“So you want me to dance too?”
Mom sets a soft hand on my arm, squeezing playfully. She’s touchy, like most theater people. “You say that as if you didn’t take ballroom dancing for years. Dancing is easy for you, darling. So is playing. And you know ‘Fly Me to the Moon’by heart.”
She’s making a good case, and I really hate to say no. But I’m worried about taking too much on. What if I can’t focus on my clients? What if I don’t have time for the potential Webflix gig, if I get it? Worry twists through me. “I know, but I’m trying to grow my business, and now I have this space, and I have to make rent on it each month. I’m always out there hustling for clients. I have this meeting later today with Webflix. At five-thirty,” I say, glancing toward the door of the theater. Her rehearsal foranothershow starts soon. “This could be a huge opportunity.”
“Of course it is. But so is this,” she says, sweeping a hand acrossthe auditorium. Her boyfriend Angelo is here too, but he’s off washing grapes for her. “Which is why I convinced Saffron to introduce the cabaret night.”
I blink. “What?” I almost want to ask if she stole my client, but it’s not like that with my mom. “How?”
“Darling, I’m very convincing. Now, can you do it? Just imagine how fun it’ll be—you’ll even get to play ‘It’s Raining Men’ when Angelo’s cousins perform that song. And it might be a little spicy.”
Right on cue, her boyfriend—twenty years younger,go Mom—walks down the red-carpeted aisle, all muscles, long curly locks, and glowy brown skin, wielding a silver tray of glistening grapes. He parks himself beside her and offers her the tray with a flourish. “Here you go, my Karenina,” he says, using the affectionate nickname he’s given my mom. When he bestowed it on her, he said, “You’re not a Karen. You’re a Karenina.”
The guy adores her. He also says her name with a certain flair, rolling theRlike he does when he occasionally speaks in his first language—Spanish, since he was born and lived in Panama for the first several years of his life.
“I was just telling Chloe how your cousins will perform ‘It’s Raining Men,’” Mom says and pops a grape into her mouth.
“Yes, and you will sound amazing together. You on piano, the other Riveras on pipes,” he says to me, playing his part in helping Mom make her pitch.
“Angelo’s helping me produce the show too,” my mom adds.
“Yes, I gathered,” I say.
“We think you’ll be…perfy,” he adds.
Oh, they’ve been hanging out with the actresses. That’s totally Veronica’s word. But it probably rubbed off on Saffron.
“And if Saffron opens the event, the crowd will be huge. We could even introduce you as the dog trainer who does double-duty as a pianist,” my mother adds, making a great closing pitch.
She’s good. She’ssogood. I don’t know how she does it. Or really, howtheydo it. But they’ve become quite the team. Rivers and Rivera. It’s like it was meant to be. Well, she’s a Taurus and he’s a Cancer, so of course they fit. And of course I’m convinced, since the fundraiser not only helps a good cause—science research at the local university, which has been hurt by terribly deep cuts—but also the cause of, well, me.
“Fine. Fine. I’ll do it. But on one condition,” I say.
The twinkle in my mom’s eyes is triumphant before she turns serious as she says, “Anything, darling.”
“Tell me what I need to do to win this deal for the TV show,” I say, shifting from pianist daughter to nervous strategist. We’re meeting the producers later today in Linus’s office. I give her more details about the show and the opportunity.
My mom bites into a grape, then points it at me like it’s a mic. “Confidence, darling. That’s what sells. It’s like an elixir.”
“A daring perfume you can’t help but notice,” Angelo says, reaching for Mom’s hand and stroking it dotingly. She really scored when he pursued her a few years ago, a little after my father officially came out of the closet. Angelo is a heavy-metal artist—he crafts steel and metal sculptures—and he’d been pining for my mother for years. Every time he saw her walk by his studio, hewas transfixed, he said. Now she’s his, and he couldn’t be more obsessed. “Just don’t forget to walk in likeyou’rethe one they should be pitching to.”
I roll my eyes. “I meant real advice.”
Mom stares sharply at me, those rhinestone glasses practically burning a hole in my heart. “Thatwasreal. But also? Be yourself. That’s what’s gotten you this far.”
But have I come far? I’m barely scraping anything together. All I have is luck, and sure, it’s landed me a few high-profile clients. I’ve been in the right place at the right time, including a lake while wearing a white dress. Now I need to capitalize. “Thanks, Mom,” I say, then push up to leave at last.
“But there is one more thing. Let them see you in action,” she adds. “That’s how actors win roles.”
“They must audition,” Angelo says, sounding serious.
“Yes! You should audition without them knowing that’s what you’re doing.”
I stop in the aisle, letting that nugget soak in. And…it’s actually kind of brilliant. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me sooner, but I’ll have to bring a third party to the meeting.
When I leave, I text my brother.
Chloe: You were right about the fundraiser.
