I was surprised at how certain I was about that. If things with Jude didn’t work out, I was sure I’d feel shattered again. I was sure it would sting every time I saw him, maybe for a while. But I could deal with that. I had some experience with crushed hopes, after all. And even if the pieces broke apart and flew out and spun around again, I was learning how to gather them up and… not put them back together necessarily, but rearrange them into something different. Something familiar, but distinct.

I sat up straight and smiled at them.

Margot and Ethan whooped and fist-pumped. Then they pulled me onto the choir room floor for an impromptu dance party. As I swayed around in my booby costume, I thought about how at this time last year, my life fell apart. Now I was dancing with two people who cared about my life so much they wanted the pieces of it to fit together perfectly.

“Are you guys still having movie nights after the musical is over?” I asked.

“Yup,” they said at the same time.

“Fantabulous. Count me in.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

BACKSTAGE, I COULDN’T STOP fidgeting. Jude’s rendition of “Broadway Melody” rang out, sweet and clear. I’d been hoping to catch a moment with him before rehearsing our scene to say, well, something. But I couldn’t find time in the chaos, and now I was in the left wing, waiting for the Charleston dancers to make their entrance. When they did, and the stage was full of their brightly colored costumes, I snuck in behind them and sat on the chair set up for me in the back corner. I positioned the hat on the toe of my shoe and waited. The music shifted, the dancers exited in a whirl of color, and it was Jude and me onstage, alone.

Jude knelt next to me, I slowly raised my leg, he took the hat, and we were off. The lights, the sultry horns in the pit orchestra, Jude’s adorable yellow sweater-vest costume, my mad cleavage, it all came together. I could feel the electricity in the air as I slinked around him and he stared at me like I was beautiful dynamite.

When he pulled me into the first lift I felt the tension in his body, saw the desire in his eyes. I couldn’t tell if he was Don responding to the Vamp, or Jude responding to me. In the moment, I didn’t care. Onstage, right now, he was mine.

“Ow-oooooow!” echoed from somewhere out in the auditorium, where Margot and Ethan were sitting. I could see Jude lose focus as he tried not to smile.

“Hot stuff, comin’ through!” That did it. We broke into stupid grins.