Page 224 of Falling for You

‘Stevie is your brother,’ he says. ‘Right?’

‘Right.’

‘But … when he’s wearing all this,’ he points towards the drag queen who has made their way to the bar, ‘is he still your brother?’

I pull a face at him and he shakes his head. ‘No, no, hang on,’ he says quickly. ‘Sorry. I just mean, is he your brother or your sister?’

I put down my drink. ‘So,’ I say. ‘When Stevie isn’t in drag, when he’s just Stevie, then he identifies as a man. So we use he and him, and he’s my brother.’

Remy pauses for a moment, and then nods.

‘When Stevie is in drag,’ I gesture towards the drag queen, ‘then she’s Stevie Trixx. He’s playing a character, and that character is a woman.’

I watch the words circle around Remy’s mind.

‘So when Stevie is in drag … she is a she.’

I nod. ‘Exactly.’

Remy nods, taking a sip of his beer. ‘Sorry, Nate,’ he says. ‘I just didn’t want to get it wrong.’

I clap his shoulder. ‘I appreciate that, mate. Everyone is different, though,’ I add.

Remy holds his beer bottle towards mine and we clink them together. Moments later, the lights go down, leaving just a pool of light on the stage. Strobes of electric pink and blue strike across the stage and a fog machine starts sendingclouds of smoke through the room. Around us, the girls start to scream in delight, throwing themselves in the air and pulling out their phones.

‘Please welcome to the stage …’ a voice booms through the speaker ‘… Stevie Trixx!’

The whole place erupts and Remy looks at me in shock.

I cock my head, a smug grin splitting my face as Stevie glides onto the stage. ‘She’s a star.’

And I’m not being biased. Stevie is wearing an incredible, emerald-green gown. It has streams of fabric billowing in different directions and a corset coated in stones, which glisten when the light catches them. She’s wearing a white-blonde wig, which twists above her head, and heels so thin and pointy that it makes my insides squirm.

Mom definitely didn’t used to own heels likethat.

As the music starts, Stevie starts to flip and twist her body. The audience goes wild, and as I get to my feet and pull Remy up to join me, I notice someone standing on the other side of the bar and my heart stops.

I don’t believe it. I was right.

It’s Annie.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Annie

For goodness’ sake, why am I cryingagain?

I dab the heel of my hand against my eyes, but they well up again almost immediately. I can’t help it. I’m so full of emotion that it’s literally spilling out of my eyes.

Stevie Trixx came on stage about thirty seconds ago, and I can’t stop staring at her. She’s amazing, there’s no doubt about that. She’s split-leaping and jumping across the stage, dancing and spinning and making the crowd go wild. But it’s not just that: she’s wearing the outfit I made for her … and she looks incredible.

It fits her so much better than I could have imagined. It cinches her waist perfectly and billows out around her like cascades of water. The monkey on the back of the cape sparks every time the light catches it, like it’s winking at the audience. Stevie was beside himself when I gave it to him. I guess, to him, I was just a random girl in a sewing shop that Jade vouched for. He was so desperate, I think he would have taken anyone’s arm off who had a functioning sewing machine. I’d asked him if I could play around with the design a bit, promising to keep it to the Wicked Witch ofthe West. And well, I don’t think he was expecting what I gave him. He was gobsmacked. So much so that he insisted on giving me, Penny and Tanya tickets to see his show that same night, saying I had to see him wear it in person. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a client actually wear the costume rather than just getting a static photo. I could see the way it fitted her body properly, how it moved, how it caught the light, how it bent with her curves.

I take a sip of my prosecco and laugh as Tanya screams, throwing her arm in the air.

‘God, she is so amazing,’ Penny shouts in my ear. ‘And she looksinsane. I can’t believe you made that.’

‘I didn’t make all of it,’ I yell back. ‘I just tweaked it.’