Page 7 of Dance for Me
“What do you mean you don’t know?” she sits up a little straighter, letting the blanket loosen its death grip around her. “What were you doing in there if he wasn’t swinging it around?” she asks, arms flailing about her face for emphasis.
I close my eyes briefly to center my thoughts. Sadie and I have always been opposites in every way. I’m private, she’s an open book. I dislike big crowds, she would surf them. I smirk more than smile, and I don’t think she will ever fear getting frown lines. But she’s my balance, my counterpart in every way. I ground her, and she sets me free.
While we both callCirquehome, her job stands strictly on the security end of the business. She rarely asks me about employees other than the basic information she needs to run the background check. She’s only ventured to the deep end once when she brought home a stray singer, which actually worked out pretty well. Other than that, she’s barely showed interest in the cirque part ofCirque. Sadie doesn’t mess with my end of the job, and I don’t pretend to understand what she is talking about when she tells me about the upgraded code for the motion detectors in the private rooms, or the newestkeyboard that makes a massive difference and sheneedsto have it.
“So, Tessa interrupted the interview before we got anywhere close to that. He’s going to be with me now anyway, so the rest is a moot point. I think he will do well. He handled the situation well, given everything,” I tell her honestly, shrugging my shoulders to distract from the heat rising to paint my cheeks, remembering in vivid detail just how well hehandledme.
“Oh, I know. He’sallyours now,” she teases, leaning back and folding her interlocked hands under her chin as she stares at me. Like I just stepped on a booby-trap and she gets to collect her prize.
“You can’t just pick out one part of everything I said and ignore the rest. I think he will be able to fulfill the job requirements, and if he doesn’t, then I will have to do what I was supposed to do to begin with and hire a new assistant. Why are you so interested in this, anyway?”
“Because, big sister, in the years we have been doing this, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you blush when I brought up an employee,” she states. Her tone is smug, but there is an undercurrent of, dare I say,cautionmixed in, like the idea of someone making me blush means the four horsemen will be riding down the street any minute now.
“Look, he was…different from most of the guys that come into the club, staff or member,” I tell her honestly, admitting for the first time since he walked into my office that his interview had any effect on me. I had successfully convinced myself he wasn’t the reason I had to close the door, and keep it closed, for the rest of the day so I would be able to focus on work.
“What do you mean, different?” she asks, now outright baffled, eyebrows so high they might blend into her hairline pretty soon.
“He surprised me is all,” I answer flatly. “I didn’t think hehad it in him.” I get up from the couch to grab a new drink, leaving Sadie and her prying eyes to stare after me.
Sadie doesn’t know all my secrets, but she has a unique ability to tell when someone is lying, and I don’t know how to explain to her that it was more than just a shock factor. Colton didn’t treat me like the boss, or like I held his job in my hand. He didn’t stumble back when I pushed. He…well, he pushed back. He was there for a different job, and instead of telling me there was a mistake, he whipped his belt off and smiled.Smiled. Like he couldn’t wait to see what I asked him to do next.
He walked in like a poster boy for good choices and Bible study, but I was the one looking for a confessional by the end.
His performance wasn’t bravado or over the top. It was slow, sensual, and mesmerizing. A quiet confidence in the way he moved.
“Anyway,” I clear my throat and walk back over to the couch, picking up and tossing Sadie the remote, not wanting to give her a window to keep this line of questioning open. “What movie are we watching?” I ask as I sink into my designated side of the couch.
When Sadie doesn’t answer me, I slowly turn around, already knowing what I would find. She sits there, leg folded under her butt, a new blanket already draped across her lap, with a shit-eating grin just waiting for my gaze.
“No. Not again. I can’t watch it again.”
“Pleaseeeeee,” Sadie pleads, scrambling across the couch to push her cheek against mine as her arms wrap around my shoulders, apparently resorting to torture to get her way. “It’s my favorite of all time, and it’s been so long!”
“Because you fall asleep in the first five minutes, and I end up watching a movie that is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable.” I argue, disentangling her limbs and retreating further into my corner.
“How could anyone not likeSweet Home Alabama?”
“It’s quite easy. The main characters despise each other for most of this movie. It’s insane. They would never end up getting together in the end. No thanks. Pick something else, please.”
The whining continues, the pleading gets louder, and a pillow is thrown at me when I say that the enemies to lovers trope is overrated. I supply option after option of other movies to pick from. I may be strong willed, but no one is stubborn like my little sister.
Soon enough, Reese Witherspoon is dancing in the moonlight with her not so ex-husband to the steady beat of Sadie’s light snoring.
5
COLTON
After Tessa and I finished watching the aerial performance, and my jaw was scraped off the ground, she whisked me away for introductions to the heads of the other departments withinCirque. A month later and I don’t think I can take in one more piece of new information without my brain just turning itself off completely.
Never in my life did I think I would need to know that there are different types of feather boas. And apparently, if you order the wrong one, people get pissed.
I check in once or twice a week with the different departments for project updates or changes being implemented, including the seamstresses, the chefs, the waitstaff, and the security team. The club is only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. But for the crew, you work every day except Sunday, the rest of the week devoted to rehearsals, prop set up and adjustments as needed for the weekends shows.
After the first few days, I realized no one had shown me where my desk was, a question I asked Sadie during a run-down of the camera placement, earning me a maniacal laughand a pitying shoulder pat. Her only advice had been to make sure my shoes were comfortable.
It was some damn good advice.
I haven’t stopped moving since the day I first walked through those doors. Ironically, the person I see the least is Harper. The most demanding thing she’s asked of me is to pick up her dry cleaning every week. When I asked Sadie if her sister is always so easygoing, she stared at me blankly before realizing I wasn’t being sarcastic, saying it’s most likely because I’m still new.
