Lahat ng Kabanata ng MY FORBIDDEN SHOWMANCE: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

Jay told me to meet him at the dance studio he works at at seven. I got there at six-thirty-two.This was not because I had a crush on him.I mean, I did have a crush on him. Apparently. Rebekah had ruined my life by pointing that out yesterday, and after twenty-four hours of observation, I had been forced to conclude she was right. But that wasn't why I was early. I was early because I was bored. And already dressed. And the studio was only twelve minutes from my apartment. There were plenty of perfectly reasonable explanations that had nothing to do with wanting to see Jay twenty-eight minutes sooner than necessary.I pulled open the front door and immediately heard music coming from somewhere down the hall. The lobby was empty except for a row of chairs and approximately four hundred tiny shoes scattered beneath them. There was a glass wall looking into the first studio, but it was dark. The music was coming from farther back.I followed it.The second studio had windows along one

By the next afternoon, we were running the show from the top without stopping unless something went catastrophically wrong.Apparently, catastrophically wrong had a specific definition. Missing a prop did not qualify. Forgetting a line did not qualify. Entering from the wrong side of the stage did not qualify. At one point, one of the ensemble members knocked over a chair, stepped backward trying to avoid it, and nearly took out a table. We kept going.I loved it. There was a point in rehearsals when a show stopped feeling like a collection of scenes and songs and choreography we'd been practicing separately and started feeling like an actual thing. We were getting there. Not all the way. But close.Danny and I had a scene in the first act that we'd probably done fifty times by now, and for once, I didn't think about him at all while we were doing it. He was his character. I was mine. He said his lines. I said mine. He reached for my hand when he was supposed to. I let him take it. No

Rebekah found out about the camping trip because she asked what I was doing over the three-day weekend. We were sitting on the floor backstage during a break, eating lunch while two people from the ensemble argued about whether someone had stolen a phone charger."I'm going camping," I said.Rebekah looked up from her salad. "With who?""Jay."She stopped chewing. I took another bite of my sandwich."Just you and Jay?""His dog is coming."She slowly lowered her fork. "Oh. Good. Chaperoned.""Exactly.""By a dog.""A golden retriever.""Well, then. Very responsible."I narrowed my eyes at her. She smiled."Don't.""I didn't say anything.""You were about to.""I was going to ask where you're going."I told her the name of the lake."And how long?""Friday night through Tuesday."Her eyebrows went up."What?""Nothing.""I fucking hate when you say nothing."She laughed and went back to her salad. I watched her for a second."You were right."Her fork stopped halfway to her mouth. "Abo

After rehearsal I threw the duffel strap over my shoulder, grabbed Dolphin Shark, and headed for the door. The second I stepped outside, I stopped.Jay's black SUV was parked near the end of the lot. Behind it was a camper. An actual camper. White, not enormous but definitely large enough that it made his SUV look significantly more serious than usual.I stared at it. Then I started smiling. "Oh my God."Jay was standing beside the SUV. "What?""You brought a camper."He looked behind him. "Yes.""An actual camper.""What did you think I meant?""I knew there was a camper. I understood the concept of a camper.""Apparently not.""This is different.""How?""It's here."He laughed. I walked around the back of the SUV to inspect it. There were windows. A door. Wheels. Obviously there were wheels. I don't know why that seemed exciting."This is fucking great.""We haven't even left the parking lot.""I know."He took my duffel from me. "Where's the rest of your stuff?""This is it."He l

Eventually the fire burned down enough that even I had to admit it was probably done being entertaining. Moose was asleep beside my chair, completely exhausted from the difficult work of making me throw a tennis ball approximately nine hundred times. Jay had finished his second beer. I'd finished mine. The campground had gone mostly quiet around us, with little pockets of conversation and laughter drifting between the trees.I stretched my legs toward the fire. Jay stood and started gathering our dinner stuff. I helped, mostly because there wasn't much left to do. Trash went into the bag. Food went back into the camper. Jay poured water over the remains of the fire and stirred everything around until apparently he was satisfied we weren't going to burn down the campground.I was carrying the last of the chips inside when I saw the black-and-white lump shoved beside my duffel bag. I stopped."Oh my God."Behind me, Jay said, "What?""We forgot him.""Who?"I pointed. Jay looked at Dolp