Page 67 of Flirty Dancing

“Get Stewart out of here,” Mateo murmured into Archer’s ear as the greenroom emptied. “I don’t want him to see the mess backstage.”

Archer paused. “You want him seeing what the audience sees, then?”

Mateo rubbed his forehead. “Fuck. Which is worse?”

Archer blew out a breath. “God. I don’t know.”

“Put him in the audience, I guess. I’m not sure what I’ll do when they roll in, and I don’t want Stewart to see that.”

“Something might have gone wrong, you know. They could be hurt,” Archer protested.

Mateo gave him a sardonic look. “Caleb’s fine.”

Archer bit his lip, then turned on a smile for Stewart. “Stewart! There’s a special seat out there for you. You don’t want to miss this show.”

15Leave Your Shit at the Door

“Welcome to Shady Queens!” Francisco’s voice boomed. “We hope your passports are up-to-date, because tonight, we take you around the world! Our first stop is the land of snow and Tim Hortons, poutine and Celine Dion, cowboys and Shania Twain—our friendly neighbors to the north. Welcome to Canada!” “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” began blasting. It was time to line dance. Archer straightened his bandana, and off they went.

The first song went… okay. A few awkward gaps in the lines, though he doubted anyone in the audience could tell. Beau and Seta’s two-step was bumpy in places, but hopefully there were enough twirling, bedazzled dancers all around that no one noticed.

The Ukrainian dancing went smoothly; they only had to space out more in their circles where Ben and Caleb would have been, and those two weren’t in the cancan at all, so that went according to plan.

Capoeira was tricky—Archer was used to facing off against Caleb, but instead it was Dominik, and they weren’tquite in sync. The number was fast-paced, with dancers darting off and onto the stage, and when Archer spun into the wings, he found himself face-to-face with the missing hikers.

“Oh my God, you’re alright!” He grabbed Caleb for a hug.

Caleb hugged tightly back. He smelled like dust and sweat. “I’m so sorry. We went too far and got a little lost.”

“But you’re okay?” Archer pulled back to examine him.

“I’m okay… or rather, I will be until Mateo kills me. How mad is he?”

“You asshole!” Mateo growled as he leaped offstage.

“Pretty mad,” Archer said.

“I swear to God, Caleb,” Mateo spat, “you’d better have been fucking kidnapped—”

“We got lost, Mateo. I’m really sorry—”

“Ben!” Beau twirled up. “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? What happened?”

“We got a bit turned around—” Ben began.

“Ah. You’ve been ‘lost’ in the woods with Caleb all day, then? How nice for you!”

Ben’s eyes widened. “What?”

Archer heard his cue so he danced back out, smiling, the sounds of the argument swallowed by the music.

At the end of the capoeira routine, there was a belly dancing number that only Seta, Grace, Iris, and Nijah performed. Archer hustled to the greenroom. Caleb and Ben were changing into their jive costumes.

“… unbelievably thoughtless,” Mateo was ranting, face red. “You said I could be pissed if you missed the show, and guess what? I’m pissed! I asked one thing of you—one fucking thing—and you fucked it up. You had to go traipsing off into the woods like a pair of selfish—”

“Mateo,” Archer interrupted. “It was just a mistake.”

“I know it was a mistake, Archer!” Mateo cried, rounding on him. “I’m sick of mistakes! Am I the only one who cares?”

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