Page 96 of The Unraveling

“Thank you,” I say.

“All right.” Isabella claps. “Let’s go ahead and start with the act one pas de deux between you two.”

My heart skips a beat. I can’t believe I’m Manon. It keeps hitting me.

“So,” she goes on, “Jocelyn, you’ll start sitting in the chair. You’ve been watching him dance. Luca, let’s go to where you end your solo on your knee in front of her.”

We take our places. I vaguely know the steps, from having studied a million videos online and having been given a brief rundown, but it’s pretty difficult to know it with one hundred percent certainty without having a partner to learn it with.

“So, Luca, remember when you offer your hand to Manon to come dance with you, you’re both shy at first. You have this immediate, intense attraction to each other, but it’s so strong and overwhelming that it scares you. You’re young and you’re nervous. It’s the transcendent, deeply affecting feeling of…how can this stranger see my soul already? Hear my heartbeat already?”

Her words echo through the studio as she circles us.

“You feel like you finally found each other. By this point, here, go to this arabesque position, Jocelyn. Luca, hold her waist just so…yes, just like that, and pivot her slowly to face you.”

I think of his hand on my waist last night. You like that?

We do as she says, Luca’s eye contact deeply penetrating. He’s got these sharply blue eyes that see right through me. It’s like he’s cast a spell, and now my mind is swirling with complicated emotions around Alistair and Jordan.

Isabella goes on.

“This moment, this position, is when your souls connect. It’s that blissful, whirlwind feeling that you get when you meet someone and you just know. It is love at first sight, it is the anticipation that pain might lie in your shared future, but that it’s one that you, neither of you, can avoid.”

I take a deep breath. She seems to be describing exactly how I felt when I met Jordan. I felt completely drawn in. I was so sure I had finally found my person.

Why did he never call?

I refocus on Isabella’s voice.

“These moments are very important to your characters. First your hands touch, there is electricity there, then this arabesque moment when you come so close to kissing—”

Luca and I bring our faces together. He smells like peppermint and sweat. In a good way.

Now Alistair, that kiss, is in my mind.

Luca, his tongue inside me.

Christ, I need to focus.

“And with that, you both let your walls drop. Now, again!”

We go back to the beginning and start from the top of the pas de deux. Luca moves me and holds me with expert strength and grace.

My mind will not shut up. It’s whirling and swirling.

“Yes, Jocelyn, that’s it!” she says, her voice rising and filling the room. “Feel like you’re flying. Keep that torso strong but let your arms be free. Okay, Luca, you can run a bit faster with her up in the press lift.”

We try it again and again and again. And I don’t mind at all. I’m so glad to be back in the studio, back in the arms of a strong, sexy man that I know I can trust.

After an hour, we’re both damp with sweat. My muscles are burning. It feels incredible.

“Okay, I think that’s looking good,” says Isabella. “Go ahead and take your five-minute break. Jocelyn, do let me talk to you for a quick moment first.”

I catch my breath and go over to her. “Thank you so much for this,” I say. “No role has ever meant more to me.”

“Of course. You’re a gifted dancer. I was watching you last week in class in Swan Lake and your movement intrigued me. I felt like I could see your thoughts with every gesture. And”—she shrugs—“that’s Manon.”

I give an uncomfortable laugh. “Yeah. That’s what this music and everything makes me feel, too. I feel like I really connect with it.”

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