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“Yeah, we are.” I smile, but it doesn’t reach my eyes. My phone pings again and I stiffen for a second before shaking it off. “That’s my cue, everyone. I’ll see you all later tonight. Hope you enjoy the play.”
I peer up at Walt, who seems to have dismissed me somewhat. I grab his shirt and bunch it up into a fist, then pull him down to me like I did the first time I kissed him.
Standing on the tip of my canvas shoes toes, I go to kiss Walt, but he turns and gives me his cheek. I plant a kiss there, not wanting to make it awkward, then I take my leave with Coco in tow.
I don’t want to dwell on it or think about it… or else I fear I won’t like the answer at all.
The nervousness and all thoughts of whatever are gone the second Ricky Martin’s Adios plays, then the curtains draw, revealing me inside of a giant glass filled with water made to look like a good drink. I’m posing like a pin-up girl. One knee is bent, resting on the rim of the glass, while I stretch the other out with my toes pointed, all while using my arms to balance as my hands hold on to the rim. My body arches perfectly.
The audience cheers and claps their hands. I dance around seductively in my first red number that matches my hair a little but is more of a fire engine red than my hair.
My hair is wet as I dip it further into the water, needing the wet look. I lift a leg up, then seductively run my fingers up and back down.
Moving with the music, I arch, pushing out my chest again as I place my feet on the rim of the glass, then as the music shifts, I slide back in making sure that I do what a burlesque dancer would.
As the song changed the tempo to a much slower, sexier dance, I get on my knees and face the audience who I can’t really see since the lights are dimmed as the stage lights switch to a darker red, a sexy red and I spread my knees apart moving my body the way we practiced while throwing my head back.
As the spotlight goes to one person, more water is poured on me. Danny stands in the audience since he’s supposed to meet Santine the way Christian did.
He gets out of his seat, being the mesmerized Christian version while I place the tip of my thumb in my mouth, moving my wet hair out of my face while watching him.
The glass lowers down just as Christian gets on the stage and it dims out for me, leaving him on stage to do his act.
Hearing the claps makes me even more excited.
The play is halfway done and I’m so happy that the audience’s claps get louder each time we do another act.
In this act, we switched it up with much more modern songs as Christian sings Enrique’s Tonight knowing that it’s a sexual song to sing. Yes, it’s bold, but I trust my director and the writers.
Christian looks up at me while I dance on the high swing that has hanging fake diamonds around it covering me while I wear a nude costume that makes me look more like a silhouette than anything else.
Swinging myself to the fake hanging diamond props, I grab a hold of them as I’m lowered with them as Christian finishes the song.
Jennifer Lopez’s Dinero begins with the background vocals singing the beginning and Christian fades a bit to the back as my feet touch the ground. My cue comes in as I sing the song, mixing it both with English and Spanish, just like JLo does.
Opening the props, I walk out like a woman on a mission with an attitude because, like the song says, Santine loves money. I move my waist as I dance, then use what my director thought would be great for me, my culture. The band changes the tempo and the song changes to Celia Cruz’s Quimbara.
My costume matches the diamonds as it’s more for a salsa dancer and gives me the liberty to accentuate my moves.
Someone in the audience whistles, causing me to smile as the song switches again to Carnaval while Christian joins me onstage dancing with me this time as I sing. Then the band switches it to the last song of our version of the elephant medley. It’s Bemba Colora, but I specifically wanted the slower part as Christian dances with me. I grab his jaw in my face the moment he lowers closer to me, and I follow his body, leading me while I sing to him.
As the song ends, Christian dips me and says the famous line from the movie during the medley, “Love is a many splendor…”
“Oh, Christian…” I cry out as the curtains draw. “I can’t…”
The audience claps again.
After a quick change in clothing, I don a version of the dress that Santine wore to sing with Christian along with the jewels and the crown in my hair in its naturally curly state. Danny quickly exits as he needs to re-enter from the doors for the big wow.
As soon as the curtains open again, I sing, looking out at the door that Christian is supposed to be coming out of. Then there’s a pause, as if everything has gone quiet or wrong. “I love you.” I whisper out.
Christian sings as the doors of the theater open, singing Come What May and the tears spill out of my eyes because we did it. We’re here after all the hard work of rehearsal.
He nods to me, understanding how I’m feeling as the lights aren’t so dimmed now and I see the audience as they turn to face Christian, watching him walk towards me, but when my eyes scan the crowd, they land on Walt. Walt isn’t watching Christian walk down, instead he’s staring right at me. My lids flutter as I momentarily shut my eyes but open them again, staring right at Walt as I continue to sing my best.
I don’t lose eye contact until Christian is on stage and I have to turn to face him because this is our big number. Danny wraps his hand around my waist and my eyes grow big, but I don’t panic. He isn’t supposed to do this. It’s not in the script. He places his hand on my cheek as we sing the big number, letting it all out on opening night, needing to let the sweat and tears of rehearsal go here.
Maybe it’s the circulation of this damned tightened dress that’s making my heart beats like crazy. The tears flow down my face as I think about it. I’ve fallen for Walt, and I don’t know what to do.
