Page 9

CHAPTER NINE

Zack

T he show had a really short rehearsal period, which meant that before we all knew it, it was opening night.

“I didn’t think I’d be this nervous,” Lucas said as the two of us walked from our building to the VPAC in the middle of the afternoon. “I mean, we had previews all through the week and an audience for those, but this feels different. This is…this is big .”

I actually managed to smile at him as we crossed the street and headed around to the cast and crew entrance. “That’s what I say when we’re horizontal.”

Lucas puffed a laugh, but I could feel it didn’t relieve his anxiety.

“You’re going to do great,” I told him. “You smashed previews. Everyone loves what they’ve done to the part of Triton?—”

“Everyone except Eric and Greg,” Lucas cut in quietly.

“Yeah, well they were never going to like it anyhow,” I said with a shrug. “And Greg’s been acting really strange these last few days, running around and jumping into broom closets and things.”

Lucas laughed, though the sound was tight and tense. “Yeah, he’s been acting really fishy lately.”

“I thought being fishy was your job.”

We’d reached the door, and Lucas looked at me with a startled grin for my joke as he reached over my head to hold the door for me. I loved the appreciation he seemed to have for my sometimes weird humor. He still tried to encourage me not to give up on my dream of stand-up comedy, especially in those moments when it was just the two of us, cuddling behind closed doors.

I knew that particular dream of mine wasn’t going to happen now, though. Omega papas were supposed to stay home with their babies and keep popping more out. At least, that’s what I always assumed for some reason. But where were Lucas and I going to make a home? That whole thing about the fish and the bird falling in love hit home hard right now.

“Lucas! There you are,” Betty greeted us as soon as we started down the corridor, heading toward the dressing rooms.

“Here I am,” Lucas said with an excited, nervous smile. I could feel those nerves and that excitement through the bond between us that had been growing over the last couple of weeks. I’d been able to feel a lot of other things, too. Bonds were intense like that.

Betty didn’t look at all happy to see him or relaxed. “We’ve got a serious problem in wardrobe,” she said, marching up and wedging between us in a way that forced us to pick up our pace. “Several of the Act Two costumes didn’t make it back from the dry cleaner this morning.”

“Didn’t make it back from the dry cleaner?” Lucas frowned and gave her a startled look. “I thought the VPAC had its own laundry facilities.”

“It does,” Betty said, turning the corner and putting herself between me and Lucas even more as we entered the star dressing room. “But someone sliced through the power cord, and now the machine is useless.”

“Sliced through the power cord?” I asked, suspicion pooling in my already slightly queasy gut.

“I thought there was more than one machine,” Lucas said.

Betty let out a humorless laugh. “There are three, and all three have cut cords. It looks like someone pulled them away from the wall to try to reach something that fell back there and when they dragged whatever it was out, it sliced across all the cords.”

“Or someone sabotaged the machines,” I said, eyes wide.

Lucas looked at me like he agreed, but Betty was too flustered to join us on a little trip down Conspiracy Theory Lane. “Whatever happened,” she said, shaking her head, “it’s a massive inconvenience. The chorus costumes all stink to high heaven and your Act Two costumes are missing entirely.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Lucas said with a smile.

“I hope so,” Betty said. Her phone rang as she turned to face me, likely to give me a custodial order, and she snatched it from her pocket and answered. “Hello?”

I exchanged a glance with Lucas as Betty’s eyes got wider and wider.

“You’re kidding,” Betty said. “How does something like that even happen? Okay, I’ll take care of it.”

She ended the call then looked at me. “There was a short in the lighting board and all of the lighting cues have to be reprogrammed.”

“Reprogramed completely?” Lucas asked. “In—” he looked at his watch, “four hours?”

“Yep,” Betty said. She turned to me and said, “Zack, there’s been a spill on stage right. That big box of glitter that I told you to take back to the closet was tipped over, and now the stage is covered in the crap.”

“But I took it back three days ago,” I said, my heart beating rapidly.

My little tadpole didn’t like it when I got upset, and even though he or she was only a month and a half old in there, they made their displeasure known through the wave of nausea that hit me.

I gripped my stomach with one hand and Lucas’s arm with the other and bent forward, trying not to puke.

“You okay?” Lucas asked me, shifting to hold me.

I immediately glanced up to see if Betty noticed the intimacy between us. She looked more frustrated than determined to ruin our lives.

It felt like an order was coming from her, but when Greg popped his head around the doorway and said, “Hey, Bets, can I see you out here for a second?” she ignored me and moved toward the door.

“Clean up the glitter as soon as you can,” she called over her shoulder to me.

I took a few seconds to breathe when it was just me and Lucas in the dressing room. Tadpole liked that, and my nausea quickly subsided. I wasn’t in a hurry to leave Lucas’s arms, though.

“Take as long as you need,” Lucas said, rubbing a hand over my back. I could still feel strain and worry radiating from him, though. “The glitter can wait.”

I shook my head. “Glitter waits for no one.”

Lucas smiled. His eyes zeroed in on mine, and for a second, I was certain he would kiss me.

Instead, his phone rang, and he sighed heavily before reaching to get it in his pocket. He tapped to answer, then held it to his face and said absolutely nothing. That meant it was his Mom calling.

The feeling that I could hear him talking underwater filled me again. His mom was still giving him a hard time, it seemed. She’d been calling him almost daily, apparently yelling at him and telling him he needed to leave his pathetic, landie omega behind to go home and get a real job, though Lucas swore that wasn’t it. He wouldn’t tell me specifics about what she usually said to him, though. He told me he didn’t want to worry me.

Whatever the case, I didn’t want to stand there in silence while Lucas had it out with his Mom. I waved at him and pointed to the door, inching farther that way. Lucas nodded, then half turned away from me, sighed, and ran a hand through his hair.

He felt a little defeated, so I wasn’t super keen on leaving him. Just because I was knocked up and had no idea what my future held, other than a mermaid baby, didn’t mean Lucas didn’t deserve some TLC and support, too. I’d have to give it some other time, though. Glitter beckoned.

The glitter was every bit as much of a pain in the ass to clean up as ever, and it took me way longer than it should have. I had to sweep as much of it as I could, but slowly so I didn’t spread it around, then suck the rest of it up with a handheld vacuum.

The curtains were still open on the stage as the rest of the stage crew prepped the set. As usual, the sight of all those rows of seats and the lure of the spotlights as the lighting crew reset all the cues beckoned me. Things had turned out way different than I thought they would when I’d come to town, but the same impulses still burned in me.

As soon as the glitter was taken care of, I peeked around to make sure Betty wasn’t about to charge at me with some new order, then I tip-toed out to the front of the stage.

It was there, deep within me, almost as deep as my growing bond with Lucas. The urge to tell jokes and make people laugh burned like an eternal flame. It felt like it existed in every cell of my body, all the way down to my DNA.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” I said, wishing I had the courage to speak louder. “A funny thing happened to me on my way to the theater tonight.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

I jumped and tensed so much that I felt a jolt of indignant protest from Tadpole as I turned to find Eric walking out to confront me.

“I was just cleaning up glitter,” I said, torn between making up a thousand excuses for my bad behavior and protesting that it wasn’t bad at all and I had as much right as anyone else to be in the spotlight for a second.

Eric came almost all the way out to me then paused, crossing his arms. He seemed anxious, but like he was trying to cover it with bravado. “You’re just a stagehand. A janitor at that. You have no right to be on this stage or to address the audience.”

“Says who?” I said, tilting my chin up a little in defiance.

“Says me,” Eric said. “I’ll still be a star here long after you and your illegal, secret boyfriend are gone.”

I flushed with embarrassment, wariness, but also fondness for Lucas all rolled up together. “Lucas and I will move on to better things, but yeah, you’ll probably be here forever.”

Eric didn’t like that. He snarled and stalked closer to me. Unnerved as I was, I stood my ground, which meant he came to within a few inches of me.

“You think Lucas is going to stick with you? A nobody?” he asked, seething.

“Um, yes, actually,” I answered, fighting not to put a hand on my belly and give everything away.

“Well, you’re wrong,” he said. “I happen to know for a fact that he’s planning to ditch this place and go back home to his mommy as soon as the show is over.”

I froze. He was lying. He had to be lying. Eric was exactly the sort to say something like that just to worry me. I should in no way take anything the man said at face value.

Except for the fact that Eric seemed to know Lucas was under pressure from his mom to go home.

“Yeah, I heard him on the phone the other day,” Eric said. “I heard him telling his mom he planned to ditch Valleywood and everyone in it as soon as the show closes.”

I relaxed a little and laughed. “Well, now I know you’re lying,” I said. When Lucas talked on the phone with his mom, he didn’t talk . Eric wouldn’t have overheard him.

“Oh yeah? You think so?” Eric glowered, like he didn’t like me calling his bluff.

And actually, sometimes Lucas did slip up and speak out loud, even though he was on the phone with his mom.

“Um, yeah?” I answered, deeply uncertain.

Eric snorted. “You know that showmances never last, right?” he asked. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people hook up during a production only to ghost each other the day after set strike. You think you’re hot stuff now, but the second that curtain falls for the last time, Lucas won’t even remember your name.”

He was full of shit. Lucas loved me. The two of us had formed a bond. We’d made a child. There was no way he was going to abandon me.

But omegas ended up abandoned all the time. And that was without the added complication of me being a normal person and Lucas being a merman. The logistics of our relationship were already a nightmare. What if he decided it really couldn’t work? What if Eric was right?

“Eric! Get your butt up to make-up!” Betty called from the back of the stage. “And Zack, the chorus bathroom needs toilet paper!”

“You’re nobody,” Eric whispered to me again before turning to march off.

I stood there stunned and anxious for a moment, my heart racing. Eric had every reason in the world to lie to me just to mess with me and Lucas. But what if Lucas did leave me at the end of the show? Why would he want someone like me when he literally had all the other fish in the sea to date and make a family with?

I shook my head and charged off the stage, hoping work would take my mind off everything and settle me.

It did not. By the time I refilled all the TP and helped the rest of the stagehands set the props for the show, my nerves were frayed. Someone spilled hand soap in the ladies’ bathroom, so I had to go clean that up, too.

That was when I overheard the very last conversation I needed to hear just then.

“He ditched her for a Hollywood agent?” one of the chorus members, Anna, asked in shock as she checked her make-up in one of the bathroom mirrors.

“Yep,” Penny, another chorus member replied. “Two weeks after she told him she was pregnant. And you know what he said?”

“I don’t know if I want to know.”

“He said that it probably wasn’t his baby and that she just wanted to be with him because he was about to be a big star.”

“No!” Anna gasped. “That’s horrible!”

“Oh, it gets worse,” Penny said. “Because she ended up losing her job because she had to miss so much work because of the baby. Last I heard, she’d gone back to her tiny hometown and was forced to marry her old high school sweetheart.”

“It could have been worse,” Anna said.

“He’s a used car salesman .”

The two of them made disgusted noises.

I couldn’t take it anymore. I slammed the soap dispenser closed after I’d reloaded it and ran out of the room, trying not to burst into tears.

I didn’t know where I was going, only that I needed a few seconds to hide. And to call Grandma. It was probably silly, but I really just needed to hear Grandma’s voice telling me everything would be okay.

I found an empty office, but when I whipped out my phone and called Grandma’s number, she didn’t answer and I didn’t have the heart to leave a voicemail. She didn’t know how to listen to her messages anyhow.

That was the final straw. I burst into tears and sunk into the chair behind the desk, wailing, “I’m going to be abandoned by a fish and end up married to a used car salesman!”

“What’s this now?”

I gasped and jerked straighter as Dion stepped forward from the door to what was probably a private bathroom. I glanced around quickly, realizing I’d ducked into his office to make my call.

“I’m sorry,” I gulped, fumbling as I tried to push myself out of his chair. “I just needed to make a call. I’ll get out of here and stop disturbing you.”

Dion walked forward, making a calming gesture with his hands to get me to sit again. “You look like you need a few minutes. Take your time, breathe, and tell me what’s going on.”

I tried to breathe, but it wasn’t easy. Especially since Tadpole wasn’t happy about me being so upset when he was trying to grow and develop in peace.

At the same time, as Dion came over and sat on the edge of his desk, I felt a pull to tell him everything. He had such a jolly, powerful energy. I felt like he might just be able to solve all my problems.

“What’s bothering you?” he asked.

I thought about making something up or telling him a half-truth, but I couldn’t. I didn’t know why, but I trusted him.

“I’m pregnant,” I began.

“Okay,” he said, no judgment at all.

“I’m having a forbidden showmance with Lucas Siren,” I went on.

Dion chuckled and rolled his eyes. “Ben and his stupid rules against showmances.”

“You don’t think it’s a bad thing?” I asked.

Dion shrugged. “Are you having fun?” He immediately answered himself with, “Well, you must be since you got pregnant.”

“Lucas is actually a merman who came from the bottom of Lake Erie,” I blurted. “He saved me when I fell off the bridge, only I didn’t know he was a merman and a siren when I fell in love with him. Then I went into heat and we had an amazing time and I got pregnant.”

“Okay,” Dion said with a nod, like nothing I’d said bothered him at all.

I blinked, startled by his calm. “A merman got me pregnant, and even though we bonded and are falling in love, I don’t know how we’re going to be together. Where do a fish and a bird build their nest?”

“You’re not a bird,” Dion pointed out.

I blew out a breath and let my shoulders drop. “No, I guess not.” I glanced up at Dion again. “But I’m not really anything. I’m just a guy from Philadelphia who was raised by his grandma and who thought he had dreams of doing stand-up comedy.”

“You thought you had dreams?” Dion asked.

“Well, yeah, now I’m pregnant. How am I supposed to make people laugh when I’ll be raising a fish baby gods only know where?”

“Well, I’m a god, and I might not know where you’ll raise your baby, but I can tell you you’re doing a fine job of making me laugh,” Dion said, smiling.

“Come again?” I blinked at him.

Dion shook his head like it didn’t matter. “You’re making more of this than you need to, er…sorry, I didn’t ask your name.”

It was a little depressing that the director of the VPAC didn’t know my name after all these weeks.

“It’s Zack,” I said. “Short for Zakai deMuse.”

Dion blinked at me like I’d said something significant. Then his smile grew tenfold and he said, “No! Zakai deMuse? By any chance is your grandma named Thalia?”

I sat a little straighter. “How did you know?”

Dion tipped his head back and laughed loudly. The sound was so pure and so jolly that it made me laugh with him, even though it was definitely not a moment for laughing.

“You’re Zakai the Muse,” he said. “You’re grandmother is Thalia, the Muse of Comedy.”

“I beg your pardon,” I said, eyes wide.

Dion went back to looking at me in disbelief. “Didn’t you know? Didn’t she ever tell you?”

“That she was an ancient Greek demigod who inspires people with the spirit of?—”

It hit me like a ton of bricks. My grandma was the Muse of Comedy. My mom was a muse of something or other, too, she had to be. That’s why she wasn’t raising me. She was off exploring the world, inspiring artists. Literally, not figuratively, like I’d always assumed.

“Ohhh,” I said, sinking back into the chair.

“I knew Thalia from way back,” Dion went on with a chuckle. “She was the perfect guest to invite to a party. The more people drank, the more they loved her.”

“Yeah, Grandma always was the life of the party,” I said in a distant voice. A second later, I frowned and looked up at Dion. “Why wouldn’t she tell me, though? And what does it matter who my grandma is when I’m in love with a merman who will probably leave me after this show ends and I’m having his baby?”

Dion laughed like I’d told a joke. “Well, you have to admit that it explains why your life is a comedy of errors.”

I winced. “That’s not really helping, thanks.”

“But you see, it is helping,” Dion said, smiling. “Back in my youth, when theater was new, we always used to say there were two kinds of plays, comedies and tragedies. In tragedies, everyone dies in the end, and in comedies, everyone gets married and lives happily ever after. We invented that concept. Comedies have happy endings, my boy.” He reached forward to thump my arm. “You have happy endings in your blood. Everything will be just fine, you’ll see.”

“It doesn’t feel like everything will be fine right now,” I said.

“That’s because it’s not the end of the story,” Dion said.

He held his hand out to me, and when I took it, he pulled me to stand. “Now get out there and do your part for this play. I daresay you’re only in Act Three right now, when things look to be at their worst before everything is miraculously resolved so that you have your happy ending at the end.”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “It’s only a two-act play.”

That only made Dion laugh harder. “All will be well. You’ll see.”

I suppose I had to take his word for it. He seemed to know what he was talking about. And he’d given me a lot to think about, too. But whether I was living in a comedy or a tragedy had yet to be determined.