“What was the best thing about living where you lived?”
“The ocean,” Victor said immediately. “I could never live far from the ocean.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Andy leaned forward, stretching. Trying to remember if they had any unbreakable things that day.
Victor must have read his mind. “We don’t have anything scheduled.
Want to take a vacation day? Go to the beach?” Andy turned his head and smiled. They were still sitting there, because there was no hurry, when Victor noticed activity in the yard. “Well, I’ll be damned,” he said softly.
“What?” Andy turned to look. “Oh, Loretta, you naughty girl.” It was Jim, going out through the back gate. “Do you think he made her wait all this time, or is this just the first time he’s stayed over?”
“Maybe the first time he’s stayed over and we were out here to see him go.” They both giggled, delighted. “Let’s go downstairs and give her some shit.”
Loretta was, of course, in the audience when Andy and Victor performed
‘Love is Blindness’ at Chrome. She was there both nights: on the first night, sitting at a lounge table in the second row with some of their neighbors; on the second, sitting alone at the bar. Chrome’s manager Terry swung by to help her maintain a buffer zone. The club was packed to capacity, with a standing-room-only crowd in the downstairs lounge. The word about the celebrity performers had gotten out quickly. Victor waved to Loretta as they took their bows. “It was nice of her to come again tonight,” he said, giving Andy a sidelong glance.
“Oh, yes, very nice. Has nothing to do with the fact that Jim is here and that he’s staying for the after-party.” Andy was grinning. “Let’s get off stage.” They went off, the curtain went down, and they fetched up beside Rory at the panel.
She was speaking through the panel mic, inviting the rest of the second-act cast to the stage for the curtain call. People trooped past them, going out through the curtain for another bow. Eventually they all came back across the stage, returning to the green room to change clothes or otherwise get refreshed. “Okay. Half an hour to party time. Can’t wait to see the video,”
Rory said. “That’s the only sucky part of running the show, all I’ve got is this little monitor. How’d it feel?”
“Felt great.” Andy had his arm around Victor. “This guy is fun to dance with.”
“It is a much less terrifying routine than Ricky and Anya’s apache was.
What gave you the idea for that flying thing?”
“The Swan Dive,” Victor said. “I figured if Zach could get him in the air, so could I.”
Andy squeezed him. “Felt challenged.”
“Inspired by slinging Loretta around.” Victor was smiling. He was deeply satisfied with what they’d done.
“Bet you never thought you could do that a year after getting shredded,”
Rory said. “When are you going to get some new ink?”
“When I make up my mind what I want.” Victor turned to Andy. “Let’s go get into some fresh shirts so we can go out there and dance some more.”
Andy kissed him. “Okay. See you later, kitten face.”
“Dinner, our place, soon.” Rory started shutting down the panel.
When they went out into the house, they found Loretta still at the bar, talking animatedly with Cabaret regulars Mike and Paula Borodin. “I loved your piece so, so much. How did you find that music? Nobody else used music like that!”
“Nobody ever has,” Paula said. “We heard it on this classical channel on Sirius one time when we were on a long drive. I was like wait a minute, that’s
‘Buttons and Bows,’ which is a song I hate. One of those super-sexist standards,” she told Loretta, who clearly didn’t recognize the title. “Totally infantilizes women. Anyway I scribbled down the name of it and we looked it up.”
“Because the second she started glaring at the display I thought, uh-oh,”
Mike said, smiling. “It’s by a composer with our same last name. We meant to do it last year, but then I had that stress fracture.”
“No one would know,” Loretta said. “How you can dance! You’re both wonderful! Victor,” she said fondly. “You and Andy, oh my God, I could watch you all day.”
“Well, you can’t,” Andy said, “because we’re going to dance with you.
Where’s Jim?”
“He’s packing up. No, here he is.”
“Hi guys,” Jim said. “Hi Mike, hi Paula. Another great performance.
When are you going to kiss that law firm goodbye and go pro?”
“Probably never,” Paula said. “We’ve got a groove. Where does a going-on-forty-year-old get to do work like this?” They were all aware of the shoveling-out procedure, Chrome staffers gently (or not-so-gently) steering general-admission customers up and out of the downstairs lounge. Only those with the gold wristbands would be staying for the after-party.
“No one would know,” Loretta said again. “You are beautiful on stage, los dos. I have such an envy.”
“You’re getting there,” Victor said. “I’ll take you for a spin as soon as they get the riffraff out.” Andy and Paula laughed.
Jim said, “Guess I’ll have to wait my turn. She’ll get a better dance from you anyway.”
“You need more practice, that’s all,” Andy said. “Dance with me. Oh, don’t give me that look. I never made a pass at you.”
“You totally did!” Jim was laughing.
“Okay once, the first time we met. Nothing ventured. He had all his hair then,” Andy told Loretta, who snorted and covered her mouth for a second.
Victor and Mike made eye contact and both tried very hard not to laugh.
Paula wasn’t even trying.
Jim had a ‘no you didn’t’ face on. “Jesus, Andy!”
Loretta bit her lip and said, “Tu cabello está bien.”
“My hair is on its way to hair heaven.” Jim didn’t look too troubled about it, possibly because he was standing very close to Loretta and she had her fingers tucked into the waistband of his pants.
“Listen, we have music. Let’s go.” Victor gave Loretta a hand down from her barstool and led her across the room, heading for the stage steps.
The
