“Is it true, Alice?” Johnny asked. “Did you agree to sing with him?”
She licked her lips. “I–I…”
Ivan gave her a dark look. “Don’t make me tell.”
“Tell what?” Mandy asked, sitting up straighter.
Ivan waited with a brow raised in challenge. Everyone looked at her.
She swallowed. “I said I don’t want to, but I will.”
“Tell what?” Mandy repeated.
Ivan nodded with sardonic satisfaction and turned to Mandy. “Tell how much she really wants to do it.”
“Johnny!” Verlene banged her fist on the desk. “Why don’t you do something?”
Johnny scratched his head. “Well, I suppose it could work from a marketing point of view, but this should’ve gone through the board, and you certainly shouldn’t have done it behind Verlene’s back.” He gave Ivan a sour look. “Don’t ever again make public statements regarding the show or my theater without running it past me first.”
“You can’t be serious,” Verlene cried out.
Johnny sighed. “What choice do I have? Unless we want to look like a bunch of unprofessional clowns, Alice better pull her weight.” He focused on her, worry invading his expression. “Can you do it?”
“I–I don’t know.”
“She’s good.” Ivan smiled. “She’ll be wonderful.”
“I know Alice’s potential,” Johnny said.
Verlene stomped her foot. “You haven’t heard her sing.”
Johnny sighed again. “Here’s what we’ll do. We’ll let her sing in the special premiere, and if it doesn’t work, we cut her from the official run. Alice, make sure your press statement says it’s a special guest performance for one night only. Anything beyond that will be a bonus.”
Everyone started speaking at once. Verlene threatened to resign. Mandy shouted obscenities about losing her job. Tilly yelled at Johnny to calm everyone down, and Johnny screamed at Tilly to be quiet. The fighting was loud, but Alice was used to it. Ivan stepped aside, his hand cupped over his ear. His expression told her it was bad, this time. Before anyone could notice, she took his hand and led him from the room to the gym. Peering inside to ensure it was empty, she pushed him through the door.
When she touched his arm, he flinched, moving away from her with both hands covering his ears.
What she’d feared was true. “Ivan, we’re alone.” She did the only thing that had worked in the past. With gentle circular movements, she massaged his temples. Eventually, his tense shoulders relaxed, and he dropped his arms.
“It’s the voices, isn’t it?”
“Still the same shit.”
“Oh, Ivan.” She shook her head. “You should’ve told me.”
He pushed her hands away. “For what? So you can feel sorry for me?” He hung his head. “I didn’t mean to bark at you.”
“Have you ever sought help?”
“There’s no help for what I suffer from. It must make you happy to see me like this.” He sounded bitter. “It gives you another reason to believe I’m crazy and that we’re all the same.”
“It’s not the voices. It’s your behavior when you’re like this I don’t like.”
“I didn’t ask you to like me. Leave.” He turned his back on her. “I don’t need you, right now.”
His words hurt more than any lashing he could ever dish out. She left the room and leaned on the door, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes brimming with unshed tears. Memories of her mother’s crazy spells assaulted her, but she expelled the unwelcome images. Typical that she would fall in love with the most damaged guy in the world. She hugged herself, feeling colder than ever. Then, she lifted her chin and made her way back to the office. They had a premiere to organize in little less than two days.
“I’m not ready.” Alice faced Ivan and Verlene who stared at her with perplexed expressions from behind the piano in the rehearsal room. “I haven’t sung in seven years. My voice is out of practice.”
Ivan perched on the edge of the seat next to Verlene. “You have less than forty-eight hours to catch up. Better start.”
“Don’t,” Alice pleaded. “I don’t want to humiliate myself.”
“She’s right.” Verlene slapped her palms on her thighs. “She sounds like a cat with its tail caught in a mousetrap. She’ll never be ready.”
“I say she will.”
“There’s more on the line than me making a fool of myself. If we get bad reviews…” She couldn’t tell Ivan, or Verlene for that matter, they were in financial trouble.
“Again, from the top,” he said.
She took a deep breath when Verlene started playing and forced out the first notes of the aria.
The music stopped abruptly.
“No,” Verlene said. “You’re keeping it in. Let it go.”
The session dragged on for two hours before they broke for lunch. The minute Verlene was gone, Ivan turned to her.
He cupped her face. “You can do it.”
“Ivan, please.”
She tried to look away, but he held fast. He lowered his head slowly, his gaze fixed on her lips. Mesmerized by the hunger in his expression, she couldn’t move. He removed her glasses and pressed his lips against hers, soft and gentle. Her eyelashes fluttered from the intensity of the caress. It was nothing more than a butterfly kiss, but stronger than anything she’d felt. Since returning, Ivan had taken her in every way imaginable, yet, he hadn’t kissed her like this. He traced her bottom lip with his tongue before sucking it into his mouth. He folded his lips over hers with slow, precise concentration as if all of his attention was focused on that one action. She leaned against him, her body turning lax. This time, Ivan wasn’t rushed. He kissed her until her jaw ached and her lips were swollen. When he finally pulled away, her chest rose and fell rapidly.