Page 81 of Take the Lead
‘There isn’t time. With Merle being so particular about his filming, I’m expecting to be completely tied up with him and Emilia now. Olivia has made a suggestion though, which we think might work as a contingency plan. I said I’d run it by you.’
‘Go on,’ I say, praying it doesn’t involve either me or Aleksis flying back to France.
‘We were wondering if we might be able to persuade the airport to release the bag to your sister – then hopefully she could pick it up, download anything that’s still on the camera to my laptop and ping all the files over to me. We can sort out how to get the actual camera back here later, when it’s not so urgent. Do you think she might do that?’
‘I can’t see why not. It’s only an hour’s drive, so I’m pretty sure she’d be happy to.’
‘Do you want to check, and if she says yes I’ll get Olivia to sort it with the airport?’ Sarah asks.
‘Of course, I’ll do it now.’
And thankfully, Dee agrees straight away – on the proviso that I send her a thank you case of wine.
I give her Olivia’s number, so they can liaise about the arrangements, and tell her she’s a lifesaver.
‘It sounds like we can go home this evening and completely relax now,’ Aleksis says when I’ve ended the call.
‘Don’t you think we should be seen out and about somewhere? We haven’t been in the news all week.’
‘I don’t think I’ve got the energy,’ he admits. ‘Unless you want to see photos of me falling asleep in my dinner.’
‘But that only leaves tomorrow night – the night beforethe final.’ Even I can hear the worry in my voice. ‘Wouldn’t we be better off relaxing then?’
‘I think we’ll be fine to do something tomorrow evening. It doesn’t have to be anything crazy and by then we’ll have recovered from France a bit more. Tonight all I want to do is have a hot bath, I don’t know about you.’
A long soak does sound appealing – a moment of calm before the storm.
‘Let’s take it easy tonight and I’ll get Sofiya to ask Stella if there’s anywhere she can recommend for us to go tomorrow,’ Aleksis adds.
‘Fingers crossed she comes up with something good.’
Back at the flat, tempting though it is to squeeze into Aleksis’s bath with him, we each run our own, so we can stretch out and let our muscles loosen up. While I’m soaking I text Lucy and tell her I’ve got some big news to share with her.
‘You’re pregnant??’she writes back.
‘Noooo!’I can’t help laughing at her tendency to jump the gun.‘I’ll have you know we are keeping the condom companies very much in business! But Aleksis got on really well with my family while we were in France – so he’s invited me to Latvia to meet his parents after the show!’
‘Ooh, sounds serious…’
I can feel the butterflies in my stomach as I tell her I think it might be.
‘Just let me know when to buy my hat!’ she replies.
And this time I don’t tell her off for getting carried away.
But thinking about life after the show reminds me we’ve only got one day left in our tatty little studio together. I’vegrown quite fond of it and realise I’m really going to miss it. I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown since our first rehearsal there. In less than seventy-two hours, myFire on the Dance Floorjourney will be over – when it feels like we’re only just getting started.
I wonder if Aleksis is brooding about it too, so I wrap myself in a towel and pad down the corridor to his bathroom to find out.
‘Mind if I join you?’ I ask through the door.
‘Not at all. Come on in,’ he calls out.
I walk in to find him up to his neck in foam.
‘Want to jump in?’ he asks, pulling his legs towards him to make room.
I step into the water and it creeps dangerously close to the top. He releases the plug until there’s room for me to sit down – facing away from him so I can lean back against him with his legs round my sides.
