“Oh, I’m sorry if my feelings are inconvenient for you,” Beau snipped.

Ben threw his hands up. “For fuck’s sake. I am not crushing on Gage!”

Gage’s eyes widened. They tried not to stare at him.

“I’m so sorry, Gage,” Ben continued, his voice growing louder. “But my insane boyfriend is jealous of you because, apparently, I happened to look at you one time.”

“‘Happened’ to look at him, please.” Beau rolled his eyes. “You were literally drooling over him on the dock yesterday.”

“THAT’S NOT WHAT LITERALLY MEANS.”

“Hey!” Mateo stormed over, brows bunched. “Get it the fuck together. They’ll be able to hear you out there.” He pointed through the masking draperies to where the audience waited.

Ben pressed his lips together, chagrined. “Sorry, Mateo. It’s just … I don’t know what else to say.”

The room fell into awkward silence.

“Maybe this is a good time to tell you all,” Gage interjected in a stage whisper, “that River and I are together.”

All heads swiveled over to River, who froze, eyes wide, then offered an awkward grin. “Ummm,” they said. River usually didn’t say much.

The group turned back to Beau and Ben.

“Fine.” Beau sniffed. “I believe you.”

Ben shook his head. “You are—” But he noticed Mateo still glaring at them and took a calming breath. “Fine.”

Mateo nodded. “Fine?” he asked Beau.

“Fine,” Beau said, arms still crossed.

Mateo sighed, but it was drowned out by Francisco’s announcement.

He caught Archer’s eye and Archer shrugged. Hopefully that would be the last of the Bs drama … but somehow, he doubted it.

“Oh, hey,” Archer said to Mateo after the first show. “I meant to ask you…”

It was hard to focus as Mateo peeled the top half of his jumpsuit down and began toweling off his glistening torso. “Yeah?” he asked.

“Um. So. Uh, yesterday I ran into Eileen Lamb, you know that resident guest who comes to every show? She’s always wearing flowered dresses?”

“I think so?” Mateo said, now tipping his head back to chug from his water bottle.

“Well, she is a big fan of ours, I guess. She used to be a dancer. She stopped me to tell me how much she loved the pas de deux, and she invited us—like, you and me—to tea on Wednesday.”

Mateo paused to cock an eyebrow. “Tea? In her cabin?”

“Yeah, I guess it’s a little odd, but she seems really sweet and just looking to make friends. Relive her glory days.”

Mateo shrugged. “Sure, I guess so.”

“Great, I’ll find her and let her know.”

“Ready to go?” Mateo appeared at Archer’s bedroom door Wednesday afternoon.