Page 208 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

“Right,” Liam gathered up a bunch of newspapers in his arms and moved off the bed’s edge. “I’m heading back to my room for some shut eye.”

“Stay away from Joanie.” Dante called in warning from where he sat.

“Piss off.” Liam grumbled, walking over to the bin and stuffing it full with the papers. “She’s chasing me, not the other way around.”

Joanie, a delicate brunette with the most expressive eyes ever, was jonesing for Liam. According to him, the temporary dancer had taken a shine to him and made it clear she was interested. There had been a whisper amongst my dancers about an incident after the second night’s performance. A ‘shagging in the emergency stairwell’ sort of incident.

“Stay away from Joanie, Liam.” I reiterated, much harsher than Dante. The last thing I needed was one of my main dancers being hit with a sexual harassment case. Or for a lovers’ tiff drama affecting their performances.

“Madi,” he whined. “Why are you blaming me? She’s the instigator.”

Gerrard smirked, chuckling under his breath. “You didn’t say no though.”

Eddie started laughing too, exchanging secret boys’ looks with Gerrard and Dante. The smirk was telling. They were all smirking.Ugh. Stupid men.

“Liam, I don’t care who started what.” I said firmly. “You all know how I feel about casual workplace dalliances.”

“She’s a temp for crying out loud.” Liam groused.

“Who we use on a regular basis,” I retorted before giving him gimlet eyes. “Stop sticking your thing in places it shouldn’t be stuck.”

Dante choked. Eddie spluttered. Gerrard’s mouth opened.

“That’s right,” Lisa agreed. “You tell him, Madi.”

Bri, thinking my attention laid solely on Liam, sent Dante a quick glance. He didn’t notice her and a bubble of dread popped in my stomach, spreading its noxious waves through me. Mother…what could be used as the perfect word substitute? The urge to cuss passed and I chewed my bottom lip frantically. She’d been weird around Dante for weeks. My observation skills were much moreimproved. At first I thought Dante had tried something with her, but I knew my best friend and after monitoring them closely, I began suspecting Bri was after some boss-meat. Those fleeting, shy looks, the change in her smiles; I recognized her behaviour because I too had once been under Dante’s spell. The signs were becoming clear. Bri was crushing hard on Dante. Why after all these years? Oh no. Something would need to be done.

Liam left, grumbling under his breath about the unfairness of it all. Gerrard and Eddie left a few minutes later, certainly with the aim of riling Liam up and blatantly disregarding my edict to leave him alone. I couldn’t be seen to condone workplace bullying, so I sent Dante after them to ensure they obeyed.

Lisa stretched her lithe body before yawning wide enough to swallow us all. She bid Bri and I ‘bye’ and wandered out my room to find her own hotel bed.

And now we were two. I glanced at Bri from lowered eyelashes, wondering the best way to broach her not-so-obvious crush on my best friend. It would need to be delicately phrased, work dynamics needed to be considered. I was her boss but I was also her friend, a good friend.

“Bri,” Easy now, I would gently probe her mind with a few well-worded questions. “Bri, you’re acting weird with Dante. Why? You like him, don’t you? Don’t act like you don’t. I’m not dumb. You blush around him. You never did that before. You’re crushing on Dante.” Darn it. So much for being subtle.

Bri avoided my searching gaze and began fidgeting. “What? No. Stop arseing around, Madi. Dante’s not my type. I mean, he’s fit and all, don’t get me wrong,”

“But,” I pressed when she said nothing more, a dreamy glaze covered her eyes.

“Hmm,” she mumbled, distracted and definitely in a dreamy fog. “But what?”

“No.” I said. “I won’t allow it.”

Bri scrunched her face up at me. How did some people manage to look pretty doing that? I usually looked constipated whenever scrunching my face up.

“Allow what?” she asked, pulling me from my crazy musings and scrunched face envy. Bri rolled her eyes then snorted in disgust. “Give over. As if Dante – he doesn’t even think about me like that.”

I raised one eyebrow.

“Not that I care,” she continued. “I’m not bothered. We’ve known each other since you opened the dance company. I’m not bothered if he doesn’t fancy me. I don’t fancyhim.Why are we even talking about this? He’s my boss, not as much as you are, but you know what I’m getting at. We could never work. I don’t fancy him. Look, I’m going back to my room. This conversation is doing my head in.”

She jumped off the bed, features tight and movements jerky. I remained seated, quietly upset over her flustered behaviour and full of sympathy. It felt terrible when the object of your desires had no interest in you. Yeah, as I said before, I knew exactly what Bri was going through.

“Ok, then.” I had no idea which part of our talk I was referring to, neither did she. ‘Ok then’ was the most appropriate response in my eyes. Bri gave me a half-glower, half-smile, before hurrying out my room.

Right. Another problem added to a plate already full of problems. Someone had hexed me, this wasn’t karma messing with me anymore. Someone, somewhere, had hexed me good. It had to be a curse, maybe voodoo, maybe not; but a curse nonetheless. For half an hour, I sat staring blankly at nothing in particular. My hand laid resting with feather-lightness across my stomach. It was the first proper attempt of me being somewhat friendly towards them. Yes, I had decided their life was worth more than my sanity, my career. And yes, I knew I would do anything to protect them from harm. Plus I now ate militantly well, swallowed the daily prenatal tablets I felt guilted into buying. I took care of myself and, by default, ended up ultimately taking care of them. But there remained a hidden element of resentment deep inside me. Petulant resentment at their presence, not the initial burst of disgust and hatred, but mean-spirited resentment. Did they know? Had they somehow sensed my emotions? Would it hurt their development? Had I already screwed them up? They were stewing inside me, stewing in bitterness and regret and stress. That could not be good for their growing brains. Oh fuc-fudge.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I don’t hate you, either one of you. It’s complicated.” My fingers curled protectively over my stomach. “I’ll be better. I promise to be better. From now on, I’ll try to focus on happy thoughts. I don’t hate you anymore. I think I can love you, I’m sure Iwilllove you. I just need time. Your dad never gave me any time,” A tiny smile tilted the right side of my mouth. “But you’re different from him. You’re bothmineand we can make this work. I swear we can make this work somehow.” My smile widened. “And you’ll have dual-nationality like me. How great is that?”

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