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Her own heart was too full to speak so she settled for kissing him as they strolled through the corridor to their cabin. Win or lose this entire experience on being on ISD had completely changed her life and she’d have no regrets. Fierce competitor that she was though, Micki intended for them to take the trophy.
They practiced more than they had for any other dance until Josh called a halt. “We’re going to be over prepared if we’re not careful.”
Micki grudgingly accepted his decision and they skipped a day of antigrav, doing stretching and marking a few of their old routines to stay limber. Dress rehearsal didn’t go smoothly, as they were doing the new dance on the ISD stage for the first time and when Ryder showed up for his brief stint of technical rehearsal everything ground to a halt. The ISD crew might be professionals at their jobs but Ryder was a genuine interstellar celebrity far above the level of anyone who’d ever graced the ISD stage and there was a lot of awe. Unnecessary people showed up to watch and Micki finally called Liam.
“Can you guys send a team up to the ISD set to shoo away the looky-loos? Ryder is trying to rehearse with the lighting techs and the stage manager and we’ve got quite a crowd here.”
“I’ll be right up.”
True to his word, Liam and Jayna showed up in two or three minutes and cleared the set of anyone not directly required for the rehearsal at hand. Ryder was able to finish his brief commitment and depart, after thanking the security team, but Micki and Josh were unable to get back into the right state of mind to complete their run through at anything resembling their usual skill levels.
“You know the old saying—bad rehearsal, good performance,” Micki reminded him as they yielded the stage to the next set of dancers for their own dress rehearsal.
“We can only hope,” Josh replied as he shouldered both their dance bags and led the way off the set.
More bad news was waiting in his suite as he got an urgent call from his brother the minute he reactivated his handheld. “I have to go to the planet,” he said as Micki emerged from the shower. “There’s an urgent problem with a Benfield distributor and it needs a Benfield on the scene to resolve it. I may not be back on board until tomorrow afternoon, depending how long it takes to solve the issue, fire people, move management around?—”
“Can’t someone else handle it?” she asked, toweling her hair.
“Our name is on the building, so to speak, and I’m the only Benfield in the Sector. My mother and brothers are arriving tomorrow for the finale but this has to be tackled now.” He took her in his arms. “I’m sorry and I swear I’ll be here tomorrow in plenty of time for the warmup.”
“All right, go slay the corporate dragons but please remember the time.” Micki couldn’t bear the idea of forfeiting the final dance because of a Benfield business problem.
“I wouldn’t go,” he said, holding her close, “But there are potentially thousands of jobs at risk if this subsidiary goes under. Benfield could absorb the loss and rebuild but so many people’s lives would be destroyed. I have to go fire fight.”
“I don’t think most generational billionaires think about their employees at all,” she said. “I’m impressed.”
“Stay in the suite tonight, order anything you want for dinner and I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He kissed her but seemed distracted. As soon as he’d been through the refresher and gotten dressed he was gone to his shuttle, with only a fleeting kiss on the way out.
Micki wandered the suite, not liking the emptiness. “Definitely an issue we’re going to have to work on as a couple,” she said to the air. “The business can’t always come first. He and his brothers are going to have to accept that as a condition of my being in a relationship with him.” Then she felt guilty, remembering what he’d said about all the employees whose livelihoods were at risk. Part of what she loved about Josh was how caring he was but maybe for the future he and his brothers needed better contingency plans for business emergencies.
She decided she didn’t want to be in the suite by herself and made her way to her own quarters forlornly after dinner. Tassia had a Comettes performance this evening so Micki stayed in her cabin, restless and unhappy, watching the Carovintonns soap opera, which at least was diverting.
Next day there was no word from Josh until lunchtime, at which point he sent a terse text stating it was all taking longer than he’d anticipated but he’d be there for the warmups.
He wasn’t.
Micki was tearing her hair, figuratively speaking but went ahead and did her own stretching and preparation, trusting him to arrive on time for the start of the show. There was nothing else she could do. The AD checked with her numerous times, warning the couple would have to forfeit if Josh didn’t arrive in time to step on stage for their dance.
“We’ve never had a forfeit at the finale stage,” the AD said. “I suppose Ryder McRhodes can play anyway and fill the segment run time so it won’t be a total disaster—if he agrees to do it of course.”
“Josh will be here,” Micki said flatly.
The show opened with a filler dance from the ISD professionals, followed by the first couple to do their antigrav dance. Micki stood backstage nearly in tears, ready to scream. They were third in line to dance, with Ryder’s performance being the main reason they’d drawn the third slot. The show wanted to save him for the end of the program.
There was a disturbance at the backstage door and Josh came rushing over. He started stripping right there, as Micki had brought his costume with her when he didn’t arrive before the show.
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart. Things got out of hand and time slipped away from me,” he said as he pulled on the costume, which was covered with tiny filaments that would pulse with lights at certain points in the dance.
Micki was glad he was here but she was sure the dance would be a total disaster. “I’m not even sure I should let you dance,” she said.
Josh paused in fastening his pants and stared at her. “Why not? The second dance just started— we have time to get where we need to be to go on next.”
“You haven’t warmed up at all. I can’t let you injure yourself in order to avoid us forfeiting.”
He straightened and wiped a tear off her face. “You’ll ruin your makeup. Listen, if this was an ordinary dance, I’d agree with you this was foolhardy but it’s all in antigrav. No stress on my body, other than from my own movements, which I have embedded deep in my muscle memory. We’ll be fine. Please, Iet’s just dance for ourselves out there and to hell with the damn trophy. Kumisarc can have it for all I care. I want my last special dance with you.”
The frantic AD was upon them. “The judges are doing the dance two scores now, you have to get to your places.”
