Chapter 36
One girl falls during her dance, which creates a little drama for the show when she has to be carried off. It also runs us behind, and a few clips have to be cut to keep us on track. My dance with Blitz goes well, as does Mariah’s. There’s a lot of laughter and a party atmosphere in the halls.
By the time all the girls line up in a giant semicircle at the back of the stage for the announcement of the winner, everyone is more subdued. It’s an ending for Blitz, and everyone seems to be thinking about the dreams that were dashed here when they weren’t chosen.
I’m deadly calm. I know where my life is going, starting tomorrow. What the viewers do for the vote is really irrelevant.
Mariah, too, seems relaxed. She smiles at me as we take our places on the stage. Blitz holds a giant bouquet of flowers. There will be no farewell dance tonight, only one with the winner.
It’s the same dance we prepared in the event of a farewell earlier in the season, nothing dramatic. It’s my understanding that confetti is going to fall, and that the audience members in the seats will be dropped T-shirts and other swag after the announcement. Apparently a few vendors have known all week who the winner was, but nobody has leaked it.
Barry is dramatic, as always. I watch him talk, savoring this last moment of seeing him right in front of me, working the audience in his smooth announcer way. I assume he’ll get to stay as the new bachelor arrives. I think of some other man on the stage, wooing a new set of girls. I’ll have to ask Blitz if it’s going to be live or recorded, the dancer’s choice or a viewer vote.
But that doesn’t matter right now.
Beyond the stage lights, in the parts I can see despite the glare, are the audience members. It’s different from that first fledgling recital I did years ago at Dreamcatcher Academy, but in a lot of ways it’s the same. I’ve done my best, held up against nervousness and fear. I got it done.
The giant screens are focused on me and Mariah. Barry turns and looks at Blitz. I no longer really register what he’s saying, just take in the moment, the roar of expectation, the excitement in the restless crowd.
“Tonight Blitz gets to tell us the winner,” Barry says, and this gets my attention. “He may have given the choice to you, America, but he’ll get to say her name.”
I wonder if he’d change it, make the winner be who he wants after all. His grin is devilish, possibly imagining what would happen if the girl he hands the flowers to isn’t the same as the one on all the T-shirts about to be dropped.
Blitz turns around, his face looking straight into the live camera. “It is my immense pleasure to finally announce the winner of Dance Blitz.”
He turns to look at the two of us. “They are both great women, and I’ve been honored to work with them.”
He flashes a grin at us both. “But the girl you chose is Livia Mays.”
The crowd goes crazy. I watch Blitz’s face, earnest and happy. I wonder if I’m the real winner, if the vote counted.
But it doesn’t matter.
Mariah gives me a quick hug and quickly exits the stage. Blitz approaches me with the flowers and leans over them to give me a long, lingering kiss.
This is our moment, and as promised, pale sparkling confetti dots the stage as it rains down from overhead.
The shirts start dropping over the audience, and we pause to watch the fans catch them. On the big screen, a camera zooms in on a fan holding one up. It has a big heart with a picture of me and Blitz.
So it was me.
One of the old contestants comes forward to take the flowers, and everyone backs off to the farthest reaches of the stage.
Our music begins, the song Blitz and I picked out. It could have been a song for a farewell dance, if all the fans out there had chosen to send me home. But they didn’t, and all the stars align in this one moment, me, Blitz, our dance, his show, this end.
As he takes me in his arms for the waltz, I know it isn’t an end at all. It’s just a continuation of what we already knew. That a shy, quiet girl with a love of ballet could fall for the wild, crazy host of a reality TV show.
And it could work.
It already has.
~*´♥`*~
I hope you enjoyed Wicked Dance! If you would like to follow Blitz and Livia for more of their story, there will be five full-length standalone books as they face the challenges of their life together.
In book four, Livia faces her darkest hour. When she gets a chance to escape and join a real ballet troupe, she faces the age-old question: Which comes first? Your passion or your love?
Get Book 4 on .
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