Page 55 of Love is a Dance Step
The waiter arrived and set a plate down in front of Lola. She thanked him and returned her attention to a gaping Nolan.
“Are those fries?”
She nodded, popping one in her mouth. “And they’re good too.”
“You can’t eat fries.”
“Why not?” She reached for another one, but Nolan slid her plate away.
“Do you realize how many calories you’re about to consume?”
Lola had never in her life worried about calories. “No.” She reached for the plate and tugged it back. “And I don’t want to know.”
Disgust flashed across Nolan’s face but also something else. Longing? She took a bite of her sandwich to prevent herself from laughing. She’d met a lot of finicky dancers over the years but never took much stock in extreme diets herself. In part because she’d never expected the dancing to take her anywhere.
Nolan ran a hand through his messy hair, tugging on the ends. “Okay, fine. I’ll let you eat the fries if you do one thing for me.”
“Let me?” she choked. “What makes you think you could stop me?” She took another bite, chewed, and swallowed. “Fine, what do I have to do?”
He hesitated for a long moment, flicking his eyes from the plate to her and back again. “Just one. Please.”
A laugh burst out of her. “Have at it.”
He reached his hand out slowly, reluctantly, and took a single fry from the plate. When he put it in his mouth, he sighed.
Lola shook her head with a grin. “So, you’re my sensei?”
“Gandalf.” He stared longingly at the plate. “I said Gandalf.”
“That would make sense if I knew who that was.”
His jaw dropped open, and he narrowed his eyes. “You… what?”
A smile curved Lola’s lips. “Kidding. Mostly. You can stop looking at me like you want to murder me now.” Distracting him was a good way to be able to shovel food into her mouth without his longing looks.
A cough interrupted their conversation, and Lola looked up to find Brooke hovering next to their table. Nolan grinned. “Oh, hey, Brookie-cookie.”
Brooke’s scowl deepened. “We’re sitting over there, Nolan.” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder to where a gaggle of other dancers watched them.
Nolan flashed her a grin. “Sorry, babe. Lola and I have other plans.”
“We do?” Lola coughed. “I mean, we do.” She pushed back her chair and stood, stuffing one last handful of fries in her mouth. “Sorry, roomie, we’ll have to hang out with you later.”
Nolan stole one more fry before standing and giving the gaping Brooke a wave before grabbing Lola’s arm and dragging her from the table.
Lola’s stomach grumbled as she walked back out into the hotel lobby. The sandwich she’d left behind called to her. “Wait, I didn’t pay.”
Nolan didn’t stop walking. “They’ll charge it to your room and take it out of your per diem. Come on. We need to get to work if I’m going to get you ready for the concert in Jacksonville.”
“Jacksonville, that’s right after Miami?”
He nodded. “Our last stop in Florida.” He bumped her shoulder. “Don’t let Brooke get to you. Like I said before, prove yourself, and the others will come around. But Brooke… when Leah went down, we all expected her to become the lead dancer. When Drew announced there’d be auditions and that he wouldn’t consider one of his current dancers, it was a bit of a shock. Especially to her.”
She started to catch on. “Then, he had all of you work with us at auditions.”
“Yep. And don’t take this the wrong way, but he didn’t even choose the best dancer there.”
“I know.” She’d screwed up her audition and ended up here anyway. Glancing back over her shoulder at the restaurant where the other dancers ate, she wondered what they saw when they looked at her. Did they ask the same questions she’d wondered a million times?
