I was confused. Why did Derek want me to sing happy birthday? Before I could ask anything, Ivy jumped in.

"What do you mean, you've heard her sing happy birthday, Derek?" Ivy asked, a bit of anger seeping into her voice. Well, this wasn't going to make Ivy like me any better.

"Exactly what it sounds like. I've heard her sing happy birthday and I know she can hit the vibrato." answered Derek. Wow, a compliment from the dark lord.

"Why didn't you hire her as Marilynn then." spat Ivy. Good question Ivy, why didn't they hire me.

"Because, we decided that your experience was in your favour. That she was too green. Why are you complaining, you got the part?" Ah yes, I'm too green.

"Because obviously you think she's better." If he thought I was better why did he hire you, Ivy.

"Ivy, this isn't the time to be having this conversation." Well he didn't answer her question so in going to pretend he does think that I'm better.

"I don't care. When did she sing happy birthday for you. Are you sleeping with her too?" No I'm not sleeping with him but he did pick me first.

"No, I'm not sleeping with her, Ivy, and it's none of your business when I heard her sing it," more like he doesn't want to admit he got rejected.

Oh no Ivy's turning around to face me. "Karen, when did you sing Derek happy birthday?"

It's none of your business Ivy. But if you must know. It was after my first audition, he texted me later that night and asked me to come over. I did and we talked about my audition, he asked me to show him everything. I was going to storm off, but then I saw the bathroom and changed my mind. I took my hair out and messed it up. Changed into one of his white shirts that were hanging up. I walked out singing happy birthday and ended up straddling him. Just as he was about to kiss me I told him never gonna happen and walked out.

That's what I felt like saying. But I doubt it would have gone down well. But I didn't know what to actually say. I was aware that everyone was staring at me. Including Derek, I guess he thought this was good payback. "I sang it to him at one of my call-backs, Ivy that's all and we're not sleeping together."

"Hmmph, well why don't you sing it for us then like Derek wants? So we can all here you hit the vibrato."

Damn it I thought I'd gotten out of it. I looked up at Derek who just smirked at me. Knowing I have no choice, I stand up. I keep my eyes on Derek as I sing the lyrics to happy birthday. When I finish, I raise an eyebrow at Derek, before sitting down and focusing on the music sheet in front of me, hoping that's the end of this whole thing. Of course, Derek is going out of his way to torture me and told me to help Ivy, who sends me one more glare before turning back around.

I have this weird feeling that Ivy didn't appreciate that. I was dreading helping her. But I knew I had no way to get out of it. At least I knew that if I played nice it would annoy her to no end.

I was right, the private session was hell. Ivy definitely didn't appreciate Derek forcing me to help her. The worst part was that there was a rehearsal scheduled straight after, so I couldn't escape miss Diva. But at least there was no way the day could get any worse.
Or so I thought, I think Derek is out to get me. The rehearsal wasn't too bad but then he asked me to stay behind after rehearsal in front of everyone.

If looks could kill, Ivy would have had me 6 feet under when Derek said that. I knew I had no choice so I just agreed and waited for everybody to leave.

Once everybody had left Derek went and sat on the couch and patted the seat beside him.
I reluctantly sat next to him.
"I'm not going to sleep with you, Derek."

"I know and that's not why I asked you to stay behind. I wanted to apologise for making you help Ivy," did I ust here what I thought I did. Did Derek really just apologise to me.

"Thank you, but why are you apologising?"

"I know Ivy hates you because she feels threatened by you, and it doesn't help matters when I call you out in front of everyone to show her up."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because it was frustrating me that she kept stuffing it up when I knew you could do it."

"Why did you really hire her over me? Was it because I didn't sleep with you?"

"I wanted you for the part. I still do, you're refreshing, you can sing, you can dance and I know you're going to be a star. But Tom wanted Ivy from the start and Julia agreed with him. Eileen wanted someone with experience. In the end, I just had to concede to them and give Ivy the part. You rejecting me had nothing to do with it. In fact, it made me want you to have the part even more."

"I'm always going to be green until someone gives me a chance, though."
It wasn't fair. I was glad to know that my not sleeping with Derek didn't affect me not getting the part. But I was shocked to find out he wanted me as Marilynn, it was the other three that didn't.

"Being in the ensemble will give you experience, darling, and one day you will get the lead in a musical."

"Why are you being nice to me Derek?"

"I'm not as evil as everyone thinks I am. I make the hard choices, I decide people's futures. I love what I do, I get so wrapped up in what I do. I just want everything and everyone to be perfect. I sleep with my stars because it's easy, they want to keep me happy so that I don't fire them and we have similar schedules. And in this business sweetheart most everyone has an agenda. Girls sleep with me because I'm a director and they think if they do I will give them a part. But you are different, your genuinely a nice person.

I was shocked at how honest Derek was being, everything he said made sense and it explained why he was the way he is. I couldn't help the blush from spreading at the end of his spiel. I didn't know what to say in reply.

"I'm not going to sleep with you Derek. But I will be your friend."

"As much as I'd love to be friends, sweetheart. But everyone would assume we were sleeping together, which would just make everyone hate you."

"Not if we kept it a secret. While I know sneaking around just makes it seem even more like we're sleeping together but if we were careful, no one would realize."

I don't know why I was pushing the matter but the way Derek looked sitting on the couch. The fact he apologized to me. Maybe the fact that I try and befriend everyone. But I just knew I had to keep pushing, he looked like he needed a friend.

"How about we order some takeout, eat here and get to know each other. I have about an hour and a half before Dev is expecting me home anyway, and he can't know were friends either, he doesn't like you"

"That works for me, darling. I know of a great Chinese place that delivers near here. Just let me call them."

Derek left me to my thoughts while he went to order for us.
I can't believe that I was going to hide this from everyone, including Dev. Just to be friends with Derek, I don't know what it is about him that draws me to him.

"Alright darling, the dinner should be twenty minutes. You said you wanted to get to know me. What do you want to know?"

"Are you an only child? Are you close with your parents?"

"I have a sister, Lacey, who teaches English at a school in London. My father was a flutist for an orchestra and now teaches at a theatre school and my mother was a prima Ballerina, who teaches at the same school. I am a quite close with them and I try and visit every couple of months. What about you?"

"I'm an only child but I'm really close with my parents it weird the support me wanting to be on Broadway but they don't like that I'm a waitress and living in New York. They think I should get a real job."

"They're just worried darling, but they shouldn't be. You are going to be a star."

"Thank you, so what made you want to be a director?"

"Well mum had me and Lacey in Dance from the minute we could walk and I loved it. As I got older I started choreographing and I went with my mum one day and the choreographer she had called in was sick. So I offered to choreograph and I loved it, you know, seeing my idea on stage. Eventually I started choreographing on the west end. I started helping the Director and it was even more rewarding. So I started to learn and three years after that I moved to New York and I directed an off-on Broadway play. Ten years later, I'm where I am now."

"Wow that's impressive. It's nice to know that you had to work your way up as well. You were born as an amazing director."

"What made you want to become a star on Broadway, love."

"My mum took me this small community theatre performance and I remember watching the lead woman. I thought she was amazing. I was four, I made my mum enrol me in dance lessons, singing lessons and drama lessons the next day and I fell in love with it. In high school, we did The Sound of Music and I played Maria. That sort of cemented it, I knew that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be on Broadway performing every night. Why are you sleeping with Ivy?"

"She wanted to darling and it's just casual I haven't had a real relationship since before I started choreographing on the west end. I get so involved in what I'm doing and people that aren't in this world just don't understand it. So I'm limited to people in the theatre world, but then I haven't found a girl who hasn't wanted me because I'm a director."

"I don't get that. I don't understand how you could date someone that you didn't genuinely like. Dating someone just to get ahead seems disgusting."

"Your innocence and naivety is so refreshing, darling. I guess that's why I'm actually having this conversation with you. I haven't told anyone about my family in years."

I was about to reply when the food arrived. The rest of the time was spent eating and learning little things about each other. Like, who knew that Derek actually loved the holidays and that he wasn't a Grinch. I was enjoying myself a lot more than I thought I would and I was sad when I checked the time and saw that I had to leave. He offered to share a cab but I told him that the subway would be quicker for me at this time of night, so we parted ways.

I really liked this new version of Derek and I hope I continue to see this side of him.

The next week rehearsal things really changed. Derek stopped calling on me to show Ivy how to do something and he always tried to choreograph it so that we were on opposite sides of the room, he started treating me like the rest of the ensemble, while we were in rehearsal.

But we had started texting each other during the day. We were playing a weird version of twenty question and I was really enjoying getting to know Derek and I was telling him things about myself that hardly anyone knew. We had actually met up one other time since he had kept me after rehearsal, he had come and picked me up after work and I dragged him shopping all afternoon.

I was going over tonight. He was going make me dinner, he had told me he could cook but he rarely did because he didn't like cooking for himself. I didn't believe him so he invited me over I was to be there at seven thirty.

I, of course remembered where he lived so I left just after seven. He had told me to bring nothing, which I had grumbled about. I walked up to his apartment, half expecting to smell smoke or something burning, but instead he opens the door for me. I was affronted by the most heavenly smell. I think I started drooling.

"Come on in, darling, dinner is almost ready, would you like a glass of wine."

I think I nodded, because he turned around and took off in the direction of the kitchen. I followed him still in shock at how good the place smelled. I sat at the breakfast bar where Derek put a glass of red wine in front of me.
"This smells amazing. You weren't kidding when you said you could cook."
"Well you haven't tasted it yet, darling."
"Is there anything I can do to help?"
"You could set the table if you wanted to darling. This should just be a couple more minutes."
"Sure Derek."
I set the table and went back for my wine, which Derek had topped up for me before heading back to the table. I only had to wait a few minutes before Derek started bringing out dinner. I was surprised when he started serving me before sitting down.
"Well, let's start love."
Wow it tasted even better than it smelt. "This is amazing Derek, you should cook more often."

"Thank you darling, my grandmother taught me how to make this and maybe if you're lucky I will cook for you again."
"I hope I am lucky enough so tell me how you learnt to cook like this."
"Lacey and I would stay with our grandparents whenever my parents had late nights and we would visit them for weekends and they used those days to teach me and Lacey how to cook. Not that the lessons did Lacey any good. If you ever in a situation where Lacey is offering to cook for you, only accept if you want to spend the next couple of days throwing up."

"My dad is like that. If mom wasn't going to be home for dinner it was takeaway. He couldn't even reheat left-overs."

"Lacey can't even make toast without burning it 9 out of 10 times. She says she likes it burnt." I laughed at that and Derek smiled but I could tell he wanted to laugh to.

"When was the last time you saw your family."

"I went to London a couple of months before we started bombshell. They are actually coming here in three weeks for my birthday"

"It's your birthdays in three weeks. Were you planning on tell me."

"It's not a big deal darling, it just means I'm another year older."

"Derek we're friends, which means you have to tell me stuff like this and how can you not love your birthday, I know I love mine."

"It's not that I don't love it. It's just that I'm used to only mom, dad and Lacey celebrating it. But I will tell you the same thing I tell them. I don't want any presents. I have everything I need don't waste money on me."

"But Derek, I love getting presents for people."

"I don't want anything darling, but your company."

"Does that mean I get to meet your family?"

"Well, I was planning on introducing them to you. If you want to meet them, that is and they will more than likely stop by rehearsal."

"Of course I do, how else will I hear embarrassing stories about you."

"On second thought, maybe you shouldn't meet them."

"It's too late now Derek."

"When your parents are visiting you next, it will be my turn to get embarrassing stories off of them then, darling."

"That's fine with me."

The rest of the night went just as smoothly. I was shocked at how comfortable it was, we spent the rest of dinner joking over who was going to get the most embarrassing information. I joked that I would call his mother and get her to bring his baby pictures with her. Where he promptly told me I would be in the back row for everything if I did that. After we finished the amazing dinner we had dessert on the couch, where we talked about the direction bombshell was going in. He even asked my opinion on some of the choreography he was thinking of using. I was sad when I had to leave, I wanted to stay and keep teasing him.