Chapter 10 Training Montage #5
“So if I’m getting this right,” she says, “it sounds like he broke your heart, and this weekend he’ll be dancing with his ex-girlfriend who is possibly his girlfriend again?”
“Pretty much. So I’m basically getting my heart stomped in a public forum.”
Helen shakes her head. “You know it’s way juicier than that, my dear.”
“Why?”
Helen leans forward like she’s about to share a fun secret. “Well, you know Eliana left Ollie a few years ago to dance with Connor Yung.”
“Yes, that’s what Ollie said.”
“Well, last month, Connor Yung switched to dancing with Jaana Ahonen, and they’re going to be here this weekend.
” Helen smiles conspiratorially. “And Jaana’s former partner Hugo Persson will be here, too, dancing with Sarah Welsh, the woman Connor originally dumped for Eliana. ” Helen’s eyes are gleeful.
“How do you even know this stuff?”
“There are dance blogs, and they are delicious.” She points a chopstick at me. “So Connor is facing off against two ex-partners here. I know this is emotionally hard for you, but for the rest of us, the drama is exquisite.”
I laughed. “I thought West Coast Swing was a nice, friendly community.”
“Oh, it is. But Connor is the bad boy. And he’ll probably win this year. Which I won’t mind. He’s gorgeous.”
“I just don’t want to look bad in front of Ollie while he’s dancing with her.”
“You won’t,” Helen says. “You’ve been working hard to improve because you’re trying to win him back. I know Jody is very judgmental about him, but I think it’s romantic.”
“I don’t expect to win him back.”
Helen raises her eyebrows.
“I don’t!” I insist. “The problem is, he doesn’t think I’m worth fighting for. And I’m done with men who don’t think I’m worth fighting for.”
“Well, maybe I’m in no place to give advice, but I think if you want him, go get him.”
“I know what I’m up against. I’ve watched Eliana dance.”
Helen shakes her head. “Eliana is a sugar cookie. You’re fire. I would dance with you over her, ten times out of ten.”
“Oh, come on.”
“She’s very sweet and very bland. There’s a reason she hasn’t won a major competition.”
“Can I have you announce me next time I step onto a dance floor? This is Laura Marceau. She’s fire.”
“That’s the reason I’ve come, darling.”
I take her hand and squeeze it.
Helen shrugs. “You and Ben and Jody are why I stuck with this for so long. I was supposed to be learning merengue this month.”
When we arrive at registration, I ask if I can switch my sign up from the Newcomer to the Novice Jack anyone can try Newcomer or Novice, but after you earn a certain number of points in competition, you are generally required to go to the next step up, from Intermediate to Advanced all the way up to Champions.
There are also a handful of competitions for age ranges like youth and seniors.
Ollie and Eliana, with their competition history, are automatically competing at the top level.
While I wait for Helen to finish picking up her badge, I scan the lobby nervously for Ollie’s auburn hair or Eliana’s sunny ponytail. What I see instead is a sandy-haired, awkward figure hovering just inside the door.
“Ben!” I call, and Ben’s smile widens when he sees us. “You came!”
“I came,” he says. “And guess what? Paige called me last night.”
“Are you serious? Did she want to get back together?”
Ben nods, slowly. “You were one hundred percent right, Laura.”
“Tell us everything,” Helen says.
“Is it okay if I don’t?” He grimaces. “I basically told her off.”
“I told you she would!” I say. “You’re marvelous, and she’s realizing what she lost. And if you wanted to try again with her, no one would judge you.”
He shakes his head slowly. “Maybe the day after the wedding I would have, but now, no thank you. I realized that I always felt like I wasn’t good enough for her, and it hit me that she was the one making me feel that way.
She was playing hard to get, telling me I had to be serious enough to get married, telling me she expected to be treated well.
It was a game, and I was tired of playing.
I don’t want to have to prove myself constantly anymore. ”
Helen pats his arm. “Good for you. I wish I’d avoided my first marriage.”
“Wasn’t that your only marriage?”
“Exactly,” Helen says with a smile. “Now come join us. We’ll find some lovely young woman and get you laid.”
Ben looks amused in spite of himself as he heads to the social dance. I’m starting to hope this could be fun.
As soon as we enter the large ballroom space for the opening night dance, though, I start feeling less confident.
The room is whirling with light and color and the faint scent of sweat.
While the music is technically slow enough for West Coast swing, there are a bunch of styles to be seen, from the more bouncy, circular styles of East Coast to the sexier Blues dancers.
I find myself scanning the room for Ollie, but he is not here.
That feels like more of a relief than a disappointment, but only just.
Ben asks Helen to dance, which leaves me standing alone at the edge of the crowd.
Almost everyone I’m watching is terrifyingly good, even compared to the events that I’ve been to in New York.
After a while, I start to feel nervous that someone will approach me and ask me to dance and be disappointed by my lack of skill.
I keep my eyes on Ben and Helen, reminding myself that there is joy in seeing how much better Ben has gotten and how much fun Helen’s having.
Then I notice a large man standing beside me with dark brown skin and startlingly attractive light-brown eyes.
He is easily six feet tall and built like an athlete, but he has a warm, easygoing smile when he meets my eyes.
“Do you want to dance?” I ask him, just as a slower Leon Bridges song starts up. “I am completely new to this, and I only know West Coast, but I feel like if I don’t get out there now, I never will. I’m a follower, if you know how to lead.”
He tilts his head to one side like I’ve said something very funny, then puts out a hand to me. “I’d be happy to,” he replies.
Within about three seconds, I realize my mistake. He is astonishingly good—better than Ollie, even. His dance moves are witty and polished, and he leaves me space to attempt my awkward but enthusiastic newcomer moves.
“You’re doing great!” he says warmly.
It’s a lie, but it helps me relax and start having fun. I manage to pull off three moves that I only just learned: a variation on a whip, a rock and go, and a new pop-out move that I picked up from my lesson with Eliana.
“How long have you been dancing?” the man asks, his hand warm in mine.
“About two months.”
“You’re wonderful for two months!” he calls back as he pulls me into a turn. He seems to be having fun even though he’s guiding me through steps like you’d help a wobbly child on a bicycle.
At the end of the dance, I’m feeling a bit better about myself. “Thank you,” I say with a grin. “You helped me get over my fear of getting out there.”
“Dion,” he says, holding out his hand.
“Laura.”
“You’re a natural, Laura.”
We shake hands, and when I return back to the wall, I see Ben, Helen, and a newly arrived Jody watching me. None of them speak as I approach.
“What?”
Helen shakes her head as Jody opens her mouth and closes it before she finally gets the words out. “You know he’s ranked number one in the country.”
“What?” I turn and look after the man, who is now walking through the space greeting people.
Even Ben is amused. “So let me get this straight. For your first time social dancing at your first competition, you asked Dion Reyes to dance.”
“Oh my God.” I cover my face. “I didn’t recognize him. I thought he was standing alone because he was new!”
Jody cackles. “He was standing alone because everyone is too intimidated to ask him to dance!”
“I asked him if he knew how to lead!” My face warms as everyone doubles over with laughter.
I lean back against the wall as Jody continues to shake her head at me. Then I see her notice someone, and I follow her gaze to Téa, standing across the room chatting with someone.
“Are you going to ask her to dance?” I nudge Jody.
Jody shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t know. We had a date this week that went okay, but...” Jody sighs.
“You had a date? That’s great.”
“Okay, fine. You’re right. Fine. I’ll go.” Jody pushes herself away from the wall wearily.
Helen and I smile at each other as we watch Jody cross the room.
Right then I catch sight of Ollie. He is looking at me from across the dance floor, standing near Eliana, who has just arrived and is wearing a bright yellow outfit.
He looks different, and I realize that he has shaved his beard entirely.
He looks handsome without the beard, his chin sharply sculpted.
I wonder if the loss of the beard is Eliana’s doing and then wonder whether it is for competition reasons or to suit Eliana’s personal preference. Not a useful thought at all.
He is staring at me like I’m the only person in the room, though, and for a moment, I can barely hear the music, barely notice anything but his look.
Helen leans over to me. “Ollie was watching you the whole time you were dancing with Dion.”
I shrug. “Well, it doesn’t really matter,” I say, “because he’s not going to do anything about it.”
When I look back at him, though, he is walking straight toward me. I watch him cross the room, making as much of a beeline as he can without interfering with the whirling dancers. My heart does a small flip, which annoys me. I am angry at him. No flipping allowed.
When he finally nears me, he leans close. “Hey,” he says in my ear over the music. “Can I talk to you outside for a second?”
“Sure.”
My chest feels fluttery as we walk outside the ballroom into the lobby space, which is mostly empty aside from some dancers from the under-eighteen group twirling for each other to show off their brightly colored skirts.
I feel a familiar rush just from standing near him again, the magnet-level attraction that I haven’t felt since high school.
I can see his lips better without the beard, the way the lower lip is slightly fuller, and that’s not a helpful thought either. My brain isn’t behaving.
“You looked really great out there,” he says intensely. I can’t tell what his emotion is. Guilt? Embarrassment? Not jealousy, as much as I wish it was.
“It’s hard not to look great with such a great partner,” I say honestly. I don’t even mean it as a dig, but Ollie frowns.
“Listen,” he says, “I’m competing here with my old partner Eliana.
I uh…I should have told you about that. I don’t want you to think I got back together with her.
She just needed someone for this one weekend.
” He is looking at me very sincerely, like he earnestly wants me to believe him. But why would it matter, at this point?
“It’s okay, Ollie.” I take a breath, avoiding the intense eye contact and fixing my gaze on the group of teenagers nearby in their twirly 1950s dresses. “I heard about it at Manhattan Swing a few weeks ago.” His jaw tenses a little.
“She asked me to do this as a favor,” he continues. “She just got back to the city, and she didn’t have anyone to dance with. Connor really hurt her when he announced he was switching partners, so she wanted to show up here with dignity, and I agreed to help.”
“You don’t need to justify yourself to me, because we’re not dating.” There it is, the little frown again. He looks down.
“I know, but it’s only been a couple of weeks since we…” He takes a breath. “I didn’t want you to think she had anything to do with my decision.”
I take a breath. “Ollie, if I got my feelings hurt about you dancing with Eliana, that happened weeks ago, when we were still together. Now it’s genuinely none of my business.”
He says nothing for a moment, just takes a step closer. “Laura, can I ask you something?”
I nod once, still unable to meet his eyes.
“Are you back with Nick?”
My eyes shoot back to his. “What? No.” I am almost too stunned to speak. “I told you I wasn’t.”
“I thought that maybe if I was out of the way for a couple of weeks—”
“So you broke up with me as a test? To see if I’d get back together with him?”
“No!” He looks shocked. “I wasn’t testing you, I just thought that if you wanted to do it, maybe I was in the way.”
“In the way of what?” My voice is getting louder, my will to act mature swept away by a wave of outrage.
“I thought maybe deep down, you still wanted him, and you felt guilty telling me—”
“I can assure you, I am not the one here who needs to feel guilty.”
He takes another step forward, and I get the insane idea that he’s about to grab me and kiss me, and I know that if he does then I’m going to shove him away as hard as I can.
“Laura.” He raises one tentative hand.
The teenagers open the door to head back into the ballroom, and music pours out the doors, along with Eliana, wearing her bright yellow tank-top and matching pants like she’s made of sunshine and lemon drops.
“Hey! I figured out when the practice session is,” she says brightly to Ollie, as if I’m not even there. She glances between us. “Oh, hi!” Her voice is full of sunny warmth, but I’m not buying it.
“Hi,” I reply, my eyes returning to Ollie. Then I wait. Some stubborn part of me doesn’t want to make this easy for either of them.
“Can I talk to you for a sec about the schedule, Ol?” she asks crisply.
He nods once. “Yeah, of course.” He doesn’t move.
Another long moment. Finally, I give him a smile and walk back inside the ballroom.
Just as the door closes behind me, I hear her say, “Wait, is that the woman you—”
The door shuts.