Together

A Conversation

And here we have our thrilling conclusion of the 'Paris' struggle saga. Please enjoy this one... good luck ;) comment and vote!
-ab

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October 14, 2025

Harper

"Alright, let's take this dance into the main rehearsal. They should be running 'Paris' any minute now," Sienna tells me.

I gulp. "Alright."

As terrified as I am to be showing this dance to Luke, I'm even more determined to get it right. Perhaps that would allow me to get some sleep at night.

"How are you feeling?" she asks.

"Scared, but I'm alright," I laugh.

"You've got this, girl. You have improved so much on this dance since yesterday morning."

"Thanks," I smile.

We sit in the rehearsal studio for no more than five minutes until Luke calls for everyone in 'Paris.'

Standing up, Sienna gives me a thumbs up, and I head to my opening mark on the stage.

I put all of my concentration into the dance. As I truly lose myself in the character, I practically forget that Luke is watching. It begins to feel like second nature.

Okay, Charleston here, I think to myself, as I tell myself the steps in my head.

After what feels like an eternity, I sing my final note and hit my ending pose.

I did it. I really did it.

"Alright. That's looking nice," Luke comments, keeping a straight face. "Run through it once more, and if there are no issues, then we are going to move on to 'In My Dreams.'"

We manage to do just so. I still don't know how Luke feels about my dancing, but he doesn't give complaints as we finish rehearsing 'Paris.'

We make it through 'In My Dreams,' and it is a refreshing little break from the heavy dancing of 'Paris.' As the matter of fact, 'In My Dreams' may just be my favourite number from the whole show.

"Lovely," Luke states, as we wrap up our first run-through of the number. "I'll tell you what. That was so good, that we aren't even going to run it any more today. You can all be dismissed early. Please spread the word to the others. Harper, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Terrified, I nod and walk up to Luke.

"I can tell that you've put a lot of work into that dance," he tells me. "It's looking so much better."

"Thank you," I reply.

"So, I guess, what I'm wondering now is, could you come in about fifteen minutes early tomorrow morning so that we can get you fitted for some costumes?"

"Do you mean-"

"Congratulations," he winks at me. "You're no longer on probation in this cast."

"Oh my gosh!" I squeal. "Thank you so much." With a giant smile on my face, I wrap him in an even bigger hug.

"Now, go home and get some rest. You've worked hard today, and we are running a lot of your scenes tomorrow. Remind me, are you off book with your lines?"

"Yeah," I nod.

"Wonderful. I'll see you tomorrow, love."

"Bye," I tell him, grabbing my backpack and leaving the building.

Taking a different tube ride than what I'm used to, I pop by Patrick's clinic. "Is Patrick free?" I ask the secretary.

"He should be," she nods. "Go ahead in."

I walk into his office. "Hey, hon."

"Harper!" he exclaims. "How was rehearsal today?"

"I got it! I got the dance!"

"Really? Oh, honey, I'm so proud of you!" he tells me, wrapping me in a hug.

"And I've got your cupcake."

"You are the greatest," he laughs. "Thank you so much."

"No problem," I say, digging the box out of my backpack and handing it to him. "Would you fancy some pizza for dinner when you get home?"

"That would be the best."

"I'll make some appear, then," I laugh. "I'll see you later, hon."

"See you," he says, waving as I walk out of his office.

After a quick tube ride home, deeming myself too tired to walk, I throw my things down on the couch and head straight into the kitchen, where I start mixing together the ingredients for the pizza dough.

After setting it aside to rise for a bit, I turn on the telly and wait for Patrick to come home.

A few minutes into some depressing news story that I'm only half paying attention to, as I'm running through my lines in my head, I hear the door open and Patrick walk in.

"Hey, love," I smile, turning to him. "How was the rest of work?"

"It was good," he shrugs. "Nothing extraordinary."

"That's probably for the better," I giggle. "Weird things aren't always good."

"True. Especially not in my field of work."

"Double true," I say, nodding, as I begin to imagine all of the things that could go wrong and have bad endings for him. "The pizza dough is just rising. It probably has about half an hour left until we can bake it."

"Cool," he replies. "What are you watching?"

"Nothing good," I shrug. "It seems quite depressing, as the matter of fact."

"How about we turn this off, then, and put on some music? You can pick. I got to pick last time."

"That sounds perfect," I tell him, turning off the telly. He sits down next to me and snakes his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in so that I can rest my head on his chest. The quiet sounds of his heart beating in one ear and the music playing through our speakers in the other ear comforts me. "This is perfect," I murmur.

"What's that, love?"

"All of this... you, this flat, my job... it's all that I could ever dream of. I don't know how I ended up so lucky."

"Karma," he whispers. "Everyone else made your life so miserable in secondary school, but you still tried so hard to be nice, and you worked so hard. Now, you're more successful and happier than any of them are."

I blush a little bit. "Maybe that's it."

"I'm sure of it."

He pulls me in a bit closer, and I allow my eyes to close. I didn't realize how tired I was until I wake up to the sound of a timer.

"That's the pizza dough," he whispers to me. "Let's go get it all ready for baking."