He launches into thanking the audience for coming, and it’s funny. His voice is smooth and warm, and I notice he’s got an accent I can’t quite place, a little roundness of the vowels, almost midwestern, that is delightful. He’s smooth, too, slipping into an introduction to Dirty Little Secret, Lakeshore’s one and only underground burlesque show, as far as we know.

We laugh at that, caught up in his act, and he smiles back.

“Our performers tonight are extraordinary,” he says. He asks us if we’re ready for an incredible amount of talent, extraordinary charm and wit, breathtaking beauty and grace, or something like that. I lose track of all the adjectives, but I keep elbowing Nevaeh in the side until she puts her arm around me to make me stop.

We jump to our feet to applaud.

“There’s more,” he says, carefully turning off the mic. “I have introductions for all of you, but you can approve them, if you like, and I thought we could go over your interstitial acts to make sure I’ve got the timing down and so on.” He pauses. “If I’ve still got the job.”

Katherine runs up to hug him. “You have got the job!”

“Taylor helped me practice,” he says. My heart squeezes again and again.

We run through the whole thing in one go for the first time after he leaves, and then again. We’ve got it down flawlessly.

Friday we are a mess, and I slip off my chair when I try to roll down my stocking, and I want to cry, and we keep going until we give up.

“You know how it works,” Katherine says, lifting off her wig. “Bad dress rehearsal, great performance.”

“That’s a cliché,” I say.

“Well, yes,” she says.

“Is it too late to quit?”

“Oh my god, Addie, no,” Nevaeh says.

“We’re going to do it,” Katherine says. “It’ll be great.”

“Oh my god, Addie, yes,” I say, and let the curtain fall behind us.

16

When my alarm buzzes in the dark of my dorm room, I bolt straight up and only just manage to not scream. It’s not that late so I haven’t been sleeping, just staring up at the dark ceiling, rehearsing my act in my head, trying to breathe deep and stay loose.

I love you, Taylor messages us. Be careful! Break a leg! THIS ISN’T FAIR