Episode 1232: The Play Is The Thing

“I can’t look at these numbers a minute longer,” she said, snapping her laptop shut.

Seated across the desk, picking unwanted anchovies from the salad he’d ordered,” Javier said, “the numbers are fantastic, I should know, I’m your numbers guy. You will easily score a profit this quarter. So what if every now and then you’re a few bodies short of a sell out? Most artistic institutions would kill to do as well as we’re doing. What happened to that talk we had about keeping things in perspective?”

“This is my perspective. That we should be doing even better.”

“Sounds like greed to me,” Javier observed.

“Sounds like ambition to me,” Adria countered, “and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“There is something wrong with it when it’s taken to the extreme.”

“I’m not doing that,” Adria insisted. “I’m not trying to become some theatrical mogul and I don’t know, franchise across the country or whatever. I just want to keep my little corner of the theatrical world alive and kicking.”

“Which it is. There’s nothing about our numbers that should have you fuming like this. Accept that we’re doing well and put the rest out of your mind. Enjoy the afternoon you planned with your daughter. She’s going to love that tea room for dolls, I knew it the minute my friend told me her business plan for it.”

“Right, that.” Adria gnawed on her lip. “About the tea room. I know you said they’re totally booked a year out.” She really needed to ask the tea room who handled their publicity, maybe it was time to finally trade up from her sister’s firm. Definitely something to consider later. “I know you already did me a huge favor getting this reservation, but do you think you could use your friend connection to move it to next month?”

“You want me to help you stand up your date with your sweet kid?” He shook his head.

Anna rolled her eyes at Javi’s horror stricken expression. “It’s not a big deal. This was a surprise for Miranda. She won’t even know it’s been postponed. But I know I can get more out of this Steel Magnolias production so I’m going to rehearsals and I’ll set them on the right path. The better the play, the better the word of mouth and the more backsides in seats. That’s the priority.”

“Your daughter is not the priority?”

Episode 1233: Born This Way