Siempre by Tessa Cárdenas

setting, and it was getting there as he copied the action so he didn’t feel like his hand was dangling empty.
    “Still driving next week?” Sean asked. It wasn’t exactly what he wanted to ask, but it was something. They had two dress rehearsals at night that Lupe was supposed to watch, and Sean would be dancing through most of them, but he couldn’t help wanting Jaime there.
    “Monday and Thursday, but I have class Wednesday night, so Lexi’s driving then. Lupe will probably even let her stay because she’s cooler than me. So if you mess up, I’ll hear about it. She’ll probably sneak in a camera and take a picture if you fall.” Jaime laughed at Sean’s glare. “Go ahead. You tell her she has to follow the rules.”
    “Right. I have to be perfect on Wednesday.”
    “Exactly.” Jaime smiled and stepped closer to bump his shoulder.
    “And Friday?” Sean asked, unable to lift his eyes from where his feet hit the dirty sidewalk with each stride.
    “On Friday, I’m bringing Lexi with me so Lupe will let me stay for the whole thing. She might even let me follow Lexi into the cast party after—during which she is not allowed to drink, by the way.”
    “Seriously?” Sean laughed, letting the smile that had been growing stay. “Travis even lets Alana drink at cast parties. He doesn’t know she refills her one glass of champagne little by little while he’s not looking, but he lets her have it.”
    “You haven’t told him?”
    “Not getting in the middle of that.” Sean shook his head. “But I make no promises she won’t teach that trick to Lupe.”
    “Lupe can drink in front of me next year when she’s legal. I don’t care how much bitching I have to hear about it on Friday.” Jaime groaned and lifted one of his hands out of his pocket to rub over his short hair. “And there will be bitching if Alana gets to drink.”
    “She’s going to hate it when Travis ends up even more overprotective than you.”
    “She idolizes him. Can you just get him to tell her drinking is bad? Maybe throw in that sex and drugs will ruin her career?”
    “I’m not sure if I’m relieved that you’ll clearly get along with him when he decides to give you a chance, or if I’m terrified Alana’s been right all along.” Sean figured he should be more worried about how much shit Alana was going to give him if she decided he’d just found a gay version of Travis.
    “Right about what?” Jaime stopped at a bench and sat down, leaving space for Sean to sit next to him.
    “Nothing.” Sean sat closer than he felt he should, but it still wasn’t as close as he wanted. Jaime didn’t move away, but he didn’t close the space either. If he didn’t want to move closer, he probably wasn’t ready to hear Alana’s crazy theories about him and Travis. “So I’ll see you there?”
    “Yeah. I mean, we can’t—”
    “I know,” Sean said before he could finish. “It’s okay. But you’ll be there.”
    “Well, yeah.” Jaime turned his head to the side and looked at him, searching his face like he wasn’t sure what he was even looking for.
    “Good. That’s good.” Sean found himself struggling to think up any other topic before a silence could set in. “That presentation you were working on, how’d it turn out?”
    Jaime hesitated like he knew there was something he’d missed, but instead of probing, he leaned back on the bench again and launched into his answer.

Chapter 6

     
    “S HE ’ S NOT even late,” Sean pointed out when Travis looked at his watch for the second time. He turned away from Travis to face the barre. Maybe if he focused enough on the warm-up, Travis would only punish Alana for her lateness.
    “She’ll be late in ten minutes—which will make her ten minutes late unless she did her warm-up on the way.”
    Sean didn’t have to look to know Travis was glaring at the door like it would make Alana walk through it. When Travis walked to him to correct his form a minute later, he knew