Kiki followed me back to the living room, kind of like a little puppy, and we both sat on the couch.

"So Jen told me you had an audition this week," she said. "That is, like, so cool. For Jenner Collins? Oh my G.o.d, I just love him so much. Daddy has done some work with him. He's totally into the revitalization of the city. It's so, so awesome."

"Yup," I agreed, putting my feet up on the coffee table. "He's a pretty cool guy."

"So was he there? At the audition, I mean. How did it go? I bet you were just great."

Kiki always talked like this, a mile a minute. When I first met her I had thought she was the most ridiculous person in the world. But I soon came to find out that she was genuinely this nice, this interested in other people. There was nothing fake about her enthusiasm. She was a good person to have on your side.

"Jenner wasn't there, no" I told her. "It was only the first audition. I wouldn't imagine he'd be around until the callback, if then. For all I know he won't even have much to do with this show; he might just be producing in name only."

"Well, I bet you get the part. And I'm sure he'll be around for at least the performances. He'll probably be, like, so impressed with you."

"Thanks, Kiki," I said, smiling in spite of myself. "So, what's this awesome news about the event?"

"I actually have two awesome pieces of news," she said, bouncing on the couch a little. "But I can only tell you one part right now. The rest will have to wait."

"Um...okay?" I said, wishing I could just go lay down in my quiet room. My headache was coming back with a vengeance.

"Jen," Kiki called. "Hurry up and get out here! I want to tell Annie the news!"

"I'm here," Jen said, appearing in the hallway. "Hey, Ann," she said, shooting me an understanding smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty rough," I admitted.

"What's wrong?" Kiki asked.

"Was just out late last night," I explained. "A little hung over."

"Oh, you poor thing! And here I was talking your ear off when you probably only wanted some peace and quiet. I'm, like, so sorry. But I promise, this news will cheer you up!"

"Okay, Kiki," I told her. "Shoot."

"So, I told Daddy about this event Jen and I are helping you with. And he was totally curious about your organization. He hasn't done too much work out in that neighborhood, you know?"

I nodded, trying to keep up. Kiki's dad, David Barker, was one of the most well-known and prestigious developers in the city. He had made a ridiculous amount of money revitalizing run-down buildings and neighborhoods in Detroit. He was now the owner of numerous restaurants, clubs and hotels in the city, but to my knowledge his business hadn't ventured much into the area where my theater was located.

"So, anyhow," she said. "I had Jen talk to him and tell him about what you guys do, and he was totally into it. He wants to give the theater some money! Like, not a crazy amount, but he wants to be a patron. And as he gets to know you guys more, who knows how far the relationship will go, you know? My dad is all about building relationships."

I stared at her blankly. What was she saying?

"He's going to become a donor, Annie," Jen explained, smiling broadly at me. "He wants to come out to the benefit next month and get set up as a patron."

"Oh my G.o.d," I said, looking between the two of them. "Are you serious?"

Kiki just beamed at me. "See? I told you it would cheer you up!"

"This is...wow, this is just incredible!" I tried to wrap my mind around what Kiki was saying. Springwells was a pretty small theater, even amongst non-profits. We were constantly struggling to come up with funding. If we actually got a patron, especially someone at the level of David Barker...it could totally change everything.

"He wants to meet with you next week," she said, still smiling. "Nothing formal, just a lunch."

"Wow," I said. "Kiki this is...well, thanks. This is amazing."

"I did nothing," she said, holding up her hands. "This isn't a favor. I just mentioned the event. He was genuinely impressed with what you guys do for the community."

"Wow," I said again, shaking my head.

"So, what's the other news?" Jen asked hopefully, but Kiki just laughed.

"Nope, I told you you'd have to wait." Kiki said.

"You don't know, either?" I asked.

Jen shook her head. "Kiki said we're waiting for everyone else."

"Everyone else?" I asked. "Like, who?"

Just then the front door banged open, revealing Ginny, Josh, and Danny.

"Yay!" Kiki squealed. "I'm so glad you guys are here!"

"Hi," Ginny said, plopping Danny's diaper bag on the floor. "So what's this big news?"

"We're just waiting for Matty and Eric now," Kiki said happily.

"How are you doing today, Ann?" Josh asked, smirking at me. "You were pretty far gone last night."

I rolled my eyes at him. "I feel great," I said. "Just peachy, thanks."

"She should," Jen replied, walking over to grab Danny from Josh's arms. "Kiki just told her Mr. Barker wants to donate to the theater."

"Wow!" Ginny said, coming over to sit down. "That's amazing! Marilyn is gonna totally be thrilled with you!"

"Hmm, I hadn't thought about that," I said. "But she probably will." It was a comforting thought; my boss was a really cool lady, totally dedicated to the theater and our kids. I wished she would see through more of Grayson's kissing up, but I really liked the idea of impressing her myself. Maybe this would give me a shot at getting more of the creative a.s.signments.

There was a loud knock on the door. "Come in!" I hollered. The door opened to reveal Matt and his brother-Kiki's husband, Eric. I rolled my eyes. "Matt, you spend the night here four nights out of week. You don't have to knock on the door."

"I'm trying to be respectful," he said. "For all I know the two of you regularly hang out in your nighties having pillow fights when I'm not around."

Jen snorted. "Like that ever happens."

"Jennifer," he replied, putting his hand over his heart. "Please do not kill my dream."

"Pig," she muttered, but walked over to kiss him h.e.l.lo all the same.

"Okay, Kiki," Matt said, his arm around Jen. "You told me this was an emergency. What's going on?"

"Well, I have really, really awesome news!" she said. "Daddy is working on this deal with a developer to add a hotel to the new casino."

I wrinkled my nose a little bit. I was not really a fan of the Detroit casinos. They depressed the h.e.l.l out of me, to be honest. Any time I had been inside of one I was overwhelmed by the number of poor people sitting there throwing their money away in the hopes of changing their situation. Detroit had enough problems without adding inst.i.tutionalized gambling.

"So anyhow, the guy wants Daddy to do a little market research, find out the kind of thing people our age would be looking for in a high cla.s.s casino hotel. So Daddy asked me if I wanted to get a group of my friends together and go do some research."

"What do you mean, research?" I asked.

"I mean, the seven of us are going to stay in a sw.a.n.ky hotel!" Kiki said, literally bouncing on the seat now in her excitement.

"Where's there a hotel like that around here?" Matt asked. "That your dad doesn't already own, that is?"

"There isn't," Kiki said, her voice rising in volume with each word. "That's why he wants us to go..." She paused for dramatic effect. We all stared at her. "To Vegas!" she cried.

There was silence in the room for a minute, then Jen let out a little yelp. "We're going to Vegas?"

"Yes!" Kiki cried, jumping up from the couch. "The developer got us three rooms at an awesome hotel right on the strip. He wants us to go for a long weekend and come back to tell him all about it. Isn't that amazing?"

I stared at her blankly. It did sound amazing. It also sounded expensive.

"Kiki," I said, feeling uncomfortable. "This is really awesome and everything; a free room sounds great...but I don't think I could afford the airfare or gambling money."

"Don't be silly!" Kiki cried. "Daddy has a jet, you know that. And this is totally for business so I'm allowed to use it. And the hotel will give us comps for the casino. The whole point is for us to have a great time so we can report back to Daddy and his partners what we liked."

"Holy s.h.i.t," Ginny said. "Are you seriously offering us a totally free trip to Vegas?"

"Yes!" Kiki said, sounding relieved that we were finally catching on. "Well, I'm not. Daddy and his partner are."

I just stared at her for a minute. Vegas. I had never been farther west than Chicago. And then it had only been to visit Jen at college, staying in her cramped little dorm. Nothing at all like what Kiki was offering.

"I can't believe you guys aren't more excited," Kiki said, starting to pout. "Are you worried about the money? That's it, isn't it?" As a wealthy heiress, Kiki had a very hard time understanding why the issue of money so often made the rest of us uncomfortable.

But this...like she said, it wasn't like she or her dad were just giving us a trip to be nice. Business people must do stuff like this all the time, right? I mean, not that I knew too many business people. But weren't they always spending money on this kind of thing?

Jen had gone on Mr. Barker's jet a few times, for work. She said it was the most amazing thing, total luxury and sw.a.n.k. And then we would get to spend the weekend in a suite in Vegas. I could only imagine what kind of place we would be going to. I hadn't been on a trip in so long, and I'd never been anywhere so cool.

I felt a sudden flash of excitement, and before I knew it, I was jumping off the couch to hug Kiki. "This is amazing!" I cried. I saw Jen look at me in surprise. Hugging Kiki and jumping around in excitement weren't really my style. But I didn't care. We were going to Vegas!

"Seriously!" Ginny cried, jumping up too. Danny, seeing her reaction, started clapping. Ginny also wrapped her arms around Kiki, who seemed overjoyed at our response.

"Oh my G.o.d, we're going to Vegas, baby!" I shouted.

I looked over and saw that even calm, collected Matt was looking excited. He gave his brother Eric a high five and hugged Jen.

"Josh, why the h.e.l.l aren't you excited?" Ginny asked accusingly. I looked over and saw that Josh was sitting on the couch, a rather disappointed look on his face.

"I won't be able to go," he said softly. "Sorry, Kiki," he added, looking up at her. "But there's just no way I'll be able to get a Sat.u.r.day off."

Ginny groaned. Josh had recently started a new job at a local magazine. It was the kind of work he'd wanted to do his entire life, literally his dream job. But he had just started a few months ago and was working his way up from the bottom. His current a.s.signment was to cover weekend events all over the metro area. Sat.u.r.days were always his busy day.

"I just haven't been there long enough to get the time off," he said. "I'm really sorry."

Ginny looked like she was going to cry. "That's okay," she said. "I'm sure there will be other trips. You guys will just have to tell me all about it."

"Are you crazy?" Josh asked, staring at her. "Why on earth shouldn't you go with them?"

"I can't just leave you here to work while I go on vacation!" she said.

"Oh, yes you can, and you will. No way are you missing out on something this cool just because of me."

"Josh..." she started.

"Seriously, Gin," he said firmly. "You're going. I'll stay home with my little Danny bud here and we'll have a man's weekend. We'll smoke cigars and watch racy movies and walk around in our underwear. It will be a blast."

I felt a rush of affection for Ginny's husband. They may have gotten off to a rocky start, but I loved him for wanting this for her, for trying to convince her it was nothing rather than act like some kind of martyr.

I looked at Ginny and realized it wouldn't take too much to convince her. She clearly wanted to go, bad.

"Gin," I told her. "I'm gonna need a roommate. Please come with us and bunk with me so I don't end up having to sleep in a rollaway bed in Jen and Matt's room. Please."

She laughed, then turned to her husband. "Josh, are you sure you don't care?"

"Absolutely," he said. "And who knows, maybe you'll strike it big at blackjack and we'll be rolling in the dough by the time you come home."

"So when is this?" Matt asked.

"That's the best part. It's next weekend! We're leaving Thursday-we don't even have to wait that long." She took a deep breath. "And I think I would seriously die if we had to wait. Not being able to tell Jen all day has been killing me."

I was so excited, I managed to not even roll my eyes at that.

My phone rang, distracting me from the excited plans everyone had started to make. I looked at the screen and didn't recognize the number. "Probably a bill collector," I muttered, but was still too excited to care. I headed to the hallway for a little more quiet before answering.

"h.e.l.lo?" I asked.

"Miss Duncan?" said an unfamiliar male voice. Definitely a bill collector.

"Yes?"

"This is Jackson Coles, from the JCollins Theater team." I managed to stifle my gasp. This was the man I had read for the night before.

"We were very impressed with your audition last night," Jackson continued, and I felt my heart start to beat rapidly in my chest.

"We would be pleased to offer you a place at our callbacks this week."

"Wow," I stammered, feeling totally shocked. I couldn't believe they were getting back to me already. And I really couldn't believe they wanted to see me again. "That sounds great. I would be very interested in attending."

"Great," Jackson said. "Let me give you the details." He read out a date and location and instructed me on where to find the audition materials online. "We'd like you to read for the part of Jillian," he said, and I felt like pa.s.sing out. That was the largest female role.

"That sounds great," I said, barely recognizing my own voice. I felt my hands shaking and I prayed I wouldn't say anything stupid to give myself away.

"So we'll see you on Wednesday evening," he confirmed.