Page 17 of If Ever

I look at her reflection in the mirror. "You're the best." She swishes away my makeup cape and I'm off.

My downtime is spent in my trailer reading a new book and trying not to think of going home now that I'm I finally having fun. I'm so distracted that I'm startled when there's a knock on my dressing room door, a first.

"Chelsea, you in there?" Dominic calls.

"Come on in." I check the clock. Shit. I'm late.

Dominic pops his head in. "You coming? Cause I really don't want to walk out on the dance floor by myself."

"Sorry, I lost track of time." I glance in the mirror on my way out. Reading doesn't seem to have undone Mary Kay's work. I hustle alongside Dominic in my toe pinching heels, back to the studio.

"I had no idea they stuck you back here. Let me talk to someone and get you a closer trailer," he says.

"It's fine. I may not need it much longer."

"Yeah, while our scores were decent this time, we're still going to be in the bottom three." He grimaces.

"I know. It's a bummer when we were finally starting to have fun."

We bust through the studio doors and run to our spots for the intro. The results show flies by as Molly and Pavel perform the Encore Dance. Each week the judges select the best dance of the night for a redo. Next, there's a visiting troupe of dancers from Boston, and in between every big number Marcus lets more teams know if they're safe or in danger. As predicted, Dominic and I are in the bottom three.

When we get to those final minutes, and it's down to just us and body builder Dalton and his partner Natalie under the spotlight, I whisper to Dominic, "Sorry, I couldn't do better."

His arm is around my waist and he gives me a little squeeze. "Stop that. We're in this together." The countdown music plays. "Now smile and pretend you don't care."

And so I do, which seems like the main lesson I've learned here in Hollywood. Smile and never let anyone know how you really feel.

Marcus announces, "And the couple going home tonight is..."

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