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I flushed crimson at her tongue-in-cheek remark and again looked behind us, but Tristiana wasn’t bothered about being overheard. Oh, how I envied her naked confidence. I had no idea what she saw in someone as meek as me as a friend.
“You overthink too much, babe,” she informed me, rising from her spot to release my hair from the clips that had it pinned to the sides. She massaged my scalp, and I felt myself relaxing under her skilled hands. “The show went off without a hitch. The King seemed to be enjoying it.”
My half-closed eyes popped fully open, and I whipped my head back to look at her. “The King?” I gasped. “Alpha King Nyx was here?!”
Tristana was nonplussed. “Of course. He has a private box. He hasn’t been here in a while, but it looks like he’s coming back to enjoy the arts again.”
My heart fluttered wildly, dizziness sweeping through me.
The king was here? Watching me mess up onstage?!
I found myself wondering if that wasn’t who had been watching me so intently, and I thought I might faint.
“I didn’t know that,” I whispered.
“No, you wouldn’t, I guess, being new,” Tristiana agreed, dropping her hands from my head and retreating to her seat. She picked up a pad of cotton swabs and dabbed them in makeup remover. “Like I said, he hasn’t been here in a while, not since you’ve joined the cast, anyway.”
How am I ever going to be able to perform again knowing that the king comes to shows now?
Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the dancer who had snapped at me earlier, but before I could avert my gaze, she grinned and winked at me. “Good show, Maren,” she chirped as she strode by.
I gaped at her in disbelief.
“Close your mouth before you catch flies, babe,” Tristiana teased. “Why are you staring at her like that?”
“She was barking at me while we were performing!” I replied, craning my neck, but the dancer had already slid out of the exit.
“Maren, really?” my friend sighed. “You’ve got to grow thicker skin if you want to work in this business. I warned you about all of this when you said you wanted to work here. It’s not a job that everyone can handle.”
“I can handle it!” I protested, instantly contrite. “I’m just confused that she was so angry at me, and now…”
Tristiana shrugged indifferently. “That’s the way it goes. Tensions run high. Sometimes we snap at each other, especially in the middle of a show, but that doesn’t mean we’re not all on the same team. She wasn’t angry at you. It’s all nerves.”
I frowned slightly; her explanation was a little overly simplistic for me to swallow.
“We got through opening night,” Tristiana continued, wiping at her face in long, even strokes. Streaks of brown, blues, and greens cleared off her porcelain complexion, and I turned to deal with my face now, too. “You’re coming out to celebrate with us, I trust?”
I hesitated, unsure if I should. “I don’t know.”
“Don’t be a wet blanket, Mare. Everyone’s going—even Jergin.” She rolled her eyes after she said this, and I leaned further toward refusing.
I didn’t want to hang out with the club’s too-touchy manager during work shifts. Why would I want to see him after hours?
But if everyone else was going, including Tristiana… I did want to fit in.
The truth was, I had started this journey at Maximo’s as a way to make money quickly and easily, my jewelry business flailing despite the fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did. But dancing had inspired the artistic side of me, bringing out the virtuoso in me. The stage had set me free in ways that I had never considered before, the expressions, the costumes, and the singing, allowing me to let go of things lingering in my soul. Like jewelry making, it allowed me to show the inner me, the side of myself that no one cared about—except me.
And I was already screwing it up.
Maybe I didn’t express it aloud to Tristiana or anyone else, but I loved the job in the swanky burlesque hall more than any other I’d ever had.
“I’ll get you home before you turn into a pumpkin,” my friend teased. “But if I don’t, by some chance, I know an enchantress that can probably turn you back.”
She winked a piney eye at me, and I relaxed again, grateful to have her in my corner. In a world where all the females I knew were too timid to speak their mind freely, Tristiana genuinely did not care.
“All right,” I relented. “I’ll come for a drink.”
“Three drinks,” Tristiana chortled.
