John Barrowman, fully glitzed as his character, Zaza, was standing center stage, hands firmly placed on hips, scowling.
No he was not having a stage argument with Georges, Zaza's long-term lover.
In fact, he was acting at all. He was truthfully and 100 percent p.o.'ed.
At who? At the figure in front of him, dressed as a cagelle.
Obviously a cagelle that wanted to get fired.
The figure had great legs, long eyelashes….. and an incredibly deep voice.
It was holding up a folded piece of paper, a love note John had written to Scott earlier in his dressing room, when he was feeling bored and lonely and desperately wanted to go home to his partner.
"Give it back!" John roared, reaching for the note.
"Only if you guess my gender!" the cagelle teased, gliding gracefully out of John's reach.
"What will you do if I get it wrong?" John inquired angrily.
"Post it on Myspace. Or sell it to….Simon Lee!" the character dashed away, laughing.
John forced himself to forget about it and go on with the show. There's no way for her…or him…to get a hold of Simon, and even if it did post the note on the internet, no one would believe it was really from John.
These considerably probable thoughts were enough to get him back into the groove of the show. He never gave the note, or the cagelle, a second thought.
Later that evening, John's family: Carole, Kevin, Claire, Turner, John's mom and dad, and Scott were all at John and Scott's house in Sully, Wales, getting dinner ready for when John got home, when the doorbell rang.
Claire answered it and when she saw who it was all she could say was, "Oh, Tessa Garavani."
"Very funny, Claire." Turner said, appearing behind his sister. "Oh, it is you."
"Ya, ummm." Savannah said nervously.
"Well Don't just stand there 'umming' all day! Come on in!" Turner stepped back in order to make enough room for Tessa to fit into the doorway.
"Thanks, um, I caught my friend red-handed today with something I'm pretty sure is not hers." She said, holding out the note she had confiscated from Skylar, her friend who she had let come along with her on her trip to the West End to perform in La Cage Aux Folles as a cagelle and Anne Dindon.
Claire took the note and read it, then a look of understanding came to her eyes.
"Oh ya, Uncle John told us about this. Some cagelle with hot legs and a deep voice threatened to post it on the internet or sell it to Simon Lee!"
Tessa grimaced. "You mean that weird Canadian dude who got arrested for assault and then fired?!?"
Claire nodded.
Tessa turned every shade of red. "Well, I caught her with it before she could do anything drastic. I wouldn't have looked twice at her, but she was fully dragged in my cagelle costume and smiling like an idiot, so I got suspicious. I counted down from 3 and she handed it right over. John had left before I could get it to him, but my driver works part time for him, so her knew where he lives. Don't worry, I had my eyes closed the entire ride here and I had him carry me to the door. Don't remember a thing."
She paused to let it all sink in, then she made a graceful exit.
Carole stopped her outside.
"Hey, why did you go through all that trouble just to get this note back here?"
"Cause I thought it was cute how 2 people who've been together for so long could still have such a brightly burning flame for each other, I didn't even have to read it, I looked at who it was to and who it was from, that's all." She explained.
"Why? Any other fan would've read it." Turner came outside. He'd been listening in.
"Because I figured, knowing him, it would be a 'wash-my-eyes-out-with-bleach' moment." She smiled.
Turner laughed, "Ya, probably."
Carole snuck back inside, letting the two of them alone.
Tessa was half turned around, ready to head back to her car, when Turner grabbed her arm. She faced him again.
"Hey, do you have a boyfriend?" he asked quickly, shyly.
Tessa blushed, "Uh, no." she admitted.
"Then, would you like to have dinner with us?" he offered.
"Ya, sure. Just one little warning."
"What?"
"I've never been on an actual first date before, or a second, or a third, or any after that. I don't really know how to play girlfriend."
"Well, I've had my share. It's easy, I'll teach you. Starting now." He took her hand and led her back into the house.
John's car pulled in.
TBC?