the pain that I feel, and I’m sick and tired of Ace Johnson—White—whoever and the hell he is playing with my emotions. I’ve waited long enough. It’s time I track him down and demand some answers.
My chest rises and falls at such an accelerated speed that I’m going to hyperventilate if I can’t calm down. I wish he was here. I need to yell at him—scream at the top of my lungs to get out weeks of pure frustration.
“Damn,” Jacob teases. “I’ve never seen anyone develop a pure expression of dismay over getting flowers. Usually they conjure the opposite emotion.”
I throw the card back in the box and shake my head. “I know . . . it’s just these flowers . . . well, the sender, rather, confuses the shit out of me. He hasn’t spoken to me in so long . . . I don’t understand why he keeps playing with me like this. I don’t like being strung along.”
He nods. “Men are dumbasses sometimes. Take it from me. I am one. But I’m sure, whoever he is, that he’ll get his head out of his ass. He’d be stupid to lose you. Hell, if I was a straight man, I would steal you away myself.”
I shake my head and laugh. “You are too much, but thank you.”
Jacob wraps one hand around my shoulders and pulls me into a friendly hug. “You’re welcome, gorgeous. Try not to be so down. You did amazing out there. Don’t let an asshole keep you from enjoying yourself tonight.”
After Jacob leaves me alone at my dressing table, I find myself just staring at the box of roses, wondering about Ace. While I’m still angry with him, I still want him. I just don’t understand why he hasn’t called me. There are so many things that could be worked out between us if he would only give me a chance to explain about what he saw with Shane.
My shoulders slump, and the fire I felt when I first received the flowers morphs into the typical sadness that fills me whenever I allow myself to think about how much I miss Ace.
Everyone for the past few weeks has encouraged me to move on when he didn’t immediately contact me after singing that song on Celebrity Pop Buzz Nightly. I thought for sure he’d want to make up with me after that, but I heard nothing, and that hurt the worst. It made me feel like I meant nothing at all to him. So my friends are all probably right. I need to stop holding on to hope that Ace and I will ever get back together.
My cell buzzes inside my purse with an incoming call. I grab my bag from under the dressing table and fish out my phone before I answer, “What’s up, Birdie?”
“Hey!” she yells into the phone while a crowd mumbles around her. “We’re all out in front of the theater. How much longer will you be? We’re waiting to celebrate with you.”
I glance up at my reflection in the mirror and sigh. “I still have my costume on and all the stage makeup, so it’ll take me some time to get all that off. There’s a little bar and grill a couple blocks away called Sunny’s Place. If you all want to wait on me there, I’ll be down as soon as I get all this crap off.”
“Okay,” she answers. “I’ll see you in a bit.”
I tell my best friend good-bye and then toss my phone back into my purse before I turn my attention to the mirror and begin removing the fifty million pins from my hair.
Stagehands rush back and forth all around me, collecting and organizing all the props for tomorrow’s show. There’s a buzz of excitement in the air, and we all know that we’re a part of something special. Everywhere I look, there are smiles, including on the face of our director, Mark. It takes a lot to impress him, so it’s a great feeling knowing that our production has pleased him.
Mark has been on Broadway for a long time. His graying hair and stoic features give off the appearance of experience. I’ve learned so much from him over the last few weeks, and I’m so grateful that he took a chance on casting an unknown like me.
When he notices me watching him in the mirror, Mark makes his way over to me with his assistant, Shelia, in tow. Over the last few weeks of rehearsal, things