Page 90 of All the Promises We Break

I walk forward a couple rows and stop just before my shadow is no longer. I grip the top of the chair in front of me so hard it cracks as Elise’s voice confirms my suspicions. “Yes, Dylan. Thank you. We will discuss you now.”

“Excuse me,” Dylan responds, “I know it’s unusual, but I’d like to say something before you deliberate.”

A male voice echoes over Elise’s quick breath of protest. “It is but go ahead.”

“Thank you so much. When I said thank you a moment ago, it was meant to thank you for the opportunity to dance, thank you for watching, and thank you for thinking I’m worthy of joining the company.”

Dylan takes a couple steps forward, folds her hands in front of her, and continues, “There won’t be a need for you to deliberate. I won’t be submitting to join your company.” What? What did she say? I take that leap into the light. “Being in this company was all I ever dreamed about for my life as a dancer. I couldn’tsee myself doing anything else or being anywhere else. That was because I thought it was the ultimate.

“It may be the ultimate for a dancer who isn’t wanting to serve the community, touch lives with dance in every way, have a family, and a husband who would risk everything for me to have my dream. I have all those things at my feet right now, and that’s what I’m going to focus on.

“I have a very generous offer from another artistic director, who’s giving me the opportunity to have it all. That’s what I want. I didn’t think I could have it all until someone showed me how. My husband is waiting outside in the foyer for me. If my dream isn’t big enough to include him, then I don’t want it. I needed today to happen for me. I know I’m good enough. Now, I can go be great.”

Again, flashbacks to the first time I saw her under the lights play inside my head. Dylan runs off the stage. Instead of going into the wings, she turns her head and gives me a smile. I run out of the row to the bottom of the stage-side staircase, holding my arms open to her. Like a bird, she takes flight right into my waiting arms. We press our foreheads together and spin our way back up the aisle.

“What did you just do?” I ask her.

“What my heart told me to do. Are you angry I kept this to myself?”

“Angry? God no. Your dream is to do whatever’s in your heart. My job is to help you get there.”

“I did when we got married. Take me home?”

“With pleasure.”

The next time I hear the double click on the door is when Dylan and I leave the auditorium together. I cradle the back of her head and the small of her back all the way to where her bag is waiting for her.

“Do you have everything, Viper?”

“I think so.” She pulls her phone out from inside her bag. “Ummm, Eli. I have a text from Hayley. It says come to Wes’s… 9-1-1.”

I switched my phone to silent once we were here. Fuck. I pull it from my inside coat pocket to look. “I have four that are variations of the same thing. Let’s go.”

I take her hand as we run for the street, hailing a cab while Dylan texts a response that we’re on our way. What fresh hell waits for us now?

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Hayley

I manage to get Wes to finally take the drink of whiskey I poured for him. He hasn’t spoken in about fifteen minutes. I’m usually the one who shuts down. He’s the one who never lets me get away with it. I don’t know what to do when he’s like this.

When he told me about Michael, he showed his emotions. He cried, talked, and let me hold him. He said I love you. I try to put my hand even on his back and he pulls away. I get within a certain distance and he moves. It’s like magnets in the worst way.

When I get the text from Dylan, I want to cry. My tears would be rooted in both relief and fear. Relief because I know I’ll have help, but fear that we may be headed for another battle. I can’t handle that right now and I know Wes can’t.

He’s been the same but so different. His smile was wider, his laugh was fuller, our time together has been just more period. I can’t lose that. This one potential revelation might change everything.

I try one more time to comfort Wes in any way he’ll let me. In comforting him, I can comfort myself. My hands slide over his shoulders and my arms encircle his neck. I rest my cheek against his ear and wait for the inevitable brush-off.

It doesn’t happen this time. Wes leans forward and he grabs on to my arms like a life preserver. He even pulls one of my arms free enough to touch my skin with his lips. Just when I think I’m helping; he pulls his lips away and pats my arms before breaking free. He leaves me standing behind his empty chair to stand on his balcony alone.

Wes’s door opens from the hall. I turn to the entryway and my hope is standing in it. Eli followed by Dylan. Before Eli can even say hello, I wrap my arms around him and cry softly against his chest.

“Whoa. Hey. Shhh.” His arms tighten around me. “What’s wrong? Where is he?”

“Eli,” Dylan calls his name, “look out there.” I can feel Eli’s head go from looking down at me to behind me.

“Kiddo, who needs me more, you or him?”

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