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He chuckled lightly.
“I think, for a non-fallen angel to make love with a human, we might be looking at more serious consequenc
es than an unplanned pregnancy.
I suspect I’d be cast to hell.”

I felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.

“Think about it, Claudia, I am meant to be good, I am not meant to
be thinking this way about you.
I don’t even ha
ve the excuse of being fallen.”
He fell silent.

I held on to him tighter.
I wanted to change the atmosphere in the room, rewind the past few minutes. I thought again of my golden, shimmering light, imagining it encompassing both of us, and gliding around the room, surrounding us in a warm, safe glow.

“Claudia?” He kissed the top of my head

“Yes?” I murmured into his chest.

“What did you just do?”

“What do you mean?” I looked up at his face, and saw he’d gone pale.

“Something just altered…maybe it’s me, ignore what I said.”

“Alright.
Anyway, I was wondering, about a couple of things.  Just
little questions.”

He rolled
his eyes at me but smiled too. “Always with the questions.
Go on.”

“You said you could sense that someone was near death.”

“That’s not a question.”

“How does it work?”

“I can tell, when I talk to someone, if they are clos
e to passing over.
If I’ve worked with them a lot, then I get a greater link to them and I can sense they need me from further away.”

I gasped.
“It happened the other day – I didn’t get woken up by a phone call, yet you’d known to go to the hospice for Mr Hollins.”

“Yes.
I could feel his spirit getting ready to move on.”

“You must bring your patients great comfort.”

“I hope so.”

“I was also wondering…you mentioned that you
’d spoken to a friend about me.
How do angels talk to one another?”

“You’re like an encyclopaedia of everything I’ve ever mentioned,” he kissed my nose gently, “I can’t get away
with anything with you around.
There are two ways angels can communicate with each other – we can either force ourselves to faint and our spirits go up and talk to each other, or we can remain here and go into a trance-like state to talk to each other that way.”

“I heard you,” I stumbled on my words, “I wasn’t trying to listen, but I was in the study and you were in your room, I didn’t mean to overhear you.”

“It’s OK, I
should have been more careful.
I thought I could han
dle you, how wrong could I be?”
He smiled and kissed me.

“Who was the friend you spoke to?”

“Another guardian angel, Alfie.
He’s been doing this as long as me, but he couldn’t un
derstand what the problem was.
He’d never heard of any angel being attracted t
o a human, the way I am to you.
He tried to encourage me to give up this task,
give the post to another angel.
I tol
d him I’d try a few more days.
That was weeks ago, he’s bound to be getting worried.”

“Do you think he will tell the other angels what y
ou told him?”
My racing heart was now no longer to do with my lust and everything to do with a very real fear that Marty would have to leave me.

“I don’t think so.
Not unless they ask him first.
He isn’t the kind of person to make trouble, he’s a very honest, gentle soul.”

“Sounds like someone I know.” I stretched up on my tiptoes to kiss him.

Chapter 13

Marty had to le
ave the next morning before me.
I tried to employ the same techniques he’d used to encourage me to stay in bed a little longer the pre
vious morning, but to no avail.
His need to get to work was stronger than my need to attend rehearsal on time.

After he left, I took my time having a shower, washing my hair thoroughly to make up for l
eaving it messy the day before.
I blow-dried it so that it hung
in loose curls around my face.
I checked the time on my mobile phone and realised I only had t
en minutes to get to rehearsal.
I grabbed my bag, my dance shoes and script, before bolting out of the front door.

I practically ran to the university th
eatre, just making it on time.
As I entered the theatre, the door creaked
heavily, announcing my arrival.
Donna was already there, addressing the students.

“Oh, Claudia, so ni
ce of you to bother to join us.
You’re
late, don’t you wear a watch?”
So much for her being charmed by Marty, she was ba
ck to her usual acerbic self.
I tried to answer her, feeling self-conscious with all the students watching to see how I would react.

“I always break watches, they stop working on me, I use my mobile phone instead.  And it says I sti
ll have one more minute, yet.”

Donna glared at me.
There was silence for a heartbeat, and then as if to punctuate my point, another two students entered the theatre behind me.

“Let’s not waste any more time on Claudia’s inability to tell the time,” Donna paused, as if waiting for the students to laugh, but nobody did. “From the start, let’s set each scene in here a
nd get the lighting sorted out.
I don’t want anyone complaining ab
out being blinded by the spots.
They are there for us to see you; you don’t need to see the audience.”

I quickly changed into my dance shoes a
nd got into my first position.
The rehearsal was very stilted, stopping ever few seconds for Donna
to boss the stage crew about.
She was very fussy about where the lights should be pointing and she had her heart set on a lot of overhead lighting t
o make us actors look creepier.
The guys on the stage crew took it quite well to begin with, but I did have to stifle a giggle when one of them waved a spanner at the back of Donn
a’s head in a threatening way.

By lunchtime, we’d run through most of the numbers in the first act, despite having to work around ladders and scaffolding on the stage, as the stage crew tried to move the overhead lights to positions that would make Donna happy.  I’d never been to a rehearsal like it.  It got to a point where the theatre technician actually stood up to Donna and told her that the crew needed a rest or they would start to make mistakes.  

I sat with some of the girls from the chorus at lunchtime.  One girl, Sofia, was especially friendly, making easy conversation with me.  I felt like I was getting back to the me I had been before my parents had died.

“I can’t believe how different it is, rehearsing in here, compared to being in the drama studio, having the upper circle of seating makes it feel so huge,”
Sofia
commented.

“I know, did you
see the detail on the balcony? It is really ornate.
It is a beautiful theatre, I’m surprised the university has one on site,” I responded, hoping I didn’t sound like a geek.

“The theatre was here first, then the university was built up near by, and they
bought the theatre a while ago.
It was part of what a
ttracted me to this university.
The fa
cilities for drama are amazing.
Shame about the lecturer.”
Sofia
wrinkled her nose, and I laughed.

“Have you ever had a director like her before?”

“Not at all.
She scares me.”
Sofia
was practically whispering now.

“Me too,
” I agreed.

“You do stand up
to her a bit, I can’t do that.
Who is that guy who meets you from rehearsals?” Her dark brown eyes sparkled and my heart skipped a beat at the mention of him.

“Marty.
He’s my housemate.” In my head I added ‘and love of my life’.

“Anything more than that?
He’s kinda cute.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, he... he doesn’t have time for a girlfriend.”

“Is he a friend with benefits?”

“A what?” She’d lost me.

“A friend with benefits.
Shag buddy.” She smiled, a wicked glint in her eye.

“Oh,” I
smiled, “no, nothing like that.
He’s not that sort of guy.”

“Oh, is he gay?” She said it so casually, it made me giggle.

“No, not that I know.
He’s a doctor at a cancer
hospice, it’s pretty intense.
I don’t think he has time for dates.”

“But he has tim
e to meet you from rehearsals.
Are you sure he’s not into you?”

Her question
threw me. I didn’t know how to respond.
I wasn’t prepared to answer questions about him and I didn’
t want to tell an outright lie.
Luckily I was saved by one of the other girls, who pointed out that it was time to head back into the theatre.

Donna was ready to speak to everyone w
hen we returned to the theatre.
I had a bad feeling about the af
ternoon that I couldn’t place. I felt sick to my stomach.
I assumed it was just from the panic about answering questions regarding Marty.

“Right, I’d like everyone to sit in the balcony seats for numbers you aren’t involved in, so that you can get a feel for the size of the room and don’t take all day about
getting up and down the stairs. We don’t have time to waste.
Let’s get started w
ith the song about the coconut
.”

I wasn’t in that song, so I dutifully took my stuff up to the balc
ony and watched the rehearsal.
It was a big space and the balcony was
a fair distance from the stage.
Watching other people performin
g made the show seem very real.
Even with the stopping and starting to sort out the lights, I enjoyed watching th
e other actors.
It had been a
while since I’d seen any shows.
I’d missed it.

I checked the script, looking at the number
s I still had left to perform. It shouldn’t be too bad.
I didn’t know why I couldn’t get rid of the
uneasy feeling in my stomach.

Donna seemed in a better mood now; perhaps the technician standing up to her had m
ade her aware of her attitude.
The rehearsal was picking up pace and I had to get ready for the next number – the song that Marty
had sung to me in the kitchen.
I put my dance shoes back on and headed out of the balcony seating area.

As I reached the bottom of the stairs, the door to the thea
tre opened and Marty was there.
The uneasiness in my stomach melted away
, replaced by a glowing warmth.
His eyes twinkled as he saw me.

“Hello.
I hear the audience are all confined to the balcony today.” He smiled.

“Yes and I’m about to go on.
Wish me luck.” I clung to the banister of the stairs, wrapping my hands around the railings as though I didn’t want to go on stage.

“You don’t need luck. You’re amazing.” He rested his hand on top of mine, the heat fro
m his hand making mine tingle.
I felt as though I was in a trance.

“I should get to the stage.” My eyes locked with his.

“I’ll be cheering you on from the balcony.” Neither of us m
oved our hands.
The sound of someone opening the door above us forced us to break apart and I headed off without another word.

The previous number was just being completed when I got to t
he wings.
I clapped my fellow performers as they left the stage and watched as the stage crew moved the furniture around to where it represented
the setting for the next scene.
I was sti
ll in a daze from seeing Marty.
Listening to someone else singing his song, I couldn’t help but
daydream about Marty.
I managed to get through all my movements for the number without angering Donna and before I knew it we were into the next scene.

The dance numbers that included sexy moves I found difficult, knowing Marty was watching and being aware of how much self-restraint he was using t
o control his urges around me.
I tried to tone the movements down, but Donna noticed, and went for the jugular.