North walked fast so that Shaw had to hurry to catch up. They were backstage, moving among a complicated array of curtains and scrims and pulleys and ropes, passing under catwalks and lights and weights and counterweights and a single, floating piece of scenery that North was pretty sure, even viewing it from below, was supposed to be the bedroom from Goldilocks and the Three Bears; he absolutely didn’t want to know what kind of shows they performed at the Lucky with that backdrop.

With only a few lights powered on, darkness pocked the space backstage, and North navigated as best he could, stumbling over a padded sawhorse with cuffs, painted on the front with red curlicue script that said This Bear is Too BIG!!!—Jesus, he’d never be able to read that story to his kids now, if he and Tuck ever even had kids, which was looking less and less like a possibility—before finally slipping free of the final, heaviest set of curtains and finding himself on stage, facing into a row of brilliant lights overhead and, beyond them, a wall of darkness.

A familiar voice rang out. “No, no, no! For the last time, Minerva, you have to be in costume, and if you keep missing your cues—now wait a minute.”

Footsteps clicked from out in the house, and a moment later, hollow steps came from stage left. When Regina Rex emerged from the darkness, there was a single, spectacular instant when the overpowering lights and the shadows and the angle all combined to make the illusion perfect: the sharp brows, the platinum blond curls, the gleam on her dark skin, even the bounce of her falsies. Then she came closer, and the illusion fractured, but North still thought what he always thought: there were drag queens, and then there were drag queens, and then there was Regina Rex.

“Look what the cat dragged in. Or should I say, the pussy.” She swished her hips. “Hello, beautiful.” A peck on the cheek for North, and the overpowering aroma of sweat and cigarette smoke cloaked them both. “Hello, gorgeous.” A peck on the cheek for Shaw, a little longer, her body pressing a little closer. “What in the world are you wearing? Oh. What’s that? What did you bring me, child?”

“Oh.” Shaw held up the red wig, studied it, and then passed it to Regina. “I was safeguarding North’s reputation.”

Regina held the wig up at the level of North’s head, squinted, and shook her head. “Red really isn’t your color, beautiful. Besides, I have no idea what we’d do with that jaw.” She traced a nail under North’s chin. “You’d look like an absolute horse, darling.”

“Thanks.”

“I think that’s a compliment,” Shaw said.

“It’s not a compliment. She’s definitely not complimenting me.”

“Of course it’s a compliment. Have you ever seen a horse?”

“Have I ever seen a horse?” North batted away Regina’s hand to glare at Shaw. “Are you absolutely, totally, completely moronic?”

“You’re not answering the question, so I guess that means you haven’t seen a horse. So let me tell you: it was definitely a compliment. Horses are beautiful.”