Second Night Stand by Karelia & Fay Stetz-Waters EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Karelia & Fay Stetz-Waters
- Language: English
- Genre: LGBTQ
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 5.5 MB
- Price: Free
Lillian Jackson sat in the corner of the Neptune Bar wearing a
suit, contemplating the monoculture of iceberg salad and the Jägermeister
shot before her, and wondering where she’d gone wrong. The endorphin
high of her ballet audition ebbed into the aches and pains of being a
professional dancer.
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“Just come with us.” Lillian’s cousin Kia—provider of the shot—folded
her elbows on the table. “Y’all just auditioned for The Great American
Talent Show. Celebrate! We found this dope place that plays nineties hiphop.”
We.
Kia never quite got that the dancers of the Reed-Whitmer Ballet
Company respected Lillian—their ballet master, lead dancer, and
choreographer—but they didn’t like her. They weren’t supposed to. That
wasn’t her role.
Across the bar, the dancers of the Reed-Whitmer Ballet Company
lingered by the door, obviously hoping Lillian would stay back, but too
polite (or well trained) to leave without her.
“They’ll have more fun without me,” Lillian said. “Let ’em have
tonight.”
Because tomorrow or sometime when Lillian worked up the nerve, she’d
have to tell them the truth: they weren’t auditioning for the show because
dance companies auditioned for things.
They were auditioning because the
company’s financial sponsors, Thomas Reed and Charles Whitmer, had
taken Lillian to a rooftop restaurant in LA, praised her dancers and her
leadership, then told her the company wasn’t making enough money and
they were shutting it down. Then Whitmer had offered a lifeline. We could
get you an audition with The Great American Talent Show. If they won,
Thomas Reed and Charles Whitmer would keep them on the books.
She should have told the dancers. She hadn’t.
“Don’t worry. Y’all killed it!” Kia’s Afro puffs bounced with her
enthusiasm. She’d gotten into the performers-only auditions by printing
herself a badge that read INFLUENCER because she was the kind of person
who could get in places just by telling people she belonged there. “Plus
you’re all dressed to go out.”
To a high-end charity fundraiser. Why had Lillian changed into a white
linen suit immediately after the audition? Because a Black ballerina must be
professional beyond measure; she heard her mother’s voice in the back of
her mind. The rest of the all-Black Reed-Whitmer Ballet Company hadn’t
gotten the memo and were sporting their streetwear. Kia wore overalls
made out of a recycled billboard by an all-Black artist co-op because that
was Kia. Who was impressed by a suit at the Neptune? No one.
Over Kia’s shoulder, Lillian caught a woman in another booth watching
her over the screen of a laptop. Okay. Maybe she’d impressed one person.
The woman wore a blazer too, but hers was made of some shiny material,
oversized with the cuffs rolled up, layered over a zippered hoodie and,
beneath that, the hint of a red tank top. Or was it her bra? An elaborate
lacework tattoo decorated her chest.
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