Page 97 of Wristlocked
Gale grunts, and I nip his hip, but Lyot laughs, shaking his head.
“Do you guys remember Regina Blake?” he asks. “We met her when we did Circolo outside Amsterdam.”
I shrug. I’m terrible with names and people, especially at festivals when it’s all a whirlwind of faces—techies and support staff and new performers at every location.
“She ran that circus school. The one in Tilburg with the students who performed on B stage,” Gale mumbles withoutopening his eyes. He remembers everyone. It’s a holdover from his years with Celeste, clawing for every connection and advantage.
“Yeah,” Lyot says. “The Netherlands Circus Conservatory.” He takes a breath. “I’ve kept in touch with her on Instagram, and she reached out a couple of weeks ago about needing a straps coach next year. I guess her current one is having a kid and taking family leave.”
“And she wants you to work for her?” I ask, sitting up. We all know coaching is probably the eventual future for us, but I always imagined it years away, once our bodies were too run-down to keep up with the demands of maintaining show shape. I glance at Gale, a little guilty at the thought. Lyot follows my gaze.
“Actually, she wants Gale.”
Gale’s eyes fly open, then narrow. He slides his head down Lyot’s chest so he can look up at him.
“I don’t need you begging pity jobs for me,” he grumbles. I smack him lightly on the hip, and Lyot shakes his head.
“It wasn’t like that. Yes, she heard about your injury, but she was excited about poaching a Cirque cast member ‘in his prime’—those were her exact words. I think she likes the idea that you can share the realities of the job with her students, along with your straps knowledge. You know it’s every high-level circus kid’s not-so-secret dream. Regina’s school is a mix of traditional circus lineage and modern performance art. She’s trying to show the next generation that there are other options besides grinding themselves down on the Cirque du Soleil circuit.” He fists his hand in Gale’s hair and gives it a slight shake. “She also knows you were a driving force behind our trio technique. She wantsyou.”
I watch them stare at each other, ebony and gold, my heart spilling over.
“What about you guys?” Gale asks, something vulnerable creeping into his voice and catching. He clears his throat. “You’ll come visit every couple of weeks when you get a few days off between cities?”
Lyot and I exchange a look.
“We’re not going back on tour,” I confess.
“You still have six months left on the new contract. They only let me out because of the injury clause.”
“I cleared it with Dasher and HQ before I left Budapest,” Lyot tells him. “It’s already done.”
Gale turns his head to pin me with a glare.
“You didn’t tell me any of this.”
I roll my eyes at him. “You were already being such a grouchy martyr. I didn’t want to encourage you.” I glance at Lyot. “And I didn’t know about the coaching job.”
“I wanted to ask Gale first. And I figured it would be better to do it after the surgery when he wasn’t convinced the world was about to end.”
“Fuck the both of you,” Gale rasps. “I haven’t been that bad.”
We both look at him.
“Okay, I’ve beenslightlymore than my usual asshole.”
“A whiny baby,” I mutter, half under my breath. Lyot snorts and Gale rolls his eyes, throwing his good hand up in the air.
“Yes. Fine. Whatever.” He falls silent, his eyes darting between Lyot and me.
“Was that supposed to be an apology?” I ask Lyot. He grins.
“Do you want the job?” he asks instead of replying, threading his fingers back into Gale’s hair. “I should give Regina an answer if you’re interested so she can send you the officialoffer.”
“I’m still wondering where you two fit into this plan. You’re both hot shit right now. You’d be idiots to wait around for me for a whole year.”
“Who said anything about waiting around?” I tease, leaning over to plant a kiss on his mouth. “We can throw workshops, get a local gig, or do some more festivals and still all live together. This isn’t the end of the world, and chances are, it won’t be the last time one of us has to take time off for an injury. That’s part of the life. Both my parents went through it more than once and still performed professionally until they were in their late forties.”
“I’m going to be the annoyingly perfect boyfriend who shows up to take you to lunch and makes all the other boyfriends look bad,” Lyot adds. “And Gia will sneak in to watch your classes and intimidate all your students on the off chance she gets to see you yell at one of them. And then she’ll drag you into your office for dirty workplace sex.”
