Penny sat back with her script, pretending to look at it, though what she was actually doing was taking a minute to get the taste of her foot out of her mouth. She felt like a complete and total idiot, but damned if she was going to apologize to this arrogant and entitled asshole who just wandered in off the street like he owned the place, with his ten thousand dollar outfit and perfect nose (perfect face, if you wanted to get all technical) and accent all that crap.

Carey and Bruce gave the room a minute of silence. Then Bruce cleared his throat and spoke casually, as if nothing untoward had happened at all. "So, uh, shall we get going, read through some scenes? Just to get a feel for how you sound together?" He looked back and forth between Penny and Cam.

"Sure," Cam said, looking around with a small smile. "I'm ready."

Penny took a deep breath. "Yeah, me too," she said with a nod. "Which scene?"

"How about one of the early ones?" Carey suggested. "Where they've just met? Since there's a little tension in the room right now, we could work off that, maybe use it to our advantage."

"I'm not tense," Cam said. "I had something to say and I've said it, so I'm fine. In fact, I was going to suggest that Ms. Patrick and I grab a bite to eat after this and get to know each other a little better?" He looked at Penny benignly while she stared at him, trying to figure out whether or not he was kidding.

"Uh, yeah, sure, I could for an early dinner or something," was what she finally came up with.

So they began reading through the scenes, though Penny could tell that Cameron was indeed pretty much off book. A couple of times he asked to do it again, changing his reads based on something Penny was doing, and damned if he wasn't pretty good.

Penny found herself responding to his reading, upping her level, even though this was a first read and really didn't matter. He was bringing a lot to the table, making it more like a late read, when they were getting ready to move to the stage. She made eye contact with Bruce and Carey a few times, and could tell they were looking at each other a couple of times as well, and that everyone in the room was well impressed with Mr. Aldobrandeschi.

Penny kind of wished Frederick were there, so he could hear how good this new guy was.

He'd be furious, though he'd go out of his way to hide it. Frederick hated being upstaged, especially by people who were better looking than him, though he professed not to notice looks, either good or bad.

"Okay," Carey finally said with a smile. "I think that'll do for today. I was going to suggest you guys get together a couple more times before next week to work a bit more, but I don't think it will be necessary. And you don't want to go too deep without Cynthia's input, anyway, right? So we'll just see you at the table read, then, okay?"

"Sounds good," Cam said, rising to shake hands with the producers.

Well, it sure couldn't be said that he had bad manners, that was for sure.

When they were alone, Cam asked Penny where she'd like to eat.

"Oh, look at me, it should be obvious I'll eat anything," Penny joked.

Cam just looked at her. "Where would you like to go, then?" he repeated, holding the door for her. "I haven't lived in New York for five years, and I haven't been here for two, so I'm sure the restaurant scene has changed completely from what I remember. Please, what do you recommend around here that would be an easy place to secure a table at--" he glanced at his watch "--four-thirty on a Friday?"

Penny put all joking aside and considered. "There's a nice Japanese barbecue place a few blocks away if you like that sort of thing? And you don't mind the smell of smoke?"

"I love that sort of thing. Let's go."

They walked down Madison Avenue in silence that might have been uncomfortable had it not been for the throngs of people all around them. He switched places with her once, for no reason she could discern, and when he did it again, after they turned the corner on to 52nd Street, Penny realized it was so he could walk next to the curb, closer to where the cars were passing. He didn't make a big deal about it, but she realized that this must have been some kind of chivalrous good manners thing, like how he'd held the door for her back at the meeting. Penny had heard of Europeans having courtly good manners or whatever but never anyone her own age, and never anyone born in this century.

Wow.

After they were settled into their booth with the grill between them lit, they perused their menu for a few minutes before calling the waitress over to tell her their choices. Penny was shocked at the number of platters Cam ordered.

"I assume you'll help me with the vegetables and salads and things?" he asked her seriously. "You didn't choose nearly enough meat, either."

She nodded. "Um, okay, sure," she said.

"Oh, and while we're on the subject, can we come to an agreement about garlic, please?" Cam continued, pointing to the spinach and garlic salad, which he'd ordered.

"An agreement about garlic?" Penny repeated blankly.

Cam nodded. "I remember from my student acting days that it really was awful if one lead had garlic and the other didn't, so I think it's just kinder for both people if they make a deal and say that if one person is going to have garlic, they let the other person know and he or she has garlic also. Or, they only have garlic when they're eating out together, so they both have garlic at the same time, you see?" He looked at her inquisitively. "What do you think?"

"Sounds good, but I should warn you, I love garlic," she told him. "I have it all the time."

"Not a problem, so do I," he responded.

"My boyfriend Frederick has a sort of similar rule about garlic," she told Cam.

"Oh?" Cam looked politely interested, brows drawn up in query.

"Yes, he, um, he won't allow his costars to have garlic unless he has it," she explained.

"I see," Cameron said thoughtfully as their sake arrived. "Not exactly the same, but similar, as you said."

"Yeah," she agreed, picking up her sake.

They toasted and drank, the first swallow hitting her throat like a blessing.

They continued to eat as they talked, drinking more sake, and the waitress interrupted them with a dish of cut up melon, on the house. She gave Cameron a seductive, flirty smile as she turned away after placing the dish on the table. He smiled back, though it was just a friendly smile.

"So how did you know Frederick was my boyfriend?" she asked curiously, putting the flirty waitress out of her mind.

Their meat arrived and they began putting it on the grill in front of them as they talked.

"Well, once I knew who you were, I knew, because I'd read somewhere that you two were dating, and I'd passed him in the hall. He looked really angry, though, what happened before I arrived?"

Penny gave him an abridged version of the conversation and fight that happened in the conference room before Cam arrived. "He was supposed to have the part they gave to you," she explained, putting some meat in her mouth and chewing. "He just found out today that he wasn't going to get it."

"Oh, shit," Cameron said, making a face. "I didn't know that, no one told me, I'm really sorry."

"It's not your fault," Penny assured him. "But you've made an enemy for life. Frederick doesn't forget stuff like this, ever."

"Great. And he's only one of the most revered and powerful actors on the Broadway scene today," Cameron said dejectedly.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure a lot of doors are going to open when people get a look at you," Penny said.

By now, they'd worked their way through nearly all the platters of food they'd ordered, and Penny realized to her surprise that they'd put away four bottles of warm sake between them. She wondered if she was a little drunk, and decided to watch what she said.

Something about the tone of her voice made Cameron look up at her. "And you're obviously not talking about my stellar table read this afternoon," he said, more bitterly than he'd intended..

"Oh, no, don't get me wrong, your read was fantastic," Penny said, putting a hand on his arm. "It really was amazing!" She took another swallow of sake.

"But you're talking about my face," he surmised.

"Well, come on, you're not exactly horrible to look at, are you?" she asked rhetorically. "And beauty is what makes the world go round, isn't it?" She gestured at the dish of fruit on their table, which was nearly gone. "I mean, no one ever brings me plates of fruit, you know? And I'm guessing this isn't the only free stuff you've ever gotten because of how good looking you are."

Cameron took a deep breath, but Penny raised a hand.

"Never mind," she said with a knowing smile, "I don't really want to know. It's kind of sickening, in a way, isn't it?"

"You talk like you got run over by a lorry or something," he said in confusion. "I mean, you're a nice looking person, you have lovely skin, absolutely gorgeous eyes, so what are you talking about?"

Penny put her chop sticks down and stared at Cameron. "Are you fucking kidding me? Are we going to do this now? Here? If we made a list of the things that made you good looking, do you know how many things would be on that list? And all you can come up with for me are skin and eyes?" Her chin trembled dangerously, and watching her fight to control it was a valiant thing to see.

Cameron opened his mouth to talk again, but she held up her hand to stop him.

"No, please, don't even bother. I know what I look like, okay? Someone who's grown up looking like you can't even fathom what it's like to grow up looking like me, you just can't. It's no mystery how we were cast in this play, is it? A gorgeous guy who falls for a plain-Jane girl? It was written for us, wasn't it?"

She leaned forward, the food between them forgotten, tears sparkling on her beautiful lashes. "Do you know why I got into theatre?"

Cam shook his head, speechless.

"I went to UCLA, did you know that? Yeah, film school. I wanted to be in movies. But two of my professors were kind enough to be brutally honest with me. They told me to get into theatre, where my looks wouldn't hold me back so much." She let out one sob, which no one but Cam heard in the noisy restaurant. She viciously wiped her tears with the heels of her hand. And she shrugged.

"So I did. And here I am, 'the darling of Broadway,' a Tony nom my first play out of the gate, so I guess I showed them, didn't I?" She laughed, a horrible, sad sound to Cam's ears.

"So don't you sit there with your modeling career and your skinny, model girlfriends and your free food and who the fuck knows what else and patronize me, okay, Mr. Prince of Europe?"

She pulled some money out of her wallet and put it on the table and rose. "Please excuse me," she murmured.

"I planned to pay for this," Cam protested. "I ate most of it, anyway."

Penny shrugged and took the money off the table. "How very chivalrous," she said with a sniff. "Thank you. And good night."

And she left the restaurant without another word.