“Occasional babysitting,” he chimes, concluding the list of duties in the job posting I stumbled on two weeks after I got to New York. Assuming the last bit meant childcare, I applied. Toby’s mom, who’d been functioning as admin since Work It got off the ground, had written the post. She meant him.

The traditional nine-to-five nature of my day job baffles the burlesquers, who seek work with flexible hours or have side hustles more in line with their creative efforts. Jane teaches voice and piano, Tonic does aerial lessons in addition to her job at the high-end lingerie boutique, and Ming is the go-to seamstress for the better part of the burlesque scene, creating and adjusting costumes and clothing for those of us who don’t know our way around a sewing machine.

“How may I help you?” I ask.

“I was looking over the contract for the venue hosting Saturday’s function.” He squints at his computer screen. “Is that all we’re paying, or is more due later?”

I sit taller. Toby told me to go all out when finding a venue for the merger party—“Spare no expense!”—but I kept my feet on the ground. One of my “babysitting” duties is reining in his occasionally impulsive spending habits; he got the espresso machine on an afternoon when I was at the dentist. Incidentally, his mom was filling in for me and called to tattle.

“I haggled,” I admit. “Pemberley is new to the scene. We’re one of their first contracts, so they were willing to deal.”

“Great. And, your, um”—he clears his throat, voice high with forced nonchalance—“friends from your weekend thing. They’ll be . . . appropriate?”

“You said you wanted it to be memorable,” I say, feigning confusion.

Toby’s eyes go round, shaving another handful of years from his features, forcing me to laugh. I recruited the Twins and Jane for entertainment. They’ll do their respective things, though Ginn and Tonic will keep their act second-tier-city-friendly, and the venue has a piano, which is where Jane comes in.

“No nudity,” I assure him, and he relaxes into an expression less likely to get him carded. “Just acrobatics and Gershwin.”

“Perfect.” Toby’s attention shifts back to his computer screen. “It’s an amazing space, Liz. You really have an eye.”