Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Candy Canes
“I don’t like this,” Lana says. “I don’t like this at all.”
Oliver and I just finished explaining our plan to Lana.
We’re at the studio before everyone else.
I’ve spent the last few days going back and forth with him over text, figuring out how to handle Tina coming for the first half of class.
While Tina is here, no one is to take out their instruments or mention anything about the marching band.
Oliver already explained this to his students earlier. They’re all on board.
“She won’t be here for every practice,” I remind Lana. “Just this one and maybe the last one. Or at least what she will believe is the last one.”
Lana shakes her head. “See, this is what I don’t like. The lying and scheming. I’m a choreographer, not an actress. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“She’s going to love the surprise. I promise.”
Lana shakes her head and then walks away, whispering something under her breath. I exchange a look with Oliver.
“You better get out of here,” I say to him. “Tina will be here any minute. I’ll let you know when you can come back.”
Oliver takes off. Just a few minutes later, his students start showing up along with some of the dancers who responded to my post in the improv group.
More and more people continue filing into the building.
Pretty soon, the entire studio is crowded.
Some of the people in the improv group had mentioned they might bring some friends, but I’m not expecting this many people.
I don’t even notice that Tina is here until she’s right next to me.
“Wow,” she says. “This is incredible. There are so many people here!”
“And they’re all here for you,” I remind her.
She smiles and clasps her hands together, watching the crowd of people like a proud mom might look at her children.
There’s a loud whistle at the front of the room. Tina and I both turn to look at Lana. All of the chatter in the room dies down as she gets everyone’s attention.
“I want all of my dancers facing me,” she says in a commanding voice. Everyone turns their bodies toward her at once. Tina and I stay at the side of the studio, watching. The room is silent for a moment until Lana says, “I might need a bigger studio.”
There’s a rumble of laughter across the room. The dancers look a little more relaxed.
“Ms. Cain,” Lana says, looking at me. “Would you like to start us off?”
“Sure.” I step forward, dragging Tina with me.
“My name is Priscilla,” I say, addressing the room.
“This is my friend Tina. Tina is planning on proposing to her boyfriend, Ryan. You all are here to help make that happen. We are going to be doing a flash mob at the Saratoga County Fair. Right before the flash mob, Tina and Ryan are going to go for a carriage ride. When the ride is over, the music will start and you all will start to dance. Lana here will be teaching you the dance routine and timing everything just right.”
“Okay,” Lana says, clapping her hands together. “I’m going to walk you through the first steps of the dance.”
Lana talks them through a few moves while she demonstrates, and then the group copies her.
“This is so exciting,” Tina whispers to me.
“Does it feel more real now that you can see your idea coming to life?”
She nods. “So much more real. But I probably don’t have to come to every practice, do I? I mean, this is fun and all but I don’t think I’m accomplishing much by watching them learn the dance moves.”
This is what I was hoping she would say. “Yeah, of course not,” I tell her. “Don’t feel obligated to stay, either.”
She lets out a sigh of relief. “I’m going to take off, then,” she says.
“Okay. See you later.”
She moves toward me like she’s going to give me a hug, but she pauses with her hands on my shoulders. “Have I told you that you’re the best friend I could have ever asked for?”
I smile and flip my hair dramatically. “Yes, but I never get tired of hearing it.”
She laughs. “I’m serious. You’re turning my dream into the real thing. This is incredible, Priss. Thank you.”
“You know I would do anything for you,” I tell her.
She pulls me in for a hug. When she leaves, I take my phone out of my back pocket. I send a text to Oliver, letting him know that she’s gone. He must not have gone too far, because he shows up only a few minutes later. A couple of his students smile and wave at him when he walks through the door.
When Lana reaches a good stopping point, I step back up to the front of the room, this time dragging Oliver with me.
“Now that Tina is gone, I have another announcement to make. This is Oliver. Some of you may know him as Mr. Edison. For those of you who don’t know, Oliver is a high school band teacher, and his students are in this room with us.
” Several of them raise their hands, unprompted.
I smile, grateful for their enthusiasm. “Oliver happens to be Ryan’s best friend. ”
“Ryan is the guy Tina is proposing to, right?” one of the dancers asks.
“That’s correct. But there’s a twist. Ryan is also planning to propose to Tina, on the same day and at the same fair.
Tina has no idea that Ryan is planning this, and Ryan has no idea that Tina is either.
It’s going to be a total surprise for both of them.
This is where Oliver’s band students come in.
Ryan wants a marching band playing when he proposes, so we’ve mixed Oliver’s students into the flash mob.
Tina doesn’t know about this part, and we need to keep it that way.
As the dance comes to an end, the marching band will then come together out of the crowd and begin the next part of the performance. ”
“I love it,” says one of the dancers. A rumble erupts from the crowd as they all start talking to each other. I can’t make out everything that’s said, but I hear a lot of praise for the plan, which makes me happy.
I look over my shoulder at Lana. She’s doing a good job of disguising how much she dislikes this part of the plan. She gives the dancers another moment to trade comments, and then she whistles again, getting everyone back on track.
I find a stool at the back of the room. Oliver pulls a stool up next to mine and sits down.
His knee bumps mine. I look down at his leg, and then up at him, but he’s not looking at me.
He’s watching the dancers. He doesn’t seem to notice that he’s touching me, but it’s all I can focus on now.
My knee feels warm where it touches his.
Every nerve ending in my body is connected with the spot where our legs touch.
I have to force my mind to think about anything else. I look back up at the dancers and at Oliver’s students. I can pick most of them out of the crowd, not because I recognize them, but because they’re a little bit younger than the others.
“Your students seem to be having a lot of fun,” I tell him. “They fit right in with all the other improv dancers I found.”
“It looks like they’re making a lot of progress already,” he says.
I nod. “Lana told me that she likes to move fast with flash mobs. Not every dance move needs to be perfect. It just needs to be fun. We only have a few more weeks until the fair, so this whole thing is going to be pretty fast paced from here on out.”
“We’ve been practicing the sheet music for the Sara Bareilles song in class,” he says. “Ryan wants them to play a Jason Derulo song, too. We’ll just have to figure out how to incorporate both of them into the dance.”
“Is that going to be hard?”
He shakes his head. “Shouldn’t be. These are marching band students. They’re used to moving with their instruments.”
We watch as the dancers follow Lana’s lead, practicing a few more steps in the dance.
“So,” Oliver says, nudging my knee with his. “Have you gone on any more dates with Malcolm Ridges lately?”
I look back down at his knee, for a moment too distracted to process his question. Our legs have been touching since we sat down, so this is nothing new. Still, the simple act of him moving my knee with his reminds me that it’s there, and more, that he’s aware of it, too.
When I look back up at him, I find him watching me. I remember that I haven’t answered his question yet. I roll my eyes. “It wasn’t a date.”
He smirks. “But I bet he wanted it to be.”
“It was strictly professional.” Even as I say it, I remember the awkward hug Malcolm gave me. I’ve never had a professional meeting where a potential client hugged me before. I decide to keep that tidbit to myself.
“He asked you out for drinks after business hours,” Oliver says. “Are you sure it was supposed to be professional? Or did you just assume it was, and he went along with it?”
I chew on my lip, thinking about it. “Why is it so surprising to you that someone would want to do business with me?”
“It’s not surprising,” he says. “I just think he likes you.”
“Why do you have to minimize what I do? Just because we’re opposite sexes doesn’t mean we can’t have a strictly professional relationship.”
“I’m not trying to minimize what you do. Believe me, I’ve seen you in action. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as dedicated as you are. I just don’t see how anyone could meet you and not be totally smitten.”
I look up at him. His head is leaning against the wall behind him, tilted so that his face is angled toward me. His mouth is curved up in a half smile. It’s clear now that he’s just messing with me. He’s saying these things to get a rise out of me. I jab him in the side with my elbow.
“Hey,” he warns me. “That hurt.”
“No, it didn’t.” I jab him again.
He grabs my elbow this time, then wraps his other arm around the back of my neck, pulling me into a headlock and squishing my face against his chest. His very firm chest. He actually smells pretty nice.
I know that fighting back will be futile, so I decide to get comfortable instead.
I suck in a deep breath and wrap my arms around him.
He loosens his grip on me, and then his chest starts shaking. I look up at him. He’s laughing.
“I have to admit, this wasn’t the reaction I expected,” he says.
“Good. Never let your guard down with the enemy,” I tell him.
“Huh?”
Before he can defend himself, I dig my fingers into his ribcage, tickling him. He gasps and flails, then falls sideways out of his stool, dragging me down with him. There’s a loud clatter as both of our stools crash to the ground next to us.
Everyone in the room stops what they’re doing to turn around and stare at us.
Oliver is on his back on the floor, and I’m halfway on top of him where he pulled me down.
Lana shakes her head disapprovingly, her hands on her hips.
A few of Oliver’s students start to laugh.
My face feels hot as I scramble to get off of him.
“Nothing to see here,” I say as I stand up, brushing off my pants.
Oliver stands up too, putting the stools back up as he does so.
Lana clears her throat. “I think that’s about enough for today anyway,” she says. “We’ll continue next week and figure out how to incorporate the instruments in then.” She claps her hands as if to dismiss the class.
While most of the dancers head for the door, a few of Oliver’s students approach us.
“Hi, Mr. Edison,” one of the girls says.
“Hi, Kayla,” he says. Then, addressing her friends, “Hannah. Ricky. How did it go?”
“Pretty good,” Kayla says. “I don’t think it’s going to be too hard. Is Ms. Cain your girlfriend?”
I snort out a laugh. Oliver frowns at me, then turns back to the three teenagers. “Yes, she is,” he says. I whip my head in his direction.
“I told you!” Hannah whispers loudly to Kayla.
“That’s all you need to know about that,” Oliver says.
“Is your last name really Cain?” Kayla asks me. “Like a candy cane?”
“Spelled differently, but yeah,” I say with a nod.
“That’s so cool,” she says. “You should call your company Candy Cain Events.” She holds her hands out in front of her like she’s picturing it on a billboard. I am, too.
“You know what? That’s not a bad idea,” I tell her. I’ve been trying to come up with a name for my business. Kayla’s suggestion is perfect.
She beams. Hannah elbows her. “You stole my idea. I was going to tell her that.”
Kayla sticks her tongue out. “I beat you to it.”
Oliver smirks. “It’s a great idea,” he tells them. “I’ll see you all tomorrow morning.”
The kids take off, leaving just me and Oliver in the back of the room.
The studio is mostly cleared out with just a few stragglers heading for the door.
Lana is on the other side of the room, looking at her phone.
She does everything in her power to avoid eye contact with me and Oliver, which I think is our cue to leave.
“Why did you lie to your students?” I ask him as we head for the door.
He frowns. “What do you mean?”
“About me being your girlfriend,” I remind him.
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I guess so they won’t let our little secret slip to Tina.”
“Oh. Yeah. Good idea.” I’m not sure in what context my relationship status would be brought up in a conversation between Tina and some of her dancers who she doesn’t even know are Oliver’s band students. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.
We reach my car. His is parked next to mine. “What are you doing now?” he asks.
“I’m going to a ranch to meet some horses.”
Oliver frowns. “Horses?”
“For the carriage ride,” I clarify. “When Tina’s mom proposed to her dad, they rode in a carriage pulled by white horses. Tina wants a reenactment of that.”
“Want some company?” he asks. “I’ll drive.”