, like, right now, she would be fired. I didn’t hear exactly what Sally said but Brian – that’s Sally’s assistant – heard it and he said Sally was spitting blood.’

I could imagine.

‘And then, according to Brian, the caller said that she was sorry but Ruth definitely wouldn’t be in and Sally said that was it, she was sacked. Brian loves a bit of drama so he was very excited about it.’

It must have been Eden who had called.

‘This woman. Did she say where she was calling from?’

‘Sorry, Adam, but I don’t know any more. You should know more than me. Was she sick? She seemed fine on Friday.’

‘She would have had a hangover. But I can’t believe it would have been bad enough for her to risk getting fired.’

Cara laughed. ‘Jesus. We’ve all been to rehearsals with hangovers. I’ve been on stage with a hangover!’

‘And even if she did have the hangover from hell and couldn’t face going in, that doesn’t explain why she’s not at home. It doesn’t tell me where she and Eden have gone.’

‘Who is this Eden?’

I laughed humourlessly. ‘I don’t know.’

Cara blinked at me. ‘Well, anyway. If I were Ruth I wouldn’t show my face around here again. I didn’t hear the call but I saw Sally afterwards. She was fuming. She marched over to the wall where we had a poster up – one of the posters advertising the play, with a photo of Ruth on it – tore it down and ripped it up. Brian tried to calm her down and I thought she was going to punch him in the face. Then she marched off, sucking on her vape, and we didn’t see her for hours.’

It seemed impossible to believe. Ruth’s entire adult life had been leading up to this moment. No matter how stressed she was, I couldn’t picture her ever being so hungover she would risk angering Sally Klay, or walking out on this play. Sure, she had drunk a lot of tequila on Friday night. But then again, I had slept through the whole of Saturday. Maybe Ruth, wherever the hell she was, had done the same, and Eden had taken it upon herself to call Sally, not realising what an unforgiving dragon she could be. I could picture Ruth waking up to the news that she had been fired.

‘Did Ruth try to call again? Or her agent?’

‘Not that I know of.’

‘Jesus.’ I stared into my coffee cup and muttered, ‘Where the hell are you, Ruth?’

As we were leaving the bagel shop, Cara said, ‘If Ruth gets in touch, let me know, okay? Although I’m going to be insanely busy making sure I know all my new lines.’

‘New lines?’

‘Yeah. I’m not the understudy any more. I’m taking her place.’

Of course. Why hadn’t I realised that?

‘I’m totally stressing out about it. I mean, it’s exciting, of course, but I’d be hugely relieved if Ruth came back so I didn’t have to do it.’

We said goodbye. Before we parted, Cara said, ‘Try not to worry, Adam. I’m sure Ruth’s fine. Sometimes when people get close to what they want, they realise it’s too much, too scary. Some people just aren’t cut out for the spotlight. Maybe this is all an elaborate way of her quitting without actually having to quit.’

I watched her cross the road. What she said made a kind of sense, but she didn’t know about Eden. And besides, Ruth lived for the spotlight – not because she wanted fame and fortune, but because acting was what she was good at. It was what she loved. I thought Cara would have understood that.

And I didn’t believe Cara was right. Ruth wasn’t fine. If she was, she would have called