Page 26 of Master of My Heart

Liz winked at her, but didn’t say anything else.

When he likes a girl?

Sabrina watched Jayson walking in front of her. He had a dancer’s grace, his head held high and shoulders back, but still managed to be masculine at the same time. She briefly wondered if he was gay, as many male dancers were, but she was almost certain he wasn’t. Besides, Liz said he liked girls.

She and Liz followed him downstairs, but at the bottom step, she balked.

Jayson turned around and smiled when he saw her frozen in place. “C’mon,” he said, grabbing Sabrina’s hand to pull her forward. “Go look.”

She swallowed as she looked at the crowd gathering in front of the huge bulletin board on the wall. Liz’s and Jayson’s expressions were encouraging, but Sabrina was still nervous. She knew she was a decent dancer, but was she good enough to join an East Coast dance company? Especially after all that happened the last several years?

In the crowd, Sabrina heard sobs of misery mixed with shrieks of joy as she let Jayson move her forward. Her heart pounded in her ears. She paused and rubbed her clammy hands on her tights, torn between wanting to have made callbacks and not wanting to have made callbacks. She felt a small push to her lower back. Her feet obeyed, while her upper body resisted and leaned backward. The pressure continued until she stood in front of the board. She slowly looked up at the piece of white paper with numbers handwritten on it.

Her gaze slid from the top to the bottom and...

I have a callback? Sabrina clapped her hand over her mouth as she stood there in shock. She had a callback! They wanted to see her dance again!

“Told ya.” Jayson leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face, though his eyes were crinkled at the corners.

Sabrina blushed and looked away. Number 43 stood in front of her, mouth screwed into a sneer as she looked between Jayson and her. Then she rolled her eyes and stomped away. Sabrina glanced back at the board. 43 was on the list. Why was she upset?

Jayson walked over to Sabrina and put his arm around her shoulders, leading her away from the crowd and to the doorway where Liz waited, holding Sabrina’s bag and shoes. “I promised Martin we’d make sure you have two more meals today and a good night’s sleep. He wants to see what you can do when you’re not at a disadvantage.”

“I’ve slept,” Sabrina protested, stepping away from him and glancing at Liz.

Jayson looked down at her with an arched brow. “Have you? You have dark circles under your eyes. Honestly, Sabrina, you look like you’ve been through hell and back.”

“Jayson!” Liz exclaimed, punching him in the arm.

Sabrina chewed her lip. It wasn’t far from the truth.

He cupped her chin gently, making her look at him. “But you still made callbacks. That says a lot about your talent.”

Unless Martin is basing this on how I danced when I was here before. Maybe I’m not that good anymore and he just hopes I am.

“Do you like sandwiches?” Liz asked. “Salads? Steak?”

Sabrina shrugged. “Anything is fine.” She felt awkward with them wanting to feed and take care of her. But, then again, Martin seemed okay with it. She didn’t have any other options, unless she wanted to sleep in the train station again. That wasn’t an appealing thought.

Liz gave her a sympathetic smile and glanced at Jayson. “Let’s get Mario’s and head home. She looks exhausted.”

Now that the excitement of the audition started to settle down, exhaustion had begun to set in. Her body was starting to hurt, too. A few memories popped up of what she’d done on the train with Kelvin and his friends. She’d done a lot more before and felt better the next day. But she’d lost her healing abilities when she removed her Immortality.

How do humans stand being in pain for so long?

Suffering like this and not being at risk to hurt anyone was worth it, though. She had done horrible things when she was Immortal.

She quickly changed shoes and pulled on her street clothes, then the three of them walked outside. It had warmed up considerably since she arrived that morning, but the breeze still chilled her.

“Our apartment is just a few blocks away,” Liz explained as she walked next to Sabrina, Jayson behind them. “There’s a great deli on the way where we’ll grab lunch.”

After picking up their food, they walked a few more blocks to a red-brick apartment building.

“Are all the buildings here made of brick?” Sabrina asked as they walked up the stone steps.

Jayson and Liz laughed. “Not all of them,” Liz said. “But it is used a lot here.”

“It does make for a beautiful city,” Sabrina commented absently, looking up and down the tree-lined street.

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