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Wes
*Standing Ovation*
The last time I was sitting in the audience of this theater waiting to see Lily Barnes on stage, I was home from college, and she was a high school senior. She was the most beautiful and infuriating girl I had ever known, the one I most wanted to get my hands on, and she was slipping through my fingers. But I always knew she’d be back.
She played Audrey inLittle Shop of Horrors. She was cute and sexy and sweet and vulnerable, with her nasal baby-doll voice and New York accent. She wore a tight, low-cut black dress with spiked heels, and I spent most of the show fantasizing about going backstage to nail her between costume changes. Watching her every movement, hearing every word out of her mouth was just as thrilling as it was offstage, times infinity. I was proud of her, even though I could never tell her that. I never went backstage. I gave Vicky the flowers to give to her. No one had any idea how I felt about her then, but tonight, I’m sitting here with seven other people who know exactly how much I love that woman.
Let’s get one thing straight—Lily is no princess. She’s the queen of the fucking fairies. The veteran local actress who was supposed to play Titania hurt her ankle, so now Lily has stepped into that role. I’m so nervous for her. Not because I’m worried about her performance—she’ll kill it—because there’s still an empty seat next to me. She really wants Jasper to be here, and there’s five minutes to curtain.
My dad, Vicky, Neal, Alecia, Charlotte, Spencer, and Kate are all here in this row with me.
“Uncle Weth?” Charlotte says as she stands up on the seat next to me. “Are you exthited to see Lily B-fathe?”
“Yeah, I am. Are you?”
“I’m so exthited I could fucking pee mythelf!”
“Hey…” I lean forward to say to Alecia. “She said ‘so.’” I hold up my hand to high-five Charlotte. “Good for you, Char.”
“Yeah, we’ve been working on it,” Alecia says. “We’re very proud. I have no idea where she learned to say that, but it’s going in my book.”
She claims she has started making notes for a romance novel about Lily and me and expects to have it completed in about forty-five years. I can’t even imagine where our story will take us between now and then. It may not be a fairy tale ending exactly, but there are fairies.
Literally. There are little kids in fairy costumes scampering down the aisle to the stage, to the delight of the audience, so I guess the play is about to start. I look back at the door to the lobby and see Jasper standing there, clutching the program in one hand and a bouquet of lilies in the other, unsure if he should join us. I give him a little wave. He nods, acknowledging me. When he finally decides to come down and take a seat, he walks in like he owns the place, and in a way, he does. His mother paid for it, and the Barnes Group built it. And yet, as far as I know, this is the first time he’s graced the Saint Mary’s School theater with his presence.
He nods at various members of the community he knows. He’s probably surprised by just how many people have shown up for this. When he sees Mrs. Naylor’s husband in the audience, I watch as the realization hits him that the wife of one of our clients hired his daughter for this job, or maybe he’s just remembering it now. Whatever he’s thinking, he doesn’t seem to regret being here.
“Hello, all,” he says as he stands at the end of the row.
I introduce him to Neal’s family, and he leans over me to give Kate a kiss on the cheek and congratulate her on having the baby. He pats me on the shoulder and then takes the empty seat next to me. The scent of the flowers in his lap is almost overwhelming. I’m so fucking happy for Lily, it’s stupid.
When the lights dim, I hear Jay Barnes exhale slowly and realize he’s nervous. I wonder if he’s worried that his daughter will screw up or have no talent and embarrass him in front of current and potential clients. He needn’t worry. But it’s kind of endearing to see him fiddling with his wedding ring.
Mrs. Naylor has always gone all out with the sets and costumes for her productions. A lot of her students go on to work at the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, and she has mentioned to Lily that one of her former students is directing a play there in the fall that she thinks Lily would be perfect for. I have no doubt that Lily will land any part she auditions for, and I would cast her in literally anything, but even I am unprepared for just how stunning she is as Titania. She makes her entrance by being lowered onto the stage on a cord, followed by a few other fairy minions. She wears a long, white-blonde wig that shimmers in the blue light, and her glittery, flowy green-and-pink dress makes all the girls and women in the audience gasp because it’s so pretty.
She is supernaturally gorgeous, and from the corner of my eye, I can see that Jasper is also a little stunned by the sight of her, but once she starts speaking—in clear and perfect Shakespearean English that I still barely understand even though I’ve been running lines with her for over a month—he sits up so straight, like he is in awe. I wish I could film him with my camera so Lily can see that her father is proud of her, because I doubt that he’ll be able to tell her in words later. Just knowing that he showed up at all, I think, will be enough for her.
When the play is over, the cast comes back onstage to a standing ovation, but once Lily walks out, there’s an audible increase in applause and hoots and hollers. She stares out at the crowd with the smile and grace of a true queen, but when she looks down at our row and sees all of us here—including her dad—those shiny eyes are about as happy as I’ve ever seen them.
She’s a fucking star, and she’s mine, but I’ll share her with the world like this if that’s what she wants.
We’ve all congratulated Lily backstage, and Jasper has presented her with flowers, and Lily has given him a hug that threatened to destroy him. I didn’t even have to ask her how much it meant to her to hear him tell her that she was “very good” and that he “enjoyed the play very much.” He may not have been able to say the words “I’m proud of you,” but it was still the emotional equivalent of winning a Tony award for her. What’s really surprising is how much it meant to me.
Now everyone else has gone home and I am still here waiting for Lily to return from her dressing room and a quick meeting with the cast and crew. I wander around in the dimly lit seemingly endless black-painted area, looking up at the catwalks, the props and garment racks of costumes, the movable set pieces. I stroll on back farther to where they must store the big set pieces they reuse, because I see the huge green Venus Flytrap puppet fromLittle Shop of Horrors.It’s kind of sad, seeing it all lifeless and bundled up in a pile.
“Say, whaddya think yer doin’ back here, mister?” The nasal voice is high-pitched baby doll with a New York accent. I turn around to find Lily in a tight, low-cut, short black dress and spikey heels, the costume she wore in her senior year production. She twirls her hair around one finger, one hand on her hip, and I can see by the look in those devious brown eyes that she and I had the same fantasy and we’re about to act it out right here, right now.
I reach out for her arm and pull her to me. She starts to squeal, but I cover her mouth with mine and squeeze that perfect ass that still fits into the same size dress as when she was a teenager. She lets out a moan, bites my lower lip, and pulls me into a dark corner. I’ve got this beautiful, infuriating girl up against a wall, and I’m yanking her dress up to her hips as she unzips my pants. “Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to do this, you sexy queen?”
“As long as I’ve wanted it. But we have to be oh so quiet,” she whispers into my ear in that hot baby doll voice, “and oh so quick.” She unbuttons my pants and lets them drop to my ankles. “And very, very naughty.”
“I fucking love the theater,” I mutter as I crush my lips against hers and push her panties down.
“I fucking love you,” she sighs as she takes hold of me, slowly moving her hand up and down my very hard length.
“God, you make me crazy in all the best ways.” I dip down to kiss the exposed flesh of her pushed-up tits, delirious and ravenous, and this—thisis the first love we deserve right here. Reckless, stand-up fucking in the back of a high school theater with no condom because she’s on the pill now—this is the first love and the last love and all the love and sex I could ever want in life. This girl is my one and everything, all the girls and women I could ever love in one unbelievable body.
I groan a little too loudly because this feel of the slick warm inside of her is still new and devastating and life-giving, and “I love you” is the only line I have to remember, and I say it again and again and again, until the show is over and there is nothing left but breaths and heartbeats and the familiar gorgeous satisfaction that I have only ever felt for Lily Barnes.
