He wanted to hiss at her to shut up, but then Mateo was next to him, studying their picture, too. He nodded once before moving on down the line.

Betty winked at Archer.

They did a full run-through of Around the World and Retro, then Stewart sent them all off to have a quick early dinner before they’d have to rush back for hair and makeup.

“It all happens tonight, my darlings!” Stewart cried. “Do not be late!”

“I’ll catch up with you at dinner,” Archer told Caleb, eyeing Mateo, who was over chatting with Francisco.

Caleb pecked his cheek. “Okay. See you there.”

Archer waited patiently until Mateo began to make his way off the stage. “Hey, did you want to go over our pas de deux again tonight?” he asked.

“It’s our opening night,” Mateo muttered, walking past Archer down the stairs. “There’s a party.”

Archer followed him. “Oh. Tomorrow night, then?”

Mateo stopped, hand on the door. “I don’t think so, Archer. We don’t need it.”

“Okay. I only thought—”

“You’d better go eat dinner,” Mateo interrupted, before pushing his way out, leaving Archer standing alone in the darkened backstage, trying to process what had just happened. This Mateo was a completely different person from the one who had danced with him in the clearing the night before …

No … surely Mateo Dixon did not give a shit who he kissed. Or maybe the kiss was simply Archer being unprofessional again? Maybe it cemented Mateo’s belief that Archer was only here to party. He sighed. There were no rules about employees hooking up … in fact, he was pretty sure almost every employee did hook up somewhere along the way. He wasn’t going to marry Caleb or anything, but he was cute and fun and … if he wanted to fool around with Caleb, there was nothing stopping him. Except the little voice in his head, but that was easy enough to ignore.

Archer was returning his dinner tray when Betty scurried up to him.

“You and Caleb been awfully cozy lately,” she said with a knowing look. “Did I see him kiss your cheek on his way out?”

“Yes,” Archer said sheepishly. “He, uh … well, we actually, like, kiss kissed right before rehearsal started.”

Betty smacked his arm. “Shut up! That’s awesome.”

“Yeah.” Archer shrugged. “I guess.”

“What do you mean, you guess? Caleb’s hot. And from what I hear, he likes to hook up with the hottest guy here, so”—she fired finger guns at him—“congrats.”

Archer nudged her. “Are you saying I’m the hottest guy here?”

She studied him with a scrunched face. “You’re okay.”

When they got back to the theater, Dominik had poured a round of shots for everyone in the greenroom and handed one to Archer with a grin. “First show tradition!” he announced.