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She wants me to kiss her.
She was waiting for it. Lips slightly apart, eyes lidded and ready. There was nothing to it. The kiss was part of the show. Totally platonic. Not a big deal. I’d kissed dozens of women during shows in my career.
But this felt different.
Finally, Nadia pulled away and the moment was gone. “That was fantastic!” she said. “I hadn’t gotten a chance to really practice my understudy lines.”
I cleared my throat and hoped I wasn’t blushing. “Yeah, you were great. Your range is impressive.”
“I took vocal lessons when I was younger,” she said proudly.
“Better than singing in the shower.”
“Which I couldn’t do in my old apartment, unless I wanted to wake up my roommates at 5:00 in the morning.” She got a faraway look on her face. “Now that I have my own bathroom in a townhouse…”
I made myself laugh to cover my embarrassment. I’d almost kissed her. “That’s between you and Ryan. I don’t mind the sound of someone singing upstairs, but Ryan’s a lot more ornery.”
She got a sultry look on her face. “I’ll just have to use my feminine wiles to make sure he doesn’t mind.”
“Good luck with that,” I said.
“Oh? I thought Ryan’s the one who wants a fuck-buddy?”
Her bluntless did make me blush. But her eyes were locked onto mine and she pretended she didn’t notice.
“Oh, he does,” I agreed. “But he’s also not the kind of guy to let a girl get away with a bunch of annoying habits just because she’s sleeping with him.”
Nadia turned sideways and popped her hip, which made her ass flex in my direction. “Challenge accepted.”
Did she know the effect she had on me? Was it intentional flirting? She was waiting for a reaction, so I chuckled.
I’m the one who told her I just wanted a friend. She was being comfortable around me because those were the boundaries I’d set. I was being stupid for expecting more.
And I’d almost ruined it by kissing her. That would have totally messed up our dynamic from the start.
“You mind if we do another?” she asked. “I want to rehearse Tatiana’s lines for song number four.”
I gave a dramatic flourish and extended my hand to her. “It would be my pleasure.”
*
We had time to rehearse two more numbers—practicing first Nadia’s main dancing track, and then the lead’s—before everyone else arrived for rehearsal. Ryan arrived, waved to us, and then disappeared backstage. He returned soon after and asked if we’d seen the socket wrench from his toolbox, but neither of us had. The others began trickling in after that. Tatiana came walking through the doors a few minutes early, which surprised all of us. She glanced up at the catwalks and blinked, as if she’d seen something.
I considered asking her about it, but then she shook it off and began making demands of Director Atkins.
Rehearsal went well for the first hour. There were no complaints or distractions; everyone put their head down and focused.
After seeing Nadia’s rehearsal, it was difficult to take Tatiana’s seriously. The big-haired diva was sloppy while moving through her track. For example, there was one song where she was supposed to walk toward the front of the stage in a straight line. Instead, she veered off diagonally, causing her to intersect with the track of four of the dancers.
Every time it happened, I glanced over at Nadia. She rolled her brown eyes, which made me struggle to contain a laugh, turning it into a sputter and cough instead. Tatiana glared over at me mid-song, and then Director Atkins commented on my focus between numbers. Of course, he didn’t mention Tatiana’s lazy track work.
Sorry, Nadia mouthed to me the next time we exchanged a glance.
“Andy?” Atkins called to the back of the stage. “I want to see that new lighting set this time around.”
Andy gave a thumbs-up from the tech booth.
“Let’s take it from the top, this time without any distractions,” Atkins said, pointedly looking at me. I nodded somberly and waited as the song replayed.
