CHAPTER 41
Lex
It was late morning, and the crew was standing around without direction. We’d just run the entire show, full out, from top to bottom, and Theo still wasn’t there. Reggie strolled in halfway through and joined us, and from the bent brows on his forehead, I knew his pitch hadn’t gone so well.
“Should we run it again?” Brenda asked.
We were all breathing heavily, and many of us shook our heads.
“We should save our energy for Winter. She’s coming today, right?” Contessa was at the front of the room, wiping her face with a towel.
I glanced at Reggie, who shrugged and started to walk away. I caught his arm, and he turned back. “Hey, how was the pitch? Did they like your ideas?”
I was dying to ask Theo that same question, but for now, Reggie was in front of me, and I’d never seen him look so down on his luck.
He shook his head and waved his hand as though it wasn’t a big deal. “Nah. They liked the pitch, but it just wasn’t my time. You were right about the gig already being Theo’s. Him and Winter are a thing—I need to remember that. It’s all good, though.” He flashed me a smile as I started to lose mine at the mention of Winter and Theo. “I got another opportunity out of it. And I still get to partner with you. I’m pretty stoked about that.”
“That’s true.” My optimism masked that awkward feeling that crawled through me again, the sensation that something was off.
My eyes drifted around the room, looking for something to change the subject, when Wayne stepped up to the speaker. He shuffled through his playlist. “I say we take a break until Theo gets back. Let loose a little, if you know what I mean.” He smiled around the room then pushed Play. When Kelly Clarkson’s “Love So Soft” started to sound overhead, everyone clapped.
“Ah,” Amie called out with a grin. “I feel a freestyle coming on.”
The crew agreed, and Reggie nudged me toward the center of the room. “Lex volunteers as Tribute.”
“Was that a Hunger Games reference?” I raised my brows at him in amusement as the Ravens laughed.
He placed his hands on my back and nudged me toward the center of the room. The crew’s cheers grew filling my insides with that bubbly kind of excitement that could easily be mistaken for nerves. It felt good to finally be accepted as one of them. I’d definitely felt the shift this week. I now felt that I was surrounded by a dance family, one that could have moments like these despite the struggles and the insurmountable stress. I was grateful that last week’s drama was far behind us.
“All right, all right.” I held up my hands and laughed. “Wayne, you’ll need to restart that for me if I’m going to do this right.”
He gave me a nod and went back to his phone and restarted the track as Reggie waved the crew off the floor. “Let’s give our girl some space,” he boomed. “Contessa, you jump in next. We’ll go girls then guys.”
I was midway through my freestyle, the energy in the room building with the crew’s cheers and applause, when I caught Theo’s eyes in the mirror. My face immediately grew hot as I continued to move, my gaze glued to his. There was something about the way his stare burned through me, as if he could be standing in a ball of flames and still not move.
I loved it as much as I knew I should hate it.
Theo didn’t stop us from taking turns to freestyle until every single person had a chance to take the floor.
“Sorry about this morning,” he said once someone cut the music. “We lost some time, but we’ll make it up this afternoon. As soon as Winter gets here, we’ll run the set from the top. Just mark the new dances the best you can for now.”
If the rest of the dancers felt like me, they were more than ready for a full-out performance.
And that was what we did. Winter arrived a few minutes later, and we started the entire show from the top.
“It’s looking good, Crew.” Theo’s compliment made me do a double take. Why is he in such a good mood?
Theo seemed far less intimidating than he had when I first met him. Perhaps it was the fact that I’d seen him bare or that, just this morning, he’d wakened me with his mouth, working me to an orgasm before running out the door for his pitch. But it was also possible he had softened some since we’d gotten to know each other.
Still, I had to remind myself that whatever affection I’d built up for Theo was only temporary. In four days, everything would change, and I wasn’t ready to face that.
“I think we’re ready to pick things apart a bit. Once we get back from lunch, be ready to run through the tracks, one by one, until we perfect each one.”
“That’s right,” Winter said with a clap of her hands, shaking me from my thoughts of Theo. “And you get an extra-long lunch break today. Be back in two hours.”
My eyes tracked Winter’s playful nudge at Theo’s arm and the way she hugged his bicep as if it belonged to her. My gut felt heavy at the exchange, though Theo simply allowed the flirtation without appearing to return it. It was a harsh reminder that no matter how sweet and cute Theo was with me behind closed doors, he wasn’t mine to claim.
“It’s beautiful today,” Amie said with brilliant eyes and a wide smile. She looked between Reggie and me. “Let’s take our lunch outside.”
A few other dancers accompanied us to the concrete steps in front of Gravity. As we unpacked our lunches—mine a selection of cold cuts and cheese slices from Theo’s refrigerator—a flash of white and leather caught my eye. My chest tightened before I looked up to see them, Winter and Theo, dashing down the stairs and toward his black Ferrari. My heart sank when he opened the door for her and glanced up at the lot of us on the stairs, his eyes connecting with mine.
I looked away first, hating the way my chest ached, knowing this was what we’d agreed to. This was our reality. Me, the background dancer he’d secretly opened his home and his bed to, and him, the famous choreographer with a superstar on his arm. It didn’t matter that he murmured sweet words against my lips last night as he drove inside me or fed me bites of grilled cheese from his plate at dinner. Because in this moment, hearing the rev of the familiar engine before it drove away and listening to the crew whispering about the hot sex Winter and Theo were surely having, my reality was my burden to bear.
And I’d do it alone.