Page 80 of The Best Christmas Choir Ever

“Yeah?” he said, hoping she was a fan.

“You guys are awesome. Like four different people tagged me in your video.”

“Thanks,” Julian said as she handed him a packet of paperwork. “That means a lot.” He glanced down at the papers. “What do I do with all this?”

“Just fill out the details on the first page and the questionnaire, then return it to me before you leave the center.” She scanned her clipboard. “Oh, you’re on stage at 3:30 today. Make sure you’re on deck ten minutes before to keep everything running smoothly. Heather said, ‘Don’t be late or else.’ Not sure what ‘or else’ means, but she sounded serious.”

“We’ll be there,” Julian promised, turning back to the choir. But as he went to gather up the residents, he spied Harriet already sneaking off. “Hey, hold on! Where are you going?”

Harriet wheeled around, her lips pursed. “Nowhere.”

Julian folded his arms across his chest. “You have an I’m-about-to-get-up-to-no-good look on your face.”

“We’ve got some time before our dress rehearsal slot.” Harriet shot him an evil grin. “I figured it was time to properly scope out the competition.”

Julian made a face. “Please don’t do anything that’ll get us disqualified before we perform tomorrow.”

“Who’s gonna know it was me?” Harriet joked. “No one ever suspects the little old lady.”

“I would know,” Julian said. “You are always suspect number one.”

“You know what happens to snitches.”

Julian blinked at her. Was he being threatened by a seventysomething-year-old right now?

Maggie hooked her arm through Harriet’s. “Don’t you worry, Julian. We’re just going for a little stroll. We’ll be back soon.”

“Ladies,” Julian warned. The last thing he needed was to be accused of cheating. He didn’t know how you cheated at a choir competition, but if there was a way, Harriet would figure it out. Like locking the barber shop quartet in a closet. Oh God, why did that sound like something she might actually do?

“Don’t look so alarmed,” Maggie said, laughing. “We’re just going to say hi to some of the other choirs. You know, introduce ourselves.” She fluffed up her hair. “Wish them good luck for tomorrow.”

“Intimidate,” Harriet muttered. “We’ll also do a bit of that.”

Maggie brushed off her comment. “She’s kidding, of course. We’ll be nothing but charming.” She tugged on Harriet’s arm, and the two of them set off, snickering like schoolchildren that had toads in their pockets meant for the teacher.

Doris popped forward, giving him a sympathetic look. “I’ll go with them to supervise. That way I can make sure they don’t actually jeopardize our chance to perform.”

“Thanks,” Julian said, giving her a weak smile.

He wondered if she could see the hollow space in his chest Charlie had left after tearing out his heart. She was probably missing her just as badly. But it was different. Charlie would call. Heck, she’d probably have Doris and her parents out to see her perform. But he had nothing. No guarantees. No promises. Just the memory of them picking each other apart, prodding at their worst fears. Because this truly was his. He’d opened his heart again, he’d let Charlie take root inside, trusting that she’d stay, trusting that she wanted him, and then she’d turned around and left like he never meant anything to her at all.

Having to tell the choir that Charlie wasn’t going to be here for the performance had been hard. But having to look them in the eyes as the fool who’d believed someone had actually chosen him had been worse.

And now he was forced to admit that he had no idea what he was doing without her.

Julian turned back to the rest of the choir as Doris wandered off. “Okay, we’ve got about thirty minutes before we have to be waiting in the wings,” he said, glancing at his phone. “I guess now is a good time for water. Or vocal warmups. Right? We could do some…” He didn’t even know what to start with. Lip buzzing? Some sort of humming? This was Charlie’s area of expertise.

“We’ve got it covered,” Jim said, taking pity on him. “We’ll use one of the open classrooms to do our exercises.”

“Sounds good.” Julian pointed them down the hall. “You guys go do that, and I’ll come gather everyone up in a bit.” As they set off, he poked his head into the auditorium, feeling very out of place as a choir of schoolchildren were ushered off the stage by parents and teachers.

But it was only the dress rehearsal. What did it matter if they weren’t perfect today? That was the whole point. To work out the bugs before tomorrow.

“Hey!” a voice called. Julian turned to find Diane hurrying across the lobby.

“You’ve left your desk in the middle of a work day?” he said, surprised to see her out. “Either the world must be ending, or you’ve been replaced by an alien.”

“I can take a break every now and then,” she said, frowning at something on her phone. Julian had no doubt it was an email.