Her Savior

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “I’m going to do it,” I said enthusiastically as we both separated and went to talk with the young men.

  This was the passion I’d been waiting to find after leaving my job. I could make a real difference. I could help so many people by simply bringing all my friends together and sharing the charities that were important to me. I couldn’t wait to get started on the planning.

  Chapter 3

  Jenna

  “Where are you, Elaina? We need to get you into costume for dress rehearsal,” I said on her voicemail.

  This wasn’t like Elaina at all. We were only hours away from the big masquerade event, and she had gone missing. She wasn’t answering her phone, and there wasn’t enough time for me to make it all the way to her house and back again. I didn’t know what to do. Cassandra was going to flip out. Not only was Elaina going to get fired, but Cassandra wasn’t going to give any referrals, which would make it nearly impossible for Elaina to find additional dancing jobs in the area. I couldn’t let this happen.

  “Where is she?” Stacy said as she came over to me in the back room of the convention center. “She’s going to get fired if her ass isn’t here before Cassandra shows up.”

  “I don’t know where she is. She’s not answering.”

  “Should I go over there?”

  “No, we only have two hours before everyone starts to arrive. It will take you over an hour to get all the way to her place in this traffic. She’s probably not there anyways. She has to be on her way.”

  San Francisco wasn’t a commuter-friendly city at all. It took me nearly ninety minutes to make it into town each day, and I knew it was nearly the same for Elaina even though she lived closer to town. Her house was straight through the city, and on a Saturday evening that meant it would be nearly impossible.

  “Maybe something horrible happened to her?” Stacy said looking terrified.

  “Don’t think like that. She’s probably just stuck in traffic and forgot her phone or something silly. I’ll put her costume on and go through the dress rehearsal. Don’t tell anyone it’s me.”

  “Who’s going to lead the rehearsal then?”

  “I will. As Elaina. No one will notice. We have to wear these ridiculous masks anyways. It will be fine. Help me get into her costume,” I said as I grabbed Elaina’s outfit off the hanger and pulled Stacy with me into the office behind us. There was no time to waste.

  I was much larger in the chest than Elaina, and I could hardly squeeze my boobs into her costume. It was hilarious how my cleavage appeared so heavily, and both Stacy and I couldn’t stop laughing once it was zipped up. The costume felt like it was barely holding me in. I couldn’t even take a deep breath without feeling the pressure of the fabric tug against my chest.

  “People are going to know you aren’t a ballerina. None of us have tits or an ass like that.”

  “It’s fine; no one will notice. Get me the mask,” I said unconvincingly. “It will be dark out there, and I’m only doing it for dress rehearsal. Elaina will be here before the show.”

  People were going to notice; I just felt it. Because I wasn’t dancing all day like these girls were, I had curves. I had hips and breasts that were accentuated in this costume because it was already designed to accentuate those aspects of the dancers. I felt so uncomfortable. The corset was tied as loosely as we could do it, but it still made it hard for me to move. I wasn’t fat by any means, but I definitely had more to work with than Elaina.

  As I slid the masquerade mask on, I felt a power come over me, though. I didn’t have to be me with the mask on; I could pretend to be Elaina. Elaina was beautiful and confident, and she didn’t care what others thought of her. It was her confidence and my lack of confidence that would surely be my undoing, though. I was going to have to try really hard to look people in the eyes and hope they didn’t see the uncertainty in my gaze.

  “You look amazing. Do you know the …” Stacy laughed. “Yeah, you know the dance.”

  “I’ll just do the rehearsal and then Elaina will be here and can take over for the show. Let’s just make it short, and I’ll talk as little as possible. Can you do most of the talking?”

  “Sounds like a deal, just motion to me if you want me to take over at any time. And you’re probably right. She always forgets how bad traffic can be on the weekends. I’m sure she is on her way and just stuck in it.”

  I nodded in agreement and then opened the door to head out into the main room so we could practice. As myself, I had a lot of things I was going to remind the dancers of, but as Elaina, I decided not to bring anything else up. It was a charity event; there was no right or wrong, and the people watching weren’t going to know if we did anything that wasn’t originally choreographed. The most important thing was to make sure the guests had a great time.

  “Okay ladies, I know this is a little more risqué than we are used to, but this is going to be a fun night. Remember to make the guests feel involved with lots of eye contact and even reach out and touch them or pull them in to dance with you. Okay, let’s practice,” I said as I stood with my small group, or rather Elaina’s small group. “One and two …”

  We hammered out the last few details of the dance, and everything was going perfectly. The dancers looked amazing, and it only took me a few minutes to get the hang of dancing in the group. I didn’t stand out nearly as much as I thought I would. The girls in my group were so focused on their own costumes and the dance that they had hardly looked up at me. Stacy continued to check in with me, but I just smiled and shook her off.

  “What the hell is going on? You guys look like a high school talent contest gone wrong,” Cassandra yelled from the back of the room. “Where is what’s her face? Come on, didn’t she teach you anything. I swear to God she is worthless.”

  Stacy looked wide-eyed at me, and I returned the favor. Even our masquerade masks couldn’t hide the panic in our eyes. By trying to save Elaina from getting fired, I might have just put myself in the middle of possibly losing my own job. I had not prepared for what to do if Cassandra realized I was missing.

  “Jenna just went over things with us,” Stacy said. “Would you like us to show you the whole routine?”

  “No, why would I want that? You’re horrible, but it’s too late to change anything. So I guess I’ll have to let you dance horribly and hope everyone is too drunk to notice.”

  “Okay,” Stacy said as she turned to the dancers. “Let’s rest and prepare for the show. Remember, only a light snack, though, we don’t want any puking.”

  “God, wouldn’t that just make tonight perfect? Ballerinas puking on big donors. I hate my job,” Cassandra groaned.

  I did my best not to make eye contact with Cassandra because I was afraid she’d realize I wasn’t Elaina. But Cassandra didn’t care about any of us, and she likely didn’t really care if I was there or not. I looked at the ground as Cassandra stood in the doorway overlooking the group of us and then finally left.

  It was as if the whole room breathed a collective sigh of relief when the door closed behind Cassandra. Me and Stacy were relieved she hadn’t figured out our secret, and the rest of the group was just happy that the wicked witch of the west had left us all alone until the show.

  As much as Cassandra made noise about the dance being horrible, I really thought it was amazing and couldn’t wait to see the reaction from the people attending the fundraiser. As we stretched and relaxed while we waited for the fundraiser to start, I felt myself getting more and more concerned for Elaina. It wasn’t like her to not show up. She was always on time, and this was getting serious. She would have at least called or text us if something had come up; unless it was so serious that she couldn’t reach out to us.

  With only thirty minutes before the show, Stacy finally came running over to me and showed me a text she received from Elaina. It said the text was sent two hours before, but it had just showed up on her phone.

  “The reception in here must be bad. I went outside to get some fresh
air, and it came through,” Stacy said. “She’s got a family emergency with her mom. She isn’t coming.” Stacy reiterated the text I had just read.

  “It’s okay. I’ll just do her part.”

  “But what happens if Cassandra asks where you are?” Stacy asked.

  It was a real concern for me as well. Cassandra relied on me to do a lot for her, and this event was no different. But I obviously couldn’t be in this dancers costume and be able to help Cassandra. For a minute, I tried to think of a good way to twist this so I wouldn’t end up getting myself fired.

  “Whatever she asks, just tell her I’m already doing it. Most of the time, it’s useless tasks and doesn’t matter. If she really needs something, either do it yourself or come and find me, and I’ll pull away from my donor and do it. Just keep redirecting her for me; can you do that? Just make it sound like you’ve seen me, and I’m super busy, and Cassandra is weird for not realizing it.”

  “Yeah, but I’m not so sure it’s going to work. She might want to actually see your face, even if it’s just to yell at you. What if she asks other dancers, and they say they haven’t seen you?”

  “It will be fine. I don’t know if it will work. But she won’t fire me if she thinks I’m around working hard. She will fire Elaina if she finds out she didn’t show up. Cassandra doesn’t consider family emergencies as anything other than an excuse.”

  Stacy knew exactly what I was talking about. One time, her boyfriend fell and broke his arm, and she had to take him to the doctor. Cassandra threatened to fire her for being lazy and not coming to practice. I hadn’t seen an excuse yet that would satisfy Cassandra if she wanted someone at the studio. Funnily enough, though, Cassandra had no problem staying up in her office all day and even leaving for three-hour lunches when she wanted to. The mandatory attendance was definitely a one-way street in our organization.

  “It’s starting,” one of the dancers said as we stood behind a curtain at the end of the convention center.

  None of us had experience dancing within a crowd like we were planning to do. This was going to be a unique experience for all of the dancers. I wanted to give a pep talk but decided to play the part of Elaina and just stand quietly while I replayed my part over in my head. This was it; I was going to have to use all my acting skills to project the confidence and passion that Elaina had for dancing.

  “And now, I’d like to welcome our amazing dancers,” Cassandra said from the microphone. “They will be treating you all to an extra special dance tonight, and then we will move right into the band playing, so feel free to get up and dance and enjoy the evening.”

  On stage, Cassandra almost sounded like a decent person. She was good at making herself look human in front of other people. It baffled me why she sucked so badly at showing anything close to that human side of her while in the workplace.

  The lights dimmed, and we all hurried out to our spots. My group was sent to the front section of the room near the stage. The rest of the groups spread out throughout the convention center. The tables were all along the outer edge of the room, and there was a large dance floor in the middle. A small stage was set up in the center of the room for the band, and they were ready to start playing as soon as our number was over.

  Although we had tested a lot of different options for getting the donors involved, we had settled on just pulling them up to dance with us when the band started to play. We only had a few male dancers, so we assigned them to the top female donors. The rest of us would just grab a donor that we felt we wanted to dance with.

  My group was positioned between two of the high-level donor tables. I really didn’t know many of the people except for one man that looked familiar because I’d been shown his photo a few days previously, Kevin Fox. I couldn’t remember what the girls said he did for a job, but he was smiling and pleasant to look at, so I made eye contact with him for the dance. It was better than connecting with one of the women or one of the more elderly donors.

  The music started, and since I was dancing as Elaina, I had to start our group off. I confidently did my section of the dance and then held my pose as each of the other dancers continued the number. On the sixteenth count, we all went in together and continued the dance. It took me a few steps to get into the dance, but then I got lost in the performance.

  I couldn’t see how well everyone else was doing, but our group was hitting all our marks and seamlessly integrating our moves with one another. The crowd in front of us really seemed to be enjoying it as they were fixated on us and barely looked away. The intensity of being this close to the audience was powerful, and I felt the energy radiating through my body.

  Mr. Fox seemed particularly focused on my breasts as I danced, and my face was burning with embarrassment. It was a good thing I had a mask on to hide the shy nature of my disposition while I thrust my body around and finished our show. Although Elaina was supposed to dance with Kevin, I wasn’t sure I could gather the nerve to pull him up and dance. My hands were shaking with nerves.

  When the music finally came to an end and we all stood still for our ending pose, the room erupted in applause. Most of the tables of people stood up to clap for us, and I saw Cassandra hurrying to the microphone to take advantage of this optimum time to gather donations.

  “Weren’t they amazing?” she said as she clapped and cheered for us. “I choreographed that number myself,” she added.

  I fumed with annoyance even though I should have expected such a thing from her. She had just said how much she hated the dance only an hour before, now she was clearly taking credit for it in front of everyone. She was such a wretched person.

  “I hate her,” Maria said from behind me.

  It caught me by surprise, and I quickly turned around. Maria was normally such a quiet girl who kept her opinions to herself. But she clearly had just as much disdain for Cassandra as the rest of us. I smiled back at her and then turned toward the table nearest me to continue the next step in our dance.

  I took in a deep breath and pretended like I was Elaina as I confidently walked over to the donor table. I stood next to Kevin, and his blue eyes glistened as he looked up at me.

  “Would you like to dance?” I said as I leaned over and put my mouth close to Kevin Fox’s ear. My words came out more sensually than I had expected. Perhaps the tight costume was making me more breathless than I had realized.

  Never would I have been so forward with a guy, and certainly not a man like him, but this was what the dancers were supposed to do. Elaina would have been going after Kevin for sure, so I did what I thought she would have done. He was a big donor who had a long history of giving millions to various art programs throughout the city; it was my job to make sure he had a fantastic time at this event.

  “That would be amazing,” Kevin responded as he stood up and gently took my hand.

  I lost my ability to concentrate as his hand touched mine. I didn’t dare look at him and instead kept my gaze off to the side of his ear. Elaina would have been so much better at this; I was trembling as the band started to play, and Kevin took the lead to spin me around the dance floor.

  It was a huge relief that he was taking the lead because I could hardly think straight. He smelled divine; like a mixture of Old Spice and some new-age musk. I closed my eyes and let him whirl me around the dance floor a little as we stayed in total silence for the entire first song.

  “What’s your name?” I asked when the music stopped, although I already knew who he was.

  “Kevin, and you?”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Stacy said as she pulled me away from Kevin. “Cassandra wants to make sure the food is perfect before it is brought out to the tables. I told her you were already doing that.”

  “Perfect. Thanks.”

  “Um, how’s it going with mister mc-hot-pants?” Stacy said with Kevin only a few feet away.

  “I don’t know, you interrupted us,” I teased her.

  “Sorry, just wanted you to know what I said to C
assandra. Get back in there, and don’t do anything Elaina wouldn’t do,” Stacy said with a wink.

  I wasn’t exactly sure what she was implying, but I didn’t intend to do anything but dance with this guy. He was way out of my league, and guys like him didn’t go for girls like me anyways. Kevin seemed like the type of guy who dated celebrities and other California elite women, not the assistant choreographer to a dance company who slept in a one-room apartment and fought off rodents in the hallway of her apartment complex.

  “Sorry about that,” I said as I turned back to Kevin. “Should we continue?”

  “Absolutely,” he replied as the corner of his smile tweaked up just slightly higher on one side.

  His hand slid behind me and gently pressed against my lower back as he took the lead. This was the part of the evening that I hadn’t planned for at all. Under no circumstances did I think I’d be dancing with one of the donors, and I had absolutely no idea what to say or do. I really wished Elaina was there to take my place, although it did feel damn good to have Kevin’s hands on my body.

  My right hand slid up his chest and found a spot to rest awkwardly on his right shoulder while my left hand barely held onto his hand. I felt like a middle school kid who was at her first dance and had no idea what I was doing.

  Luckily, Kevin seemed to know his way around a dance floor very well. He took me in his arms and adjusted my grip so I was a little more comfortable as he moved us from one side of the dance floor to the other. My one semester of ballroom dancing was paying off as I followed his lead and moved in step with him the best I could.

  “So is this your first time at our fundraiser?” I asked although I already knew the answer to this question as well.

  “No.”

  “Oh, so you like ballet?”

  “Not really.”

  “Wait, what?” I asked as I stopped dancing. “You don’t like ballet, but you are donating to it. That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Are you always this flaky?” I said with a laugh.

  I instantly regretted my words when I realized what I had said to him. I literally just called one of our biggest donors a flake. This wasn’t at all what I was supposed to be doing while I was dancing with him.