Page 47 of Naz & Roz

Roz sucked in a sharp breath.

Here?

Really?

Her mother wanted to bring that up right now? It was not the right time at all. It was not another argument Roz wanted to have, either. She’d been arguing with her parents about this all damn week.

Couldn’t they let it rest?

Wasn’t it bad enough that they had gone behind her back to tell her mentor what she was considering without letting her have enough time to figure it out on her own?

Apparently, no.

That had not been a fun conversation.

“We talked about this,” Roz reminded her mother.

Katya nodded. “And I still think you’re making a mistake. It’s not that you’re not ready, Rosalynn. It’s that your mind is elsewhere.”

“So?”

Her mother blinked. “I beg your pardon?”

“So,” Roz snapped again, although she kept her voice at a reasonable level so that they didn’t draw attention from the guests. There was no need to go ruining her brother’s birthday party, even if he hadn’t asked for this party. “So what if that’s what it is, Ma. So what if I’m distracted, and now is not the right time?”

“Because spots in that company only come up once in a decade, and if you’re very lucky, you might get two chances in a decade. That’s why.”

Nothing Katya said was a lie.

Roz just didn’t need the fucking reminder.

“I don’t feel ready,” Roz told her mother. “And there’s nothing I can do about that except hold off on the audition. I would rather hold off than go when I’m not ready, Ma.”

Katya sipped from the wine in her hand, and sighed. “Your father thinks maybe you should go back to—”

“No.”

“And what if you don’t go to the audition, then what?”

“I don’t understand.”

“What do you plan to do? You’ll get your official diploma next week, and have the ceremony next month. If you even choose to go to that, mind you. But what about after? What are your plans?”

Roz’s shoulders stiffened at the tone of her mother’s voice. “Maybe I’ll stay in New York. Would that be such a bad thing?”

“It might be,” her mother replied, “if there’s only one reason you’re doing that for.”

“You mean to say one person, Ma.”

“You’re seventeen.”

“Eighteen next month,” she shot back fast.

Katya smiled. “That doesn’t negate the fact that you’re still young, dushka. Young, and prone to making rash decisions. I don’t want you to give up on your dreams. And if you asked that one person, I bet he would say the same thing. Wouldn’t he? If he cared, and he means to you what you think he does … wouldn’t he say the same thing, Rosalynn? Have you even asked?”

Roz found Naz was still staring at her when she glanced to the side. He grinned in that way of his again. The way that had her heart pounding, and her stomach doing the strangest flip-flops. All he had to do was fucking stare at her, and her whole world suddenly felt like it had flipped on its axis, and nothing was ever going to be the same again.

That was the thing.