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Finally, reality trickled in slowly and Reese opened her eyes, her sto to find her audience was not on their feet The single elderly lady who’d stayed for the entire perfor a pair of readers with the hem of her puff painted sweatshirt

Reese determinedly sed the rust in her throat and waved at the pre-owned cars on the dealership lot “Thank you!” She swept doard into a bow “Thank you”

“Thank you for co Chevrolet’s February Sales Event Once you’re done browsing the lot, please feel free to coain, the apple cruize for any inconvenience this h-pitched whine of feedback, then a muffled, “No, we don’t have any in the back, ma’am,” before the loudspeaker cut out

Reese gathered her purple, faux-fur collared coat and wrapped it around her shoulders to co her iPhone and connected speaker into the deep pocket and sto

She looked at the old lady

The old lady stared back

“Do you wantwarm air into her hands

“Yes” The worumble “The as icy or I’d have been in there early enough to get the damn crumb cake”

Reese circled around to the back of the walker and pushed it toward the lobby entrance, weariness settling into her shoulders It was settling in faster and faster these days Back in high school, it would take her hours to come down after a perforht of a high school musical It hadn’t mattered where she perforined audience—only that she was perfor

Lately the glow started to fade almost immediately

At twenty-one, her drea, too

The people of Cedarburg, Wisconsin had spoken

And they’d chosen Entenmann’s over Reese Stratton

Even if she h money for a bus ticket to New York City for another audition, whatcoordinators would feel any differently?

Reese used her hip to prop open the lobby door so she could push her unwilling audience of one inside, the war out her legs She wheeled the wo with more locals than the town pub at happy hour, and swept the showroom for the owner

“Mister Mulcahey” Reese plastered on her best s none of her lipstick had transferred to her teeth during the performance “I’m all finished”

Without looking up from his clipboard, he nodded