And he waited.

Not long after, Hattie lost the top.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

In Her Corner

HATTIE

Thursday late morning, I walked into Smithie’s and the gang was almost all there.

I headed to where Lottie and Pepper were sitting on the front edge of the catwalk and Lottie greeted, “Yo,” while Pepper greeted, “Hey, Hatz.”

“Hey,” I returned. “Do you know what this is about?”

We’d been called in by Smithie for a full staff meeting.

The last full staff meeting had been to share with everyone we were moving to a Revue, though the dancers, including me, had known about it beforehand seeing as Smithie and Ian had talked to us about it to make sure we were onboard.

Having no idea what it was about, I didn’t think this meeting boded well and I was prepared to be seriously bummed about it if it wasn’t good news.

Because, so far, the week had been awesome.

Like, really awesome.

Starting with Monday night, when Axl came over to my place with Cleo after work and I got to give him the equal goodness he’d shown me when he cooked Tuscan chicken for me.

I didn’t cook him anything as fabulous as that as I didn’t have anything like that in my repertoire. But after he got in and got Cleo sorted, I sat him on a stool, gave him a glass of red, and then served up stuffed shells and garlic knots with a salad and tiramisu for dessert.

And he really liked it (especially the tiramisu, and I made mental note that Axl was an all-around coffee guy).

That night, he also brought over a bag full of stuff, and now he had sleep pants, boxer briefs, tees and socks in his drawer and there were some jeans, shirts and cargos hanging in my closet, as well as some running shoes on a shelf.

Now … See?

The week even started awesome.

We both fretted (well, Axl didn’t fret, but I could tell it was a concern) that Cleo wouldn’t take to her new circumstances. But the second she was let out of her carrier, she looked around, went right to my colorful beanbag, jumped on it, collapsed to a hip and started licking her foot.

So, the queen accepted her new dominion by immediately finding her throne.

All good.

It was back to life after that, and that was normal life with some (tentatively) fantastic twists.

It had been deemed safe for the women to do their thing without being protected, so I was able to get back into my studio and start working on the new piece I’d been wanting to dive into.

And when I did, I realized it was a mild form of torture to have to tamp down the need to create.

It was heaven being in the studio. Almost as good as choreographing a new song.

Okay.

No.

Maybe better.

And that was a point to ponder, though I wasn’t prepared to ponder it just then.

Onward with the awesomeness, Dad had surprised me when I went over on Tuesday because he’d discovered online grocery shopping with delivery.

And when I inspected what he got, I saw he didn’t buy a bunch of crap. Most of it was actually healthy.

He also told me I didn’t have to come over Wednesday, because he’d reconnected with his bud, Jim, and they were going out to some sports bar to have dinner and watch the game.

I remembered Jim. He was a nice guy. He and his wife had gotten divorced around the time Mom and Dad did.

And I was glad Dad was finding ways to get out of the house and be with people that weren’t me.

Dad also let me off the hook for that night, saying he was going to try some new recipe, which meant Axl and I could eat and hang before I had to go to work without me having to be anywhere it wasn’t really my choice to be.

And tomorrow night, Dad was going out to dinner with me and Axl and then he and Axl were going to take in the show.

I was a little nervous about that.

But I was also a little excited for Dad to see that I was dancing because I loved it, and although the memories were jaded, the bottom line was, he played a part in giving me that.

The only thing hanging over our heads was that Axl had double parent duty tomorrow, seeing as he was having lunch with his mother.

He’d heard not one word from his father, which I thought was awesome.

And from his take on his mom’s texts, he said, “She sounds like she has it together.”

So that was tentatively awesome too.

And last, Axl and I had brunch plans with my mom on Sunday.

I wanted to see Mom, I missed her. It’d been way longer than a minute (too much longer).

But I had to admit, I really loved my first Sunday with Axl when it was just him and me most of the day. Being lazy and making love and eating when we were hungry and playing Pac-Man.

With our schedules, and just how life had been when we started, it’d all been go, go, go and drama. We didn’t have a lot of downtime.

And that Sunday, I’d discovered that rejuvenating with Axl was the best.

So after this brunch with Mom, I was going to suggest to Axl that, if we could, we made Sundays our days.

I had a feeling he’d go for that.

But now, we’d all been called in for a meeting at the club and I had no idea why.

I just hoped they hadn’t assessed how the Revue was doing, weren’t pleased with it, and we were going back to just stripping.

I didn’t want to go back to stripping.

I didn’t have a problem with it. I was good at it, made great money, the club was safe, classy, for the most part the clientele was all right, my fellow dancers were the best, so was management, and I could move my body and get in the zone.

But being able to build my routines and roll them out, that had been another creative outlet I’d come to seriously enjoy.

So on the way to that meeting, I’d realized, with Axl in it, and my relationship with the girls back on track and as strong as ever, not to mention Dad being cool, and work having turned into something that I dug doing, I was in a zone where I actually liked my life.

No.

I loved it.

For the first time, I thought …ever.

And that was mammoth.

So I didn’t want anything messing with it.

Although I worried (because that was me), it would surprise me that the Revue wasn’t working. The place had been packed every night, regardless of the higher cover charge and drinks prices.

But I was a dancer, I wasn’t a businessperson.

What did I know?

“No clue,” Pepper answered my question about the meeting, but although she was answering me, she was smiling across the room.