Stars Shine Bright in London's Eye
Chapter 25
"You don't think this is too much?" Ivy stood in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom frowning at her reflection, moving her body to get a better view from different angles.
It was a rare occasion that she had a day off rehearsals and she was able to spend time with her best friend. Eileen had pulled some strings to get them tickets to attend the Olivier Awards the following weekend. They all knew it was a publicity move for Chicago but Ivy was excited for a night to dress up with her fiancé on her arm. She had been trying on dresses all afternoon in order to find the perfect one to wear for the event but nothing felt right.
Sam was sat on the edge of her bed holding Lily the elephant while Scarlett sat opposite him, her arms wrapped around Karen the bear. The novelty of her new stuffed friend was yet to wear off.
"Ivy baby, you look breath-taking. You're going to be the envy of everyone there," he replied honestly.
She turned around and gave him a gracious smile. Her cheeks had turned a little pink with the compliment but she loved the attention all the same. "You're going to be there," she stated, eyebrows raised.
"Well then I'm going to wish I looked as damn good in that dress as you do!" He cried, eliciting a laugh from his oldest friend.
Ivy turned back to the mirror, despite Sam's comments she still wasn't completely confident in her choice, "I'm not some girl in her twenties attending an awards ceremony anymore," she sighed glancing down at the striking long, shimmering, golden dress.
Sam rolled his eyes, "celebrities much older and much less physically appealing than you are wearing things they shouldn't be every day! You, Miss Ivy Lynn, are young, beautiful, and have every right to flaunt that sexy figure of yours!"
He then picked the little girl up into his arms and placed her on his knee facing her mother, "Scarlett what do you think of your Mommy's dress?"
"Pwitty Mommy!" she cried her eyes transfixed on the shininess of the dress, "you a pwincess!"
"See? The boss has spoken!" he smiled triumphantly.
Ivy leant down and kissed her daughter on the forehead, "thank you my precious girl," she beamed. Perhaps he was right, perhaps that was the dress for her.
"Ok! I'll wear this one," she announced after much internal deliberation.
"Hallelujah!" cried Sam in a theatrical tone causing Scarlett to give a high pitched laugh.
As Ivy slipped into their ensuite bathroom to change out of her dress, Sam began flicking through a bridal magazine which was sat on her bedside table. He could see that his friend had read it thoroughly as she had folded pages over and scribbled little notes beside her favourite items. "So how are the wedding plans going?" he called, a bemused look on his face while Scarlett began crawling on his back.
There was a moment a quiet before she returned into the room, now dressed in tight jeans and a flowing white blouse with her evening gown in her arms. She hung it up on the front of her wardrobe before sitting beside Sam, glancing at the magazine over his shoulder.
"They're going ok, we went to visit a venue near Tom and Julia's cottage last weekend, it was perfect," she replied wistfully, "we booked it for July 16th so you better save the date."
"I wouldn't miss this wedding for anything! My understudy will be thrilled," he smiled turning the page to a dress which had several red circles around it and even a few decorative stars. Sam let out a low whistle at how perfect the dress was, he could just picture how incredible Ivy would look in it, "so... when are we going dress shopping?"
"Me, you and Tom? Wedding dresses? It's my gay best friends' dream!" She sighed dramatically.
He gave her a playful nudge, "hey no need to make this a gay thing!" He paused before giving her a smile, "...ok this is totally a gay thing!"
Ivy gasped, wide-eyed, "you guys can be my bridesmaids!"
He raised his eyebrows, "woman, did I not just tell you that I would not good in a dress? Besides, Tom has the better legs for it."
"You would know!" cried Ivy with a laugh as Sam gave her another nudge. "So how are things going with you and Tom anyway?" she asked, she had noticed the twinkle in his eye.
"Well he's going to the Olivier Awards with me as my plus one," he admitted a little bashful, "I think it's going well..."
"I'm so happy for you guys!" she gushed squeezing his arm excitedly before her attention was turned to her daughter. She was still attempting to clamber onto her friend's back but she was finding she was just too small, "Scarlett, stop trying to climb onto Sam's back please."
Sam shook his head, "no she's fine, come here little one," he smiled turning around and placing the little girl onto his shoulders causing her to grin broadly.
Ivy couldn't help but laugh, her daughter was one spoilt girl, but as a baby in a world full of adults it was to be expected. As an only child herself she knew how it was, for years you would be fawned over and you would lap up all the attention until you weren't so little anymore, and everyone was too busy for you and life got lonely. She vowed she would never let Scarlett feel that way.
Sam carried her out of the room and all the way downstairs until they reached the spare room which had become Scarlett's downstairs playroom. They found it was easiest to keep her occupied while they could continue their daily routine.
Close behind them Ivy knelt down to her daughter's level, "me and Sam are just going to be next door baby so if you want to bring your toys in there you can or you can play with them in here ok?"
"Ok Mommy," she replied wrapping her arms around her mother's neck and hugging her tightly.
Ivy smiled before leaving her daughter to her own time of imagination. Sam couldn't stop looking at his friend once she sat at the other end of the couch from him, her legs tucked beneath her as she faced him.
"What?" she asked finally, not being able to read the look on his face.
"It's nothing, I'm just really happy for you Ivy. Watching you and Scarlett together it's so beautiful. I think back to the doubts you had when you first found out you were pregnant and now look how far you've come! You're getting married, you have a stunning little girl, and you're still a star" he took her hand and squeezed it tightly, "I'm so proud of you"
Ivy rolled her eyes, "I'm just getting by, I'm not doing anything special"
"Well I think you are, and you are going to light up that red carpet on Sunday!" grinned Sam.
She shook her head, "you're the one the West End knows and loves now, everyone is going to want a piece of Sam Strickland!"
He laughed, "damn right they are!" he paused and looked seriously at his friend, "I just want to know that you are happy and confident again like the Ivy Lynn we all know and love. I know you were really down before you came out here."
She closed her eyes briefly and smiled at him, she was so thankful for his friendship and she had missed having him around, "for the first time in a while I am actually really happy. I'm getting married, I have a beautiful family and a beautiful home, friends who I adore, I'm getting to perform every day, and I'm about to star in the West End. For once, everything is going my way!"
Karen had been sat at the table for all of about three minutes when she saw Jack walking over to join her. It was just lunch she had told herself. She was putting Ivy's words to the test, seeing if she could act normal around him, seeing if she really did like him or she was just pushing her feelings for Jimmy onto him.
"Hi!" she smiled up at him as he sat down. They had arranged to meet for a late lunch after rehearsals were over, Derek had finished early as he needed to buy a suit for the Olivier Awards. Karen had also been given a ticket by Eileen but she wasn't sure if she wanted to go or not, going by herself seemed a bit ridiculous and humiliating.
"You alright?" greeted Jack as he had a quick glance at their surroundings. It wasn't exactly London's poshest dining experience, it was basically a side street café but they were both hungry after rehearsals so as long as there was food, they were happy.
Karen nodded as the waitress came over and asked for their order, they quickly had to make their minds up before she disappeared to arrange it.
"So, rehearsals weren't too rough today" Jack began, trying his best to uphold a normal conversation.
"Yeah, Derek was in a slightly easier mood" agreed Karen. She had noted that Andrew hadn't been needed for rehearsal that day, perhaps that was a coincidence, or perhaps Ivy had told him of their encounter and he thought it best to keep them apart for the time being. Either way she felt more comfortable than she had the previous week.
There were a few moments of silence as neither of them knew where to progress the conversation before Jack spoke again.
"So, tell me about your fiancé Jimmy... he wrote Hit List, right?"
The question shocked her. Nobody had really asked about Jimmy before, she had kept him and their relationship to herself. It seemed odd to be talking about him while her feelings were so mixed.
"Um yeah, he wrote Hit List with his best friend Kyle who died before we even opened on Broadway-"
"-Oh I'm so sorry..." he interrupted but his tone was soft and sincere.
Karen smiled sadly, "it was hard but he worked through it... he's now actually just finished writing the songs for his next musical with his new writing partner."
"That's exciting! What's it about?" he asked curiously as their waitress brought over their drinks and informed them that their food would be with them shortly.
"It's kind of got a Shawshank Redemption meets Orange is the New Black with a The Last Five Years vibe," she explained thinking back to when Jimmy had first posed the plot line to her while he was still in prison. He'd had a lot of time to think about it then.
He placed his elbows on the table and leant forwards, "that sounds fascinating, tell me more."
"Well it's about this young couple who are wrongly mistaken for a pair of criminals who had robbed a bank and killed several civilians in the process. They are tried and arrested and separated into single gender prisons and that's where the story starts. They first tell the story of how they ended up in prison through flashbacks and singing to their inmates in kind of a Summer Nights from Grease kind of way. Then they don't sing with each other again until they are reunited at the end although they may be on stage at the same time, which is where The Last Five Years vibe comes in. He's actually going to play me the rest of the songs tonight," she said with a fond smile on her face.
"Wow, you are really lucky. He is obviously so talented. I hope it makes it to Broadway so eventually it can open here and I can be in it! Does it have a title?"
"It's still subject to change, but he likes the simplicity of Behind Bars," she answered, she didn't offer the additional information that the title idea was hers.
Jack thought about it for a moment, "yeah I like it, it's short, sweet, and catchy. You can just imagine the theatre goers in New York now, 'oh I've just been to see that new musical Behind Bars, it was awesome!'" he cried in his best American accent.
Karen laughed, "It's not quite New York, but good attempt!"
Just then their waitress arrived and placed their food in front of them. They continued the natural flow of the conversation until their plates were empty. Karen cautiously checked the time, she had promised Jimmy she would call him within half an hour.
After paying the bill she stood up abruptly and gave Jack a quick hug, "this has been really lovely" she said, she had already apologised for her hasty exit, "I'll see you tomorrow at rehearsals"
Feeling quite guilty for their hurried lunch, Karen decided she would make it up to him later in the week as she walked with speed back to her apartment. She had been looking forward to her chat with Jimmy all week, she needed to take Ivy's advice and tell him how she was really feeling.
"Hello?" she called lying over her bed with her laptop in front of her, the blurry outline of her fiancé's head filling the screen.
"Hey!" He gave a big grin as the picture began to sharpen and the quality improved, "that's better, you're not just a bunch of pixels now, I can actually see your gorgeous face/"
Karen batted her eyelashes at him as she shared his smile, "how are you?"
"Really good actually, we recorded some of the songs today," he answered.
Her heart fell a little disappointed. She had expected that he would have asked her to voice the songs for the lead role of 'Molly' for him. She had expected him to want her to play the lead should it get to Broadway, "oh." She couldn't hide her disappointment, but again Jimmy seemed oblivious.
"Yeah Rick's friend Sara was in the city so she agreed to voice some of the numbers for us so we could start the process going. With no Derek Wills backing us, I expect it'll be a bit of a longer road this time around," he continued, he was glancing at his phone as he spoke.
"Why didn't you want me to voice them?" she asked finally, her voice was thick, she was upset.
He paused, now he saw her hurt, "oh Karen I'm sorry, I thought you would be too busy with Chicago to be worried about my stuff."
"You know I care about your work. I'm as invested in Behind Bars as you are!" She protested.
She could see him scratch his hand across his cheek in thought, "oh yeah I forgot to tell you... we've decided against Behind Bars. Rick prefers Wrongfully Accused..."
"Oh well whatever Rick wants," she retorted bitterly.
"Oh don't start! I haven't had time to speak to you in days and all you want is to cause an argument!" He cried.
Karen sat up straight trying desperately not to cry, "I'm causing an argument?! I've been with you since day one on this project and you change my title, you get some nobody to voice my part, and accuse me of being too busy to care about your work! Well maybe you should think about me, your fiancé, who is halfway around the world with nobody else around her next time you cosy up to Rick and his decisions!"
"You're being ridiculous!" He yelled so loud that she had to turn her volume down in fear that Mrs Barrow from next door may complain again, "you chose to move to London remember? I supported you while you took your dream role. I don't have time right now to worry about your every movement!"
"That's the problem," replied Karen sadly, "you don't have time and you don't care to have time. Well when you next feel obligated to get in touch, let me know," she concluded before slamming the lid of her laptop shut, abruptly ending the call.
She allowed her body to collapse into the bed and she screamed into her pillow, muffling the sound. She let the tears fall for a long time before darkness engulfed the room and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.