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“Oh really?”
Dorian wrapped his arm around Braden’s shoulder. “Our dear Braden was taken to dinner at Per Se with Vandercant and Tatiana.”
“Per Se?” Nadia said, almost choking on the name. “Like, the most expensive restaurant in the city?”
“Just about,” Dorian replied.”
“He wanted to get to know the lead,” Braden muttered. “To make sure I was good enough to work with his granddaughter, I guess. He was a real nice guy. Old, but warm. Tipped well.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’s a regular Mr. Rogers,” Ryan said dryly. “You’d have to be to buy a theater and create an entire show for the sole purpose of giving your granddaughter a lead role.”
We walked down the hall that exited the theater. When we reached the doors, I put a hand on Nadia’s shoulder.
“Hey. Can I talk to you privately, for a second?”
“Um, sure.”
I waited for the others to disappear outside. When the doors closed, and we were alone, I adjusted my glasses. “This is awkward for me to say…”
She rolled her eyes. “I get it. I fucked up by mentioning Vandercant. It won’t happen again. Alright?”
“I was going to ask if you wanted to go out tonight,” I said. “On a date.”
24
Nadia
I blinked at the tall, spectacled man. A handsome man, despite his quiet demeanor. The one I’d just snapped at.
“Oh,” I said.
“It’s just that, you know,” Andy said, removing his glasses and cleaning them with the corner of his shirt. “Since rehearsal is canceled, if you didn’t have any plans, we could… I don’t have plans, is what I’m saying, so it might be a good time to… If you want to go on…”
“I’d love to,” I said, stopping him from embarrassing himself further. “Once we go home and change, that is.”
“Yeah, sure.” He returned his glasses to his face. “I figured for our date we could—”
I stuck out my hand to stop him. “You don’t need to tell me now. Make it a surprise.”
“Um.” His wavy blond hair shifted against his forehead as he cocked his head. “What if you don’t like what I choose?”
“Then the night will be ruined and I’ll hate you forever.” I punctuated it with a warm smile. That did the trick of calming him down, and he smiled with me.
We rejoined the others, who gave us funny looks. “Lecturing her about spilling the beans on Vandercant?” Ryan asked. “Damn dude.”
Before Andy could explain what we had talked about, I made my eyes wide and my voice meek. “He threatened to kick me out of the house if I opened my mouth again to Director Atkins. You guys wouldn’t let him do that, w-w-would you?”
I really sold it with the stutter at the end. Andy didn’t have a chance to defend himself before the others started shouting.
“What the fuck, bro!”
“Dude, she didn’t mean to spill the beans...”
“Dearest Nadia is a guest in our home! How can you be so callous after a mere slip of the tongue?”
I finally stepped between them and laughed. “I was joking! Everyone relax! You can stop white-knighting me now.”
Dorian laughed first, and wrapped a friendly arm around Andy’s shoulder while we walked away from the theater. Ryan and Braden joined in the laughter a moment later.
