Page 12 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

“What, William?” she asked emptily. When he remained silent she continued to mock him. “Tell her to be more gentle with you, darling. Those scratches on your back do look painful.”

William gave her a bitter smile. “Will do. Good night.”

Portia turned quickly before he could see the flash of hurt on her features. She wished he would leave already. She’d had enough of the men in her life.

“I don’t blame Matthew for wanting her, you know,” William said from the doorway. “As I said before, having a woman look at you the way Madison looks at him is no small thing. I envy him that. How sad am I?”

When Portia turned around he was gone. She sighed softly, moments later the sound of a door slamming echoed through the walls. She loved William Bradley, but she hated him too. Pushing thoughts of her toxic marriage aside she moved away from the bed and went in search of her mobile. Minutes later she called Louisa Gilliford. As a mother it was her responsibility to ensure her childrenmade the right choices. She’d be damned if she let her youngest do something that he would regret for the rest of his life. The call picked up.

“Louisa, it’s Portia. We need to have a chat.”

CHAPTER 2

How had itcome to this? I was a stalker, a Facebook stalker. I’d been snooping around my Aunt’s page, as well as Jamal’s and Jenny’s. Uncle David had sworn he would never get sucked into the minding-other-people’s-business that he thought was Facebook, he was holding firm still. No Facebook account for him, if he had one I’d be stalking him too. I sighed and logged off my account, at least they hadn’t blocked me.

“Move your ass, Madi.” Dante yelled as he walked into our office. “We’ve opened the side entrance doors to the Auditorium and the show starts in less than an hour and you haven’t even started getting ready. The seamstress is waiting for you to check your first costume fits. Did you pancake our ballet shoes for tonight? I hope you did.”

“They’re done.” I confirmed with a sigh and uncurled myself from the chair. “Have people started arriving as yet, D?”

“Yes, the older students are doing well in their role of ushers tonight.”

“What about Janey? How is she holding up? It’s a big night and she’s only ten. Maybe we shouldn’t have cast her as the young version of the princess.” I chewed my lower lip as Dante physically dragged me out the office.

“She’s fine. Her mom is in the dressing rooms with her. If you don’t start walking faster, I swear I’ll throw you over my shoulder.” Dante warned.

I quickened my steps. The first stirrings of excitement bubbled in the pit of my stomach. Opening night. My jitters hadn’t started yet, they would come right before I went on stage.

“Madi.” Gloria shouted as Dante frogmarched me down the hallways. I spun around to see her legs hurrying towards us. Her upper body was hidden behind a massive bouquet of flowers.

“Wow.” I muttered.

“These just came for you.” she said, trying to look at us around the bouquet.

I spotted a card and plucked it out as Gloria handed over the flowers to an impatient Dante before racing back down the hallway.

‘Thinking of you. Good luck tonight, poppet.’It read.

I fingered the card, grinning like a fool. I missed Matt terribly. He had only flown to Russia yesterday.

“Stop daydreaming and move.” Dante yelled into my ear.

I made a kissy face at him then moved my ass. It was opening night!

Everything became a blur and before I knew it, I was all costumed up, make-up flawless, and Brazilian blow-dried hair glittering with sparkly dust. I peeked out from behind the corner of the stage’s curtains. Oh God. It was packed, and there was a group of people I knew were the media. Damn it. My suspicions they had been buying up tickets were justified. Ah well, publicity was publicity. Although, it still irked me they were only interested because of my public relationship with Matt, not due to the skills of my dancers. Tonight we would show them.

“Five minutes people.” our artistic director called out.

I turned and crouched down, bringing my face eye level with Janey’s. “You are going to be brilliant, sweetie. Just remember what Dante and I taught you.”

“Madi, I’m scared.” she whispered.

I smooth down the edge of her costume’s bodice and rested my forehead against hers. “We’ll be on stage with you. Fifteen minutes, that’s how long you’ll be up there for. Then you come on again at the end to take a bow.”

“What if I make a mistake?” she asked, eyes wide and already shimmering with tears.

God. Was it too much pressure? What sort of a teacher was I? How could I put this little girl up on stage when she was so scared?

“Then you make one, Janey. Mistakes aren’t all that bad. If people didn’t make mistakes then we’d never learn a thing,” I winked at her as I straightened up. “But you won’t make one. I know you won’t. You’ve done this so many times you could do it with your eyes closed.”

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