“I don’t even know what happened. I was freaking out while I was backstage. Then it was like I went into autopilot or something. Before I knew it, the song ended, and I was bombarded with all these emotions. I had to find someplace quiet and just breathe for a while.”
“You were wonderful, seriously. Hal filmed it, so you can see for yourself. Plus, the dress was a real showstopper, even before it lit up. I had no idea it did that.”
“I didn’t mention the fire effect because I wanted to surprise you.”
“It was amazing.”
“I’m glad you think so. The lights make the dress extremely heavy, though. I can’t wait to take it off.” It randomly occurred to me that I must owe JoJo a fortune in shipping costs, and that I should have asked her to send me a much skimpier dress.
“Let’s get you back to the hotel, so you can change.” I took off my high heels while he pulled out his phone and sent a quick message. “I’m texting Hal and Ryder to let them know where we’re going.” He pocketed the phone again and asked, “Since you’re barefoot, want a piggyback ride?”
“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll never get the rose petals right again if I wrinkle them.”
“Fair enough.” As we started walking, he asked, “How did you make that dress? Tell me everything.”
“You’re not really interested in the boring details, are you?”
“It’s something you designed and made, Kit. Of course I’m interested.”
“Well, okay. I constructed the dress over three years, while I was enrolled in art school. Part of the reason it took that long was because I couldn’t afford the materials and had to buy them bit-by-bit. I dyed the fabric, sewed the dress, wired it with fiber optic lights, and covered it with around fifteen hundred individual silk petals and over a hundred silk roses, which were all stitched on by hand.”
“It’s a work of art.”
“Thanks.”
“Do you have other dresses stashed away like this one?”
“I have several, but this is my favorite. I wanted to go with the most beautiful thing in my collection for my one and only time onstage.”
Devon glanced at me as we rounded a corner. “You’re not really going to leave it as a one-time thing, are you?”
I shrugged. “I wanted to know what it was like to perform. Now I do.”
“But you killed it back there.”
“I thought I was going to pass out.”
“You didn’t though, and now you know for a fact that you can get up in front of an audience and totally bring the house down.”
“I got lucky this time,” I said. “What if next time, I trip and fall on my face? What if I totally blank on the lyrics? What if?—”
“All of that has the same answer. If things go wrong, get up, dust yourself off, and laugh. That’s the secret to getting through any embarrassing situation. It’s impossible for anyone to laugh at you if you’re laughing, too.” He had a point.
As soon as we got back to our hotel room, I carefully took off the dress and hung it up, and I placed the wig on its form. Then I left a trail of undergarments on my way to the bathroom, including a strapless bra with silicon inserts, a corset that left red lines around my torso, two pairs of skin-toned tights I’d just ruined by walking back here without my shoes on, and a pair of tucking panties that really could have been skipped under that dress.
After shedding my clip-on earrings, faux-ruby bracelets, and false eyelashes, I scrubbed my face with a makeup removing cloth and got in the shower. It feltso goodto take all of that off.
When I returned to the bedroom a few minutes later dressed in a plain old T-shirt and briefs, Devon was sitting in a chair by the window. He was tuning the vintage acoustic guitar he’d bought earlier that day, and I exclaimed, “Your turn! Are you excited? Ryder says the bar that’s hosting open mic night is kind of a big deal here in Austin. It’s been around forever, and a lot of great musicians have played there.”
“This should just be your night. We can find an open mic night for me some other time.”
“Nope. If I had to perform tonight, then so do you. We had a deal.” I put on a pair of jeans and picked up my phone to read my texts. “Hal and Ryder are already at the bar, and they put your name on the sign-up list. There are a bunch of people ahead of you, so they said you should plan to go on in about ninety minutes.”
“That’s going to make for a pretty late night…”
“Which is fine. It’s only nine-thirty right now, and nobody has to get back to the ranch tonight. It’s why we all got hotel rooms, and why Ryder’s ranch hand is holding down the fort.”
“Okay. I’m going to get cleaned up, and then we can head out.” On his way to the bathroom, Devon asked, “Did Hal send you the video he took of your performance?”
