Corp here.
e I promised I’d be.
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Fabiana Chantre
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Falling for my boyfriend’s Navy brother
Chapter 313
There’s this strange stillness that happens before a performance.
Not quiet, not really. There’s music, and people talking in low voices, and the hum of light bulbs and costume racks and hairdryers.
But inside me stillness.
I sit in front of the mirror, surrounded by the chaos of my own things. Makeup scattered across the vanity. Bobby pins in a cracked ceramic dish. My phone buzzing every few seconds with texts I’m too nervous to read.
1 can bear Luc rehearsing in one of the side studios down the hall. Pointe shoes against wood, the occasional muffled curse in French. Someone’s giggling in the hallway. Someone else is crying softly. I don’t even know who.
The dressers finished zipping me into my costume twenty minutes ago. Now, I’m just sitting here. Waiting.
My fingers shake as I reach up to adjust the sleeve the left one. My thumb finds the embroidered words near my wrist.
For when you fly.
3
It steadies me a little. Not completely. But enough to breathe again.
Madame Loretto bursts into the dressing room like a windstorm in silk and perfume.
“Chérie, why are you not warming up? Why are you sitting like it is a funeral?”
I blink. “I was-”
“No.” She waves a hand, flutters to my side, and begins fixing the placement of my hair like it personally offends her. “You are ready. You are brilliant. So
why are you acting like you will be executed and not applauded?”
I let out something between a laugh and a wheeze. “I’m just scared it’s not going to feel like enough.”
She stops.
Looks at me in the mirror.
“You know what is worse than failure?” she says quietly. “Never risking the moment. Never standing in the light.”
Her fingers tap the embroidery on my sleeve she knows it’s there. Of course she does. “And if he believes in you… then you are foolish not to believe in
yourself”
“I’m not scared of the dancing,” I admit. “I’m scared that this is all I ever wanted. And what if it’s not what I thought it would be?”
She studies me for a beat. Then: “Then we find the next dream. But not before this one.”
Lue shows up at the door exactly ten minutes later, hair slicked back, posture perfect. He leans in the doorway like he owns the building.
“Are you breathing or do I need to slap you?”
Chapter 313
“I’m breathing.”
He tosses me a water bottle. “Drink.”
“I already”
“I’m not your boyfriend, Penny. I don’t have to be nice to you,”
I smirk. “Remind me why we’re partners again?”
“Because I’m the only one who can lift your stubborn ass without tearing something.”
He offers me his hand. I take it.
Together, we walk through the corridor that leads backstage. The floors smell like wax and floor cleaner. The lighting grows dimmer, shadows stretching like long fingers around the corners.
My chest tightens again.
Luc notices. “Don’t think. Just do.”
“I haven’t stopped thinking since I woke up.”
“That’s the problem.”
Backstage is colder than I remember.
Twenty people moving at once stagehands adjusting props, lighting techs whispering into headsets, dancers stretching in shadows. The buzz of
s my ears ring.
hen I see it
This is it.
–
the edge of the stage.
wings. Just past the velvet curtains.
skips.
Asher’s voice lives in my head now, calm and deep and so certain.
You’ve already won, baby. You don’t have to prove anything tonight. Just dance.
He fed me this morning, like I was fragile and precious. Made me toast and eggs and fruit like I was about to take the bar exam, not step into the biggest performance of my life.
He kissed my wrist.
He held me when I couldn’t stop shaking.
He helped me zip up my warmup jacket and told me, without even blinking, that he’d be front row.
dd trid one to breath
And whisper to sell tips hereby moving
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Aardvark Donnenhoffer
Every butterfly must leave its cocoon.
Tdays ago
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Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
