Page 77 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

“I really don’tgive a flying fuck if you like her, Madi,” Dante said coldly. “If you won’t sack her then I will. This has gone on for too long and we can’t afford to keep her on the payroll if she’s not doing her job.”

A loud sigh escaped me as I rubbed my temples. We were in our office discussing the unprofessional behaviour of Paula, one of our instructors. Her attendance had been appalling since last year, but I was loathed to dismiss her. She was part of our family here, even though she had been acting more and more like that relative no one could stand.

At least things had improved between Dante and myself the last few weeks. I remembered the simmering tension between us not too long after my hasty wedding. He had been so pissed off, calling me all manner of names, ‘idiot’ had featured frequently.

“She’s been on a final warning for months, Madi,” Dante continued as he paced in front our desk. “And nothing has changed. It’s not fair to the other instructors. They are the ones forced to pick up her classes when she phones in with yet another excuse. Sack her today, or I will.”

“D,” I began, twirling the pen between my fingers.

He held a hand up, already shaking his head. “No, I’m not going to let you convince me to keep her on. Today, sweet cheeks. She’s due in at 3, Gloria will send her straight in so you can deal with it.”

I sighed again and nodded, upset it had finally come to this. I had never sacked someone before. My day was crap and the clock on the wall showed it was only 10am.

“Umm,” Dante stopped pacing and rubbed his neck, a nervous trait of his. “I wanted to talk to you about the house.”

I raised curious eyebrows in his direction as I reclined in my seat. “Oh? What about it?”

“Christine wants to move in,” he advised glumly.

Both my eyebrows were reaching for my hairline.

“So, I’m going to need you to tell her no.” He sent me a grateful smile. Apparently it had already been decided upon without my input.

“Uh, what and why?” I asked.

Dante gave me a roll of eyes accompanied by a long-suffering sigh. “Look, she’s my girlfriend but I don’t want to do the cohabiting thing with her.”

“So?” I prompted baldly. “Just tell her that. You’re a grown ass man.”

“And face the subsequent drama that will follow?” Dante scoffed. “Hell no. It’s easier if she thinks the decision is yours, not mine.”

I scowled at him. “You want me to take the blame for you not wanting a live-in girlfriend? That’s messed up, Dante.”

“A best friend would do it,” he stated flatly. “You’re my ride or die chick. I need you.”

Ok. Put like that, I had to do it. I mean, the title of ‘ride or die chick’ came with a lot of responsibilities, but man!

“She’ll hate me.” I whined.

“She already hates you, Madi.” he quipped without pause. “What’s one more reason?”

My mouth fell open. “Christine hates me?” I knew she didn’t like me, knew we would never be close friends, but hate? “Properhatehate?”

“Ah, well she’s jealous of you,” Dante explained. “And I’m not just talking about our closeness. She acts like she isn’t but I can see through that shit.”

“Why is she jealous of me?” I asked quietly.

Dante’s girlfriend always gave the impression she thought she was better than me. He rolled his eyes in my direction. “Come on, sweet cheeks. Don’t do that. You know why.”

My expression was one of confusion and when Dante realized I really had no clue as to what he was implying, he leaned against the table and shook his head slowly.

“Because you’re everything she thinks she’s not. Beautiful, confident, driven.”

I frowned. “But she’s ridiculously beautiful. She’s a model for crying out loud.”

“And just like dancers,” Dante said dryly. “They are very image conscious. You don’t stress that shit. You’re comfortable in your own skin and it attracts people to you. It pisses Chrissie off that you don’t work at the whole image thing the way she does. It really annoys her that you get snapped by the paps in sweats and still manage to look good.” He shook his head slowly, jaw tightening for asecond before he continued. “And she’s got slight colour issues. She grew up thinking her fair skin was better than being dark and you confuse her, Madi. You’ve never been ashamed of your skin and Christine can’t understand why. God. She’s a bit messed up.”

I sucked my teeth loudly then snorted in derision for good measure. “That girl needs to look at those pictures closer. They always try to get my ass at an unfavourable angle and concerning her faulty superiority complex…well, you know how we were raised. You have to love yourself before anyone else can love you. We weren’t raised to be ashamed of our skin like some people are, we were raised to be strong in the face of adversity, taught that we could do anything if we worked hard enough.” I regarded my best friend warily, unsure if I should voice my thoughts. But best friends were supposed to be brutally honest with each other. Screw it. “Look, if you aren’t happy with her, you need to decide whether you want to continue with your relationship, D. You’ve been having problems for months now and I’ve kept silent about it but I want you to be happy. I don’t care if she moves into the house. I asked you to live there because I didn’t want to rent my home out to some stranger. Hell, you were with me when I bought the place. The point is you’re obviously reluctant to take things further with her.”

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