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“He’s actually good,” I said under my breath. Luci pressed her shoulder against mine.

He crossed the stage in long, reaching steps, always seeming to search for someone just beyond the lights. Every so often, he stopped and extended a hand toward the empty space beside him, only to let it fall when no one took it.

Holly rose from her chair in the audience. She slipped off her sweater, revealing a red sequined top over fitted black pants. Her hair was pulled away from her face, and her feet were already in jazz shoes.

The room erupted.

She ran down the aisle and leapt onto the stage. Rhett turned at the sound, his whole body changing when he saw her. His shoulders lifted. His face broke into a grin. Even his steps became lighter, faster, as if she were the reason he’d been able to dance all along.

Holly circled him once, pretending not to notice him. Rhett followed, trying to catch her eye. She turned away. He moved in front of her. She spun past him. He clutched his heart, staggered backward, and nearly fell off the stage.

Everyone laughed.

Holly finally took pity on him. She caught his hand and pulled him upright, and the two of them flew into the routine they must have practiced a thousand times all those years ago.

They moved together with an ease that made it impossible to believe they hadn’t done this in more than twenty years. Side by side at first, their steps matching. Then apart, trading places in a series of turns. Rhett lifted her at the waist, and Holly sailed around him with one leg extended before landing neatly against his chest.

He looked down at her, grinning. For one suspended moment, neither of them moved. Until something shifted in the dance. Maybe it was only part of the story they’d choreographed as kids, but the playfulness fell away. Rhett reached for Holly with both hands. She let him take them, yet there was a hesitation in her body now, a reluctance that hadn’t been there before.

He sent her out in a turn and pulled her back, catching her against him. This time, instead of smiling, they stared at each other. Rhett touched the side of her face. Holly closed her eyes and leaned into his palm as if she’d been waiting years for him to do it. Then, without warning, she tore herself away.

Rhett went after her.

She retreated.

He reached for her hand, but she pulled it from his grasp. He tried again, more desperately this time, and caught only the tips of her fingers before she spun away.

The music slowed.

Holly crossed to the far side of the stage. Rhett followed, but she held out one hand, stopping him. He froze. She shook her head. His face crumpled, exaggerated enough to belong to the lovesick boy in their dance, yet there was something underneath it that wasn’t performance. Something raw enough to make my chest hurt.

Rhett pointed to himself, then to her, as if reminding her of everything they’d been. Holly’s chin trembled. For half a second, I thought she might go back to him. Instead, she turned and ran. She jumped from the stage and disappeared behind the curtain without looking back.

Rhett took one step after her, then stopped. His outstretched hand slowly fell to his side. The final notes faded, leaving him alone in the center of the stage, shoulders bowed, his red sequined vest glittering absurdly beneath the lights.

No one laughed now. In fact, we all appeared to be riveted.

Rhett stared at the doorway Holly had vanished through, looking not like a man finishing a childhood dance routine, but like one watching the love of his life leave him all over again.

Then, he went back to being Rhett, grinning, calling to Holly to come take a bow with him. She came out, smiling, but her eye makeup had smeared, as if she’d shed a few tears behind the curtain.

“Holy cow,” Luci whispered to me. “I forgot how sad it was. That song.”

“Beyond,” I whispered back to her.

Everyone got to their feet, clapping. No hooting or hollering now. Just the clapping of an audience moved by what they’d seen. I glanced at Carol. Tears streamed down her face, but she was smiling at the same time.

“Thank you,” Holly said, bowing.

“Thank you, thank you,” Rhett echoed.

“Did you win?” Madeleine asked. “You must have won.”

“We placed fourth,” Rhett said. “Out of five.”

Everyone groaned.

“You were robbed,” Beck called out.