chapter 33

The Mimosa Resortwas a jungle of palms, pools, and jasmine vines. Arabella said it was a monolith of capitalist excess. At that, Axel had thrown her over his shoulder and dunked her in the pool, both of them giggling.

Now the camera operators were packing up. Resort staff were passing around pool towels. It had been a lovely day except that Bryant had decided Velveteen Crush should frolic with the Liam Ronan Irish Dance Company. They were perfectly nice, but Izzy had spent the whole afternoon scanning the tropical paradise for Lillian. Presumably she was frolicking somewhere else. More likely she was standing on the sidelines watching her dancers with pride and love. Would she jump in the pool without prompting from the camera operators? Was drinking champagne from a Solo cup enough to show her that she could banter with Imani? That she could splash Malik? Or cannonball into the deep end? Izzy smiled at the thought of Lillian cannonballing. Lillian didn’t have to be the untouchable dance master, but those habits were hard to break. Izzy knew.

Last night had been… everything. It didn’t matter that Izzy had slept for only a few hours. The hours she’d spent in Lillian’s arms had healed something inside that she didn’t think could be fixed. She’d poured her heart out to Lillian, and Lillian hadn’t turned away. She’d come closer. She wasn’t annoyed by Izzy’s outpouring. She had driven two hours to hold Izzy. No performance, no applause, no crowd of fans, and certainly no hookup had ever felt as good as Lillian’s arms around her. She just had to break away from the show, find Lillian, and enjoy the two days they ostensibly had off before the next challenge.

Izzy dangled her feet in the water, so perfectly pool blue. The bird-of-paradise flowers on stalks nearby, so perfectly red and purple. Sarah snapped a towel at her, breaking her out of her reverie.

“We’re going back to the rooms,” Sarah said. “Coming?”

Lillian might be back too. Izzy scrambled up, tossing a towel over her shoulder. She’d be dry by the time she reached the resort buildings. Plus, she looked divine in an iridescent-green two-piece she’d sewn herself.

Back in her room, Izzy showered and changed. Sarah knocked on her door a few minutes later. Everyone was hanging out by the pool… well, another pool. Without cameras. Where they could frolic in whatever ways they did or did not want to frolic. There was only one person Izzy wanted to frolic with right now, but she didn’t know Lillian’s room number, and Lillian hadn’t returned her texts. That was just because the show had locked up Lillian’s phone. That was all. It wasn’t a rejection. And oddly, when Izzy told herself that… she believed it. Last night had been real.

Izzy followed Sarah down the hall and out to another tropical paradise lined with white sun umbrellas and stations serving pitchers of freshly squeezed juice and every kind of alcohol known to humankind. Her friends were already there. Tock on his laptop. Axel doing push-ups on the edge of the pool. Arabella back in a black gown, sunken deep into the pillows of a chaise longue, reading a book with a puddle of blood on the cover.

However, when Izzy and Sarah arrived, Tock shut his laptop. Axel stopped doing push-ups. Arabella closed her book and held up her phone.

“They started running the candids today.”

“TikTok. Insta. They still have Facebook,” Axel said.

They were all looking at Izzy. Sarah looked a little guilty.

“What?”

Sarah patted a lounge chair next to the one she’d plopped onto. Someone had designed the chair to ergonomically induce idleness. Izzy sank to the bottom of it like she’d fallen in a sinkhole.

“You two are adorable.” Tock said it like this was a legal fact.

“Aww, that’s cute,” Arabella said.

Axel looked at her with comically wide eyes.

“What? I can say it’s cute and still hate cuteness,” Arabella said.

“They’ve got a supercute picture of you and…” Sarah’s grin finished the sentence.

Izzy almost dropped her phone in her rush to check The Great American Talent Show feed. Apparently, the show had profiles on about a thousand social media sites she’d never heard of. She went for Instagram and scrolled down.

“Keep going,” Sarah said.

Then there it was. Izzy touching Lillian’s shoulder as she drew her toward herself, their cheeks almost touching as she whispered in Lillian’s ear. The photo made it look like they were holding hands, although Izzy remembered the moment and they hadn’t been. Below it a fan had posted SO CUTE!!!

“She’s going to kill me.” Izzy didn’t really feel it, but she still heard Lillian’s words: One viral video of Elijah twerking could ruin his career. “No one’s supposed to know.” This was the kind of thing Lillian had worked so hard to avoid. The spotlight focused on her but for the wrong reasons. “She’s a dancer. She’s not a… holy shit, someone made a GIF out of it.”

It was just a heart exploding around their faces, but it was a heart. A heart when they were keeping it professional. On the surface. Despite the fact that Velveteen Crush had clocked them immediately. And the Reed-Whitmer Ballet Company didn’t seem to be in the dark either.

“It’s one picture,” Sarah said. “Relax.”

“The show has a solid nondiscrimination policy,” Tock said. “There’s not going to be any problem with you two being gay. Or if she’s bi or pan. Bi and pan are specifically mentioned in the policy.”

“It’s the photo. I have to tell her.” Would Lillian’s mother see the photo and be mad? Give Lillian some lecture that made her feel even more driven toward perfection?

Arabella waved to someone coming down one of the orchid-lined paths.

“Hey, Kia. Over here.”

Kia strolled over. “My favorite burlesque troupe!”

When Kia got closer, Arabella held up her phone.

“Tell Blue not to freak out about this. She thinks Lillian will be pissed.”

“I saw that. Hella cute,” Kia said.

“Do you know where Lillian is?” Izzy asked.

“About that, want to have dinner with my family?” Kia said, the invitation clearly for Izzy only.

“Your family?”

Lillian’s family?

“Actually, it’s at my aunt and uncle’s house. Lillian’s folks.”

Lillian’s parents’ house?!

“Lil told you about the documentary, right? She’s doing the interview today. She’ll pretend she doesn’t care, but it’ll trigger her a bit.”

“Did Lillian invite me?”

Kia plucked a flower out of one of the nearby planters and tucked it behind her ear.

“She’ll be really glad you’re there.”