The performance started with Stone and the other three guys working together to snap a fake house into place in one corner of the floor while lively music played overhead. When they were done, they gave each other high fives, which was Gina’s cue to prance out.
Hands on hips, she sashayed into the forest clearing meant to represent Nielson HQ. Stone’s “brothers” melted away, and while he went through the motions, his movements weren’t as sharp as they’d been during dress rehearsal. The vibe of the dance was supposed to be sassy Mother Nature meets adoring survivalist. Instead of a wide grin, his lips were set in a closed-mouth grimace, and when they got into hold, his timing was off.
“You’ve got this.” Gina pulled him along, beaming a big smile for the audience. “You can do this.”
He didn’t reply. They broke hold, and he started off on the wrong foot.The wrong fucking foot.He’d never done that in rehearsal.
“You know the steps. Stop thinking so much.” The dance brought them together, and once again, Gina fought to get them back on track.
“Smile!” She shouted at him as he swung her body between his legs and then up into the air. “Don’t give up on us, Stone. Stay with me.”
That seemed to snap him out of it, and he met her eyes. They completed the dance, more or less according to Gina’s choreography, and finished in a dip with their faces close together.
The music ended. Stone shut his eyes and dropped his sweaty forehead to hers.
“I’m sorry.”
She wanted to kiss him, to wipe away the anguish on his face and melt the tension from his muscles. But they were on live TV, with cameras pointed at them, millions of people watching at home, and hundreds more in the studio audience.
“Thank you,” she said instead.
His brows creased. “For what? I screwed up.”
“But you didn’t quit.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you.” He pulled her to her feet and they headed to Reggie, who waited by the judges’ table. Gina kept her arm wrapped around Stone’s waist. This next part wasn’t going to be fun.
There were three regular judges onThe Dance Off.The head judge was Chad Silver, a former Studio 54 dancer turned internationally recognized drag queen known for his unique fashion sense and exuberant choreography style. Then there was Mariah Valentino, a classically trained dancer and pop singer. She was gorgeous, golden, and tall, with long black hair and dark, seductive eyes. Gina often thought she wouldn’t mind being Mariah when she grew up. Finally, there was Dimitri Kovalenko, an exacting choreographer known affectionately among the cast as “the cranky one.”
All the judges wore grimaces of compassion. They’d seen the package, and knew what had gone wrong, but they still had to judge the dance as it had been performed.
Sure enough, the scores were brutal. Dimitri gave them afifty,which brought their average score down to fifty-seven percent.
Stone was quiet through Reggie’s post-dance interview questions, and Gina babbled about how they had done their best and hoped to try again next week. When the camera’s recording light shut off, Gina’s shoulders slumped. “Ugh, that sucked. What did I even say?”
Reggie patted her arm. “I’m rooting for you guys.” And then she hurried off to have her makeup touched up.
Stone avoided the cameras for the rest of the night, and Gina didn’t blame him. Finally, in the last five minutes of the show, the stage managers trotted all the couples out onto the stage for the elimination.
During dress rehearsal, Alan and Rhianne had been the ones sent home in the fake elimination. Usually, the couple whose names were called during rehearsal wasn’t the couple going home that night. Thanks to last week’s performance and scores, Gina had thought she and Stone would be safe tonight, but her confidence had taken a hit.
“Since we’re running out of time,” Juan Carlos said, “we’ll cut right to the chase and reveal which of our remaining ten couples are in danger of elimination.”
Everyone stood still while the cameras zoomed in on their faces. A few long, drawn-out seconds later, the lights fell, leaving the bottom three couples highlighted by red spotlights.
Including Gina and Stone.
Gina’s stomach plummeted. Stone put an arm around her and crushed her to his side. She took a deep, shuddering breath and clung to him.
This couldn’t be over. They had a shot at the trophy—she knew they did. Not only that, she was just getting to know Stone. They’d both shared things about themselves this week, and she wanted to continue growing their friendship. He was a great partner, a pleasure to dance with and teach now that he was taking it seriously, and he was certainly easy on the eyes. And she saw him changingfrom this experience, too. At the beginning, he never would have hugged her so freely, or joked with the hosts, or palled around with Twyla Rhodes. Being on the show was helping him open up and let down his guard. It would be a shame to cut off his progress now.
Gina glanced around, checking out the other red spotlights. Twyla and Roman were also in jeopardy, as were Farrah and Danny.
Crap. Farrah was young, but she was a fantastic dancer. There was no way she was going home yet. The bottom three weren’t necessarily the lowest in terms of scores and votes. Sometimes, the producers put couples in the bottom to scare viewers into voting, or to zap them out of complacency.
Only one thing was for sure: one of the couples in the bottom three had the lowest combined votes and judges’ scores, and was going home. It wouldn’t be Farrah, which meant it was between Stone and Twyla.
Twyla, who had a fan following spanning three generations.
