Strictly My Husband: It's funny, it's romantic and it's got dancing - what's not to love! Read Online Free Page A

picking up the list of applicants.
    ‘What’s with all the smiling and the handshaking bollocks?’
    Tom just shrugged.
    ‘You never smile or shake someone’s hand during auditions. In fact it’s the first rule you ever taught me. Don’t look them in the eye, you said. Don’t be nice, you said. You said you gave me the job because I excelled at being cold and dismissive.’
    ‘Maybe I’ve remembered what it’s like to audition. It’s shit. So maybe we should actually try and make it a bit less shit.’ He picked up his pen and put a cross through Nathan’s name. ‘I assume you agree Nathan’s performance was utterly dire and we hope never to see him darken our door ever again.’
    ‘Correct,’ said Amy. ‘I crossed him off before he even opened his mouth. He was wearing a Take That T-shirt. I can’t bear all that retro crap.’
    Tom groaned. Another downside of working at a theme park was that generally everyone was younger that him and he hated it when they so casually reminded him.
    ‘So who have we got next?’ he asked.
    Amy flicked through some pages on her clipboard. ‘Last but not least for today we are doing the female lead in the show,’ she said. ‘Are we marking out of ten for this one? What are today’s criteria? Best Whitney Houston impression? Best Cher impersonation? Or the one who looks the most like a drag queen?’
    ‘Let’s not, eh?’ muttered Tom, glancing down the list and spotting Carly’s name.
    Amy looked at him. ‘All this smiling and handshaking has made you even more miserable than usual,’ she told him.
    ‘Just bring ’em in, Amy.’
    ‘You’re the boss,’ she said, hauling herself up from her chair and heading out to the changing rooms to notify the next set of lambs to the slaughter.
    Tom sat back in his chair feeling slightly sick. Somehow he hadn’t managed to get Carly out of his head. He’d been dreading her audition andthe moment she realised that not only had she been dumped but she’d also insulted the man who today held her fate in his hands.
    Amy arrived back and told him not to get his hopes up. There were only five left in the running after Leon the choreographer had weeded out all the rubbish dancers in his audition that morning.
    ‘There’s really only one that’s any good apparently,’ said Amy, ‘so if she can’t sing we’re screwed.’
    A short girl who’d overdone it with the hair extensions, which made her resemble Captain Caveman, strode on to the stage.
    ‘Hold on to your hats,’ said Amy, blowing her rosy round cheeks out. ‘This could be a bumpy ride.’
    One by one they trooped up and, sure enough, Captain Caveman warbled like Cher and the next one broke down in tears at the end of ‘I Will Always Love You’, confessing, ‘I still can’t believe she’s gone.’
    ‘We are doomed to putting on a back-from-the-dead Whitney tribute act this Halloween,’ muttered Amy.
    ‘Bad taste,’ Tom muttered back.
    ‘Carly Stevenson next,’ said Amy. ‘I think Leon said this was the good one.’
    Tom swallowed hard. Maybe she wouldn’t see him because of the stage lights. Maybe she’d do her audition and not mention that they’d already met. Maybe if he smiled enough she’d assume he wasn’t the grumpy Entertainment Director that her friend auditioned for a year ago. But what if she couldn’t sing? What if he had to turn her down and she thought it was just because she’d insulted him earlier in the day? Today was turning out to be much worse than normal.
    He watched her emerge from the wings shrouded by an enormous red cloak, a hood covering her head. She glided to the middle of the stage and positioned herself behind the microphone, her head bent low, waiting for her music to begin. Tom was holding his breath.
    The opening chords of a familiar tune struck up and he watched Carly slowly raise her head and look him straight in the eye before she started to sing.
    ‘I put a spell on you because you're mine
    You better stop