Helena laughed. “Sure hope itdoes. Maybe I should try to find a man before I leave my thirties, though.Either of you girls got any nice friends?”
“Arizona had a boy over onThursday,” Ivy said. “What happened to him, anyway?”
“You can have him,” I said,holding my first lash in place with a pair of tweezers. “Selfish little prick.I had to finish myself off after he was done and he looked at me like that wassomehowmyfault.”
Helena snorted. “We havegotto introduce youto a better class of man, sweetie.”
A knock on the door stoppedme from responding.
“There are a dozen red, redroses here for a certain Miss Arizona Tease,” Amanda said, holding out a prettygold box filled to bursting with perfect, deep red rose buds.
“Me?” I asked, staring atthe crimson petals. My legs moved without any input from my brain, crossing tothe dressing room door with only one eyelash glued in place, the other oneforgotten on the table.
Who the hell was sending meroses? There was no one in my life who’d…
My stomach flipped as I readthe card.
Fuck.
Fuck.
“I can’t…”
“Whoa.” Ivy grabbed me bythe arm. “You just went white as a sheet,” she said, pulling a chair over andeasing me onto it.
The card was still claspedtight in my hand. Helena pried it out of my fingers while Ivy fussed around me,holding my wrist to take my pulse.
“I’m gonna throw up,” Isaid, my voice distant even to my own ears, like someone else was speaking.
I didn’t want to behere. I wanted to be anywherebuthere.
Amanda put a wastepaperbasket between my feet. Ivy curled a hand around my shoulder, dipping down torub my back as I bent over, my stomach knotting up.
“Roses are red, violetsare—oh, shit,” Helena read from the card. My stomach clenched, and for a momentI thought I reallywasgoing to throw up. The feeling passed aftera moment, Ivy’shand on my back rubbing soothing circles.
Grounding me.
Ivy was my best friend inand out of drag, and I was glad to have that support right now. I needed it.
“Roses are red,” Iremembered. “Violets are blue.”
The thought of the secondpart made my throat tighten.
“Once you’re out of thatdress,” I forced out, jaw tensing. “I’ll be seeing you.”
Fuck, it was almostromantic.Without context, it would have been. A little wink after it would have turnedit into something sweet and teasing.
Whoever had filled the orderat the florist probably thought itwas.
But everyone in the roomknew what this meant. They’d been through this with me before.
“He’s back,” Amanda said. “Sonof a bitch. Ashley, are you okay?” Amanda knelt down in front of me. She wasimpossibly patient when she needed to be.
Right now, I needed her tobe.
“I can’t go out there.” Ibit my lip, glancing at Amanda. Cutting my part of the show wouldn’t be easy,and I knew people came out to see me perform. Crazy as that was.
But I couldn’t do it. What ifhe was in the audience? What if he was watching?
