Free Fade to Red by Willow Aster Page B

Roxie’s shoulder. “I feel more like myself,” she admitted. “I let him control me far too long. I mean, I get why it was easy for him to control me when we first started dating—I was 14. Remind me one day not to let my daughter date that early.” Her laugh choked in her throat and sounded painful. She sat up and looked at Roxie. “I’m embarrassed, Rox. I wasted so much time with an abusive boyfriend. I never thought I’d let someone … hurt me. I’m the baby of the family—you guys have loved me my whole life. Why would I put up with that trash?”
    “He lied to you, made you think he loved you one minute, and then turned on you after you trusted him,” Roxie said softly. “It happens all the time, Chlo-bo. Just be so grateful that you got out. You took control.”
    “So can you, Rox. You’re controlling this situation for your son and his future. You can do this. It’s a really huge deal that you got in to begin with … you can’t give up now.”
    “He just … Beckham’s very…” Roxie couldn’t get out a complete thought, so she gave up trying. “We’d be okay without the money. We’ve gotten by before this.”
    “Barely. And do you really want to live in your tiny apartment the rest of your life?” Chloe snapped.
    “Well, no, but … being around Beckham was a lot harder than I expected, too. And I’m paired up with him, Chloe! I never expected that when I tried out. I thought I’d be in a big group of other dancers and that I might not even have to deal with him! And I’m being awful—I should have been fired a couple of times already. It’s mortifying, really, how awful I become when I’m around him!”
    Leo came back then and they stopped talking about it. They enjoyed the rest of their day at the beach and Roxie tried to put Beckham out of her mind completely. When they got back home, she checked her voicemail and there was a message from Anthony. He told her he expected her there the next morning for the full rehearsal with Beckham.
    At the end of the message, he said, “Beckham said it was his fault you left this morning, so I’ll let you off the hook. This time. But there better not be a next time. If you have an issue, come to me directly and we’ll work it out.”
     
    The next morning on the way to rehearsal she made up her mind to stick it out. No matter how intense things got with Beckham, no matter how much she cringed every time she saw him, no matter how her insides liquified every time he touched her. She was doing this for Leo. He deserved so much more than she’d been able to give him.
    It physically hurt her to walk in that morning; her pride was sweating through her pores, but she held her head high. She was a few minutes early, but Beckham and Anthony were already there. She looked them both in the eye and nodded at Anthony.
    “I shouldn’t have left without telling you. It won’t happen again.”
    “Okay. We’ll forget about it and move forward. You ready to work? Thousands of girls would kill to be in your spot,” he reminded her.
    “I’m ready.”
    Beckham handed her a coffee and she mumbled her thanks. She took as many gulps as she could before they got started and then popped some gum in her mouth. She might hate him, but she still wanted to smell decent when she was grinding up against him.
    She barely looked at Beckham, but as soon as the music started and they began to move together, the magic began. Their chemistry was undeniable.
     
    Beckham began showing up at all the rehearsals. And she’d thought he might stay to himself a little, but he was always in the center of everything. He had an easy way with everyone else. In the middle of lunch one day, he started doing imitations from Harry Potter and had it down perfectly.
    He was in the middle of going back and forth between Dumbledore and Snape:
    “He has her eyes…”
    (A gasp from Snape.)
    “If you truly loved her…”
    “No one can ever know …”
    He nailed it and Roxie started