Trifecta: Labor Day, part 2

[frogs_of_war]

I found myself alone this even (for a few hours at least), but since I spent the day moving books around (we cleaned my daughter's room a week and a half ago and I got tired of the piles of books in my living room), I'm not prepared to enjoy this time. But I did find this chapter that I'd forgot to post.

Title: Trifecta
Chapter: Labor Day, part two
Status: WIP
Genre: Romance, Triple Slash, businessmen, jobs, friends, working
Length: 1 k
Summary: Damien enjoys his role.

Masterlist

Damien shimmied into his ball gown. The stepsister’s dresses were normally garish, but Damien’s was demure, even more than Cinderella’s. His Stepsister Number Two made Drew feel ugly and ungainly in comparison and it showed, Jaron said. But he didn’t ask Damien to tone it down because wasn’t Cinderella supposed to feel that way? She had to have a reason to agree to the servitude. Drew’s Cinderella genuinely thought she deserved it.

Or at least his Cinderella opposite Damien.

Tara, as stepmother, led the way back on stage. Damien pretended to be sweet and innocent while being super mean to Cinderella. Then they leave again for the ball, stage left. Cinderella walks to the right and then left as the backdrop changes. Geo comes on stage right. His fairy godmother was scary: cackles and warts and all. Tara would have insisted on the part if she could have done both, but Geo’s makeup took close to an hour. As Tara’s understudy, Geo normally only got as far as the stage if Tara lost her voice or was wading through a royal hangover.

Cinderella gets her dress and a ride to the castle, the stage darkens, stagehands sweep on then off as the garden became a ball room. Damien took his place on stage with most of the cast. The lights came on. In the foreground the prince argues with his Father. In the background Stepsister Number Two flirts with the man nearest at hand. Her mother pulls her away. Just any noble isn’t good enough; she has to get the prince.

Cinderella arrives, capturing everyone's attention, with allows Stepsister Number Two to flirt with the same man again. Her mother doesn’t notice until the guy has a hand up the girl’s dress. Her mother pulls her away so they can make snide remarks about the “Princess” who has stolen the prince’s heart. That dance ends and Stepmother tries to get close enough to overhear what Cinderella and the prince say to each other, so she’s ignoring her younger daughter whose new beau never went far.

She doesn’t notice their tryst until the clock sounds midnight. Cinderella runs away and Stepmother drags her daughters out of the ball room.

As they step into the house, Stepsister Number Two is still arranging herself and can’t quite pull off the more pure than thou she was using against Cinderella earlier. And she’s angry at her mother. When the prince shows up to try shoes on all the ladies of the land, he brings her beau and when she comes back on stage to try on the shoe she’s very mussed up.

Her mother sends her to her room. She goes, but as a parting shot mentions Cinderella to the men. Not because, Damien had decided, she thinks Cinderella is the princess, but because her mother doesn’t want the men to know Cinderella’s there.

Cinderella comes on and the shoe fits. Stepsister Number Two’s beau kisses Stepsister Number Two in delight and the prince is so happy he bestows a barony on his valet, which was who the beau was all the time. Then the Stepmother pretends Cinderella was her favorite daughter and the audience can see her plotting to marry her oldest daughter off to one of other servants, as Cinderella and the Prince kiss.

The curtains dropped. Damien took a deep breath. He still had performance adrenaline pumping through him. The curtains opened again. Drew and Amy the prince stepped forward. It closed again. It opened. Damien, Tara, and Kyle, who played Stepsister Number One, stepped out. Damien took Drew’s and Tara’s hands and bowed. Geo, Madison the beau, and Betty the king stepped out. They all bowed again. The last time it was with all the cast.

Flowers were handed up from the audience. Drew and Tara got the most, but Damien had a good showing, especially since none of these were from his men.

The signal came to leave the stage and he went right around to the lobby. He had lots of programs to sign. Drew took his not-sure-he-deserves-to-be-a-princess persona to meet the audience, but Damien only flirted with his demure and lusty character’s personality.

A few people got too close or personal. Some wanted to know if he was dating Madison. What he did was called acting for a reason. He signaled Ty to him.

“This is one of my boyfriends.” Damien kissed Ty and then leaned against him.

“Are you poly?” asked the too interested woman.

“All the places are filled.” Ty nodded to her. “Aunt Millie wants you to sign her program.”

“Bring her over. Everyone, Drew won’t be at Timber's Bar tonight, so if you want to get your program signed, you better do it now.”

“Are we going to a bar?” asked Aunt Millie.

“I didn’t think you’d want to.” Ty helped her into her jacket.

“I’m old, not dead.”

Kenneth smiled. “Then we can go. But Sleeping Beauty here needs to be home by midnight.”

“Cinderella’s the one who has to be home by midnight.”

Damien left them to bicker as he went to change into his street clothes. The makeup always took longer to remove if he was in a hurry. He took a deep breath and set to work. He made sure his dress, underpinnings and wig were safe in the costumer’s hands and headed next door where Kenneth’s text said they were waiting for him.

Ty, though, was waiting in the lobby. They walked over to Timber's Bar together. Aunt Millie waved them to her table.

“How did you like the play?”

Ty and Kenneth shared a look over Aunt Millie’s head.

“It was so funny.” She stopped and put her hand to her chest. “It was supposed to be funny. Wasn’t it?”

“Yes. Yes.” Damien took a slip of whatever his men had bought him. Fizzy pineapple juice with a hint of something. Lime? Non alcoholic, of course. He’d pledged not to drink alcohol and got special dispensation to come into Timber's a few times a month. “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Ty says you used to play Cinderella. I’d like to see you do that.”

“I’m sure we have a DVD of it somewhere.” Kenneth looked at his phone.

Jaron sat at their table and plopped down his version of Toads and Diamonds. “Read it and tell me what you think.”

Damien opened it, but didn’t get as far as the first line before Jaron was talking again. He spoke of his hopes and fears for this new play and places he thought were weak, and his worries that Drew couldn’t handle the lead, which wasn’t really fair. His meek Cinderella had followed his arrogant Stepsister Number One. He could pull off the strong but nice girl needed, or he’d come up with something even better.

Other patrons came over and added their opinions to the mix. When would the night ever end? He closed the play. “Can I read this at home?”

“You aren’t leaving already?”

Kenneth consulted his phone again. “Miss Amelia,” he nodded to Ty’s aunt deep in conversation with Tara, “flew in from Louisiana this morning, so she’s still on Central time. She’s probably been up for twenty plus hours by now.”

Damien extricated himself from the group around the table and leaned against the bar by Tara. “Aunt Millie, I hope you're not upset, but we just used you as an excuse to head home.”

“But I’m having a wonderful time.”

Tara nodded. “She is.”

Damien faked a yawn and then was overwhelmed by a real one.

“My poor boy,” Aunt Millie took his arm. “You’re dead on your feet. Ty, we’re going home. Tara, it was so nice to meet you. My boys are having a little get together on Monday. Are you coming?”

That would have been really embarrassing if Tara hadn’t already been invited. “I would love to, Hun, but I work.”

She’d still be sleeping off Sunday night when the BBQ started at ten.

Then Tara’s face lit. “How about you come see me Monday and we stay out all night?”

That was a horrible idea. Tara winked. But it would mean one evening break from being hosts. Damien nodded. Tara’s smile brightened.

She and Aunt Millie ironed out the details and Tara gave out one of her coveted free tickets. Aunt Millie chatted gaily all the way home. But by the time everyone was shuffling around the house in their PJs, her day overtook her and she went off to bed.

Bed was what Damien wanted too. Kenneth laid down over the covers and shut his eyes. Damien tugged the covers over him. Kenneth held up a hand. “Get me comfortable and I’ll fall asleep.”

“That’s okay.” Ty gestured for Damien to get in, then turned out the lights and slid in after. “Holding out until Monday will just make sex all the sweeter.”

Damien didn’t want to hold out until Monday. Besides Flannigan and Chloe would probably hang around till all hours. But Kenneth was more fun when fully awake. Damien could wait for that.