She thought for a moment. “The worst would have to be the time a guy invited me to see a show with him, but he thought it would be an amazing surprise when I got there to find out he was in the show. I mean, I would have been thrilled to watch him perform, but it was a bit much on our first date for me to sit alone in the audience, looking like I’d been stood up. Afterward, he took me out for a drink and asked me questions about his performance, to make sure I had fully appreciated his art.”
Across the table, Sophie snickered.
Jules narrowed her eyes at her. “And you? What’s your bad date story?”
“This girl showed up to our first date completely wasted and then fell asleep with her head on my shoulder during the movie we went to see, and she snored super loudly through the whole thing.”
“Yikes,” Tabitha said, giggling under her breath.
After lunch, they assembled on the stage to rehearse a group dance number. Jules was glad for the chance to work off some of the nervous energy that had been building inside her all morning. She hadn’t counted on being in front, though, leading the routine as Simon taught them the steps.
Still, she was a competent dancer, so she threw herself into the choreography with the same enthusiasm she channeled whenever she was on stage. Things went fairly smoothly for the next hour or so, until Micki joined Jules up front.
Simon stood in front of them, demonstrating the next move. “And five, six, seven eight…” he called as he moved.
Jules and the rest of the cast followed, dancing their way across the stage. Micki took an extra step, hip-checking Jules so hard, she almost lost her balance. Micki gave her an exasperated look, as if the mistake had been Jules’s. She ignored Micki, moving to the side to give herself more room, but as hard as she tried, they couldn’t seem to find their rhythm together.
“Not like that, Jules,” Micki exclaimed when they bumped into each other for the fourth time. She proceeded to repeat the movement in an exaggerated fashion to demonstrate it for Jules.
“I’ve got it,” Jules told her, clinging to what remained of her patience.
“Let’s try it again, ladies,” Simon said, and started them from the top.
But as the afternoon wore on, she and Micki struggled to get in sync with each other. Eventually, Jules got so flustered she couldn’t tell which one of them was messing up. Maybe she was the problem after all. Kari sat quietly in the audience, watching with a slight frown, and Jules’s cheeks grew uncomfortably hot. What if Kari decided she’d made a mistake in choosing Jules for the lead?
“Let’s take ten,” Kari called, and Jules winced.
She went down the hall to grab a bottle of water from the break room before making her way back to the now-empty stage. She clasped her hands in front of herself, gazing out at the rows of seats in front of her. This was something she’d always loved to do, steal a moment on stage by herself to stare into the empty theater, to imagine what it would feel like, standing here in front of a packed crowd, the spotlight in her face, singing her heart out.
This time, it wasn’t a dream. It was really happening.
Unbidden, she remembered sneaking her dad onto a stage not unlike this one. It must have been seven or eight years ago, right after she’d landed her first bit part in an off-Broadway show. He’d stood beside her, tall and strong as he told her how proud he was that she’d never given up on her dreams.
And he knew what he was talking about. The son of Cuban immigrants, he’d worked tirelessly to achieve his own dreams here in America. He’d graduated top of his class and gone on to found an investment firm that had become one of the biggest and most profitable start-up companies in Miami. He’d given Jules his work ethic and the belief that she could be anything she wanted to be, if she wanted it badly enough and never gave up.
“Hey,” Sophie said from behind her. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Jules turned toward her. “Just frustrated.”
“Can’t say I blame you,” Sophie commented.
Jules sighed. She wasn’t one to bad-mouth her costars, but Sophie clearly understood without her needing to say a word.
“Why don’t you show me the sequence before everyone else comes back out?” Sophie suggested.
“Right now?” Jules swept her gaze around the empty theater.
“Yep. Just dance like no one’s watching.”
“No one but you,” Jules said, tossing a smile over her shoulder at Sophie as she walked to the front of the stage. Behind her, she heard Sophie begin to tap her toe against the stage, keeping the beat for her.
Jules moved easily across the stage. No fumbles. No missed steps.
“See? That was great,” Sophie said. “You’ve got it. Don’t let her distract you, that’s all.”
“Thank you,” Jules told her. “Want to try it with me?”
“Sure,” Sophie agreed.
They ran through the whole sequence together, their bodies effortlessly in unison. If only Jules could recreate this with Micki. Over the next few minutes, the rest of the cast trickled back onto the stage. Kari and Andrew returned to their seats in the audience, and Simon resumed his spot in front, guiding them. He started them at the top, and this time, Jules focused on herself, ignoring Micki as much as possible, as Sophie had suggested.
They kept at it for the rest of the afternoon, working through the number until everyone had it down. By the time they finished, Jules’s confidence had rebounded. Still, she had to contain the urge to roll her eyes as Micki flounced off stage ahead of her.
Jules went downstairs to get her coat and purse. When she left her dressing room, Sophie was at the other end of the hall.
“Walking home?” Jules called to her.
Sophie nodded, pausing to allow Jules to catch up. “I have to hustle, though. Gotta go home and change before my date tonight.”
“Oh yeah? Someone new?” she asked, because the last she knew, Sophie was single.
“Yep. First date. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Jules said. “I hope things go infinitely better than any of the first dates we shared during lunch today.”
Sophie laughed. “Yes. By those standards, I should have nothing to worry about.”
“That’s the spirit.” Jules wondered if she should be looking for a little of that spirit for herself. It had been months since she’d gone on a date, and longer than that since she’d had a serious boyfriend. She had a tendency to focus on her career to the detriment of everything else in her life, but lately, she’d been feeling lonely. No matter how many people she surrounded herself with during her daily life, when she went home, it was just her and her cats.
“See you tomorrow,” Sophie told her as they reached Carroll Street.
“Yep. Hope your date goes well.”
With a wave, Sophie was off.
Jules walked the rest of the way home, relieved to enter her apartment. It was cold tonight, a reminder that they were already halfway through November. The show opened for previews just after the new year. After bending to greet Pippin, she poured herself a glass of red wine and headed to the bathroom for a hot bath.
Hopefully, she and Micki would find their footing together. What if they were as out of sync when they had to kiss onstage as they had been for today’s choreography?