บท 147: Doing well

THE SHOW WASN'T GOING GREAT, and she was well aware of it. She just hoped the audience wasn't as aware as she was. And it wasn't entirely because of the upsetting news she'd heard that morning. No, that was only part of it; the rest was the man who sat motionless at the back of the crowded room, every table in the lounge empty except the one he sat at, the three other chairs around the table conspicuously empty.

She hadn't noticed him at first, having entered the stage wearing the glittering gold gown that made her hair look like flame as it swung straight down her back, and had already gone through the first two bouncy numbers before the steady consistency of that green gaze prickled an awareness down her spine, until she began to search for the only man who had ever physically managed to reach out and touch her across a room.