the Dance

by Alison G. Bailey

  For the love of god stop talking.

  The pen stopped tapping and Hart dropped it on the desk. “Can I ask you something?”

  “You kind of just did.” A snicker-snort bubbled out of me.

  Earth swallow me whole.

  Hart cocked an eyebrow as he bit down on his bottom lip stifling a laugh.

  I closed my eyes for a second and prayed I could transport back in time to a few moments earlier. “I’m sorry. It’s been a stressful week. I’m usually not this weird and snorty. Um . . . yes, you can ask me something.”

  “I was just wondering how long it was going to take for you to ask me.”

  Crossing my arms, I nervously countered. “Ask you what?”

  “Pretending to ignore it only shines a spotlight on it, you know.”

  I started to get the distinct impression that I was being played with.

  “I have no clue what you’re talking about.” The words came out with an unintentional fine sheen of annoyance.

  “You haven’t noticed that my ass has grown and changed shape since high school?”

  I didn’t want Hart to think the first thing I noticed about him was the wheelchair. It wasn’t my place to pry into something so personal. This guy was barely an acquaintance of mine.

  “Listen, none of us look the same as we did in high school. I ran into Maria DelVeccio a few weeks ago. Her ass has its own zip code.”

  “Ask me, Bryson.”

  “Why are you so hell bent on me asking?”

  “Because you’re trying so hard not to.”

  He wanted to make the moment awkward and me uncomfortable, which pissed me off a little bit.

  “You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?” I stepped all the way inside his office. “What makes you think I’m even remotely interested in anything about you? I mean, it’s been what? Like ten years since I left you in front of that fish tank. You definitely weren’t interested enough in speaking to me again back then. So, sorry, I won’t be going all Barbara Walters on your ass now.”

  “Wow, way to hold on to a grudge. I really did a number on you.”

  “Pfft, you wish you did me.”

  The realization of what I’d just said set my cheeks on fire. I didn’t understand my reaction to this guy. For some reason, I was nervous and comfortable all at the same time when I was around him. I remember how easy the banter was between us that night. It swung from flirty to bickering, back to flirty, and finally sweet.

  A deep throaty laugh brought me back to the present. “You still have quite a mouth on you.”

  Hearing that he remembered my mouth caused a slight tickle in my stomach.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” I said.

  “Really?”

  “Of course not.”

  “Damn, I thought you were flirting with me.” He winked.

  “I don’t make it a habit of flirting with strange men.”

  “Come on, I know it’s been a long time but I’m not a complete stranger.”

  “I said strange, not stranger.” I tossed him a satisfied smile. “Besides, you never know when a girlfriend or wife is lurking around.”

  I knew I was getting into slightly inappropriate chatter with Hart but I was having fun. It had been a long time since I enjoyed a conversation with a man.

  Just then my phone buzzed with a text. I fished it out of my purse while glancing at Hart. “Excuse me for a second.”

  Will: Bring the PlayStation. When will you be back here?

  Me: Ok. Soon. Traffic.

  Guilt made another appearance. I had no reason to feel bad. I wasn’t doing anything other than enjoying my time with an old acquaintance. I think I could stay here all day and go at it with Hart but I needed to get back on track.

  “I better go. I have errands to do and you have work. I didn’t mean to take up so much of your time.”

  “I called you in here, remember?”

  “Oh, yeah.” I inched toward the door. “I’ll be seeing you around at least for the next few weeks. Have a good rest of the day.”

  I turned to leave.

  “Bryson.”

  My gaze met his. “Yeah?”

  “No one is lurking.”

  No one is lurking.

  I bounced all the way down the hall and out the front entrance beaming. The news that no girl was lurking should not have made me this happy. I was in no position to get involved with anyone. Not that it was a possibility Hart and I would get involved. I had to admit it felt great being a little flirty with a man, especially a sexy one. Hart had obviously been through a lot since high school. As far as his looks, though, the years had been good to him. He looked even better with some age on his face. I realized today that his swagger wasn’t defined by his walk. It was working just as much behind his desk as it did down the halls of Garrison High.

  My schoolgirl giddiness propelled me across the parking lot and into my car. I’d just put the key in the ignition when my phone buzzed again.

  Will: Bring me something to eat. The stuff they serve here tastes like shit.

  I tossed my phone over to the passenger’s seat, came down off my Hart high, and pulled out of the parking lot.

  When Will said he wanted me by his side until he recovered, he wasn’t kidding. He insisted I come to the rehab every day and stay until the evening. I wanted to keep things as amicable as possible for as long as I could, so I didn’t fight him on the issue. Besides, with the way my job search had been going I knew I would need more time to find that one person who would take a chance on me.

  As the first week passed I fell into a new routine, arriving at the rehab early each morning toting coffee and some form of pastry for Will’s breakfast before he went to his first physical therapy session. Since he refused to eat any of the meals the rehab offered, I packed a cooler every day with enough home-cooked food for him to have for lunch and dinner.

  The rest of my day was spent mostly sitting in the room thumbing through my large collection of cookbooks. Occasionally, I’d go with Will and watch as his therapist, Tina, put him through a grueling series of exercises. The program was intense with the ultimate goal being to get the patients up and back to their lives in record time. This gave me hope that Will’s recovery wasn’t too far away. Once that happened we’d be able to come to an agreement and both move on with our lives.

  Although spending my entire day in a rehab center wasn’t exactly my idea of fun, I did enjoy the tingles of anticipation that covered my body when I walked into the building, hoping to see Hart. But I wasn’t going to go out of my way to look for him. That would be pathetic and might give him the wrong idea. At the most, Hart was a fun distraction while I honored my promise to Will. I’d not seen him since the day outside his office. If I were being completely honest with myself, I felt the pressure of disappointment push down on my chest each evening as I left the building without one of our fun encounters.

  Will was focused and working hard during his afternoon therapy session, so I decided to take the opportunity to search for a little something to satisfy my sweet tooth. I slipped from the room unnoticed and made my way up and down the halls. Finally, I struck gold, finding a vending machine tucked away in the staff lounge. Ignoring the Staff Only sign, I cracked open the door and peeked inside to make sure no staff was lounging.

  I studied the selection for a few seconds before finding what would hit the spot—M&M’s with peanuts. I plunked in my coins, pressed the E2 button, and waited for the deliciousness to fall. The machine made a weird whizzing noise before the candy pushed forward, dropped, and snagged on a bag of granola that was sticking out.

  Who the hell puts granola in a vending machine?

  Since I was alone and in dire need of those M&M’s, I gently tapped the side of the machine hoping to set the candy free. No such luck. I banged, shook, and finally kicked the damn thing. But the bag still didn’t budge. Squatting down, I stretched my arm up into the machine, trying to flick the bag loose with my fingertips. T
he only thing that accomplished was the mother of all cramps in my arm.

  Needing the unencumbered ability to move freely, I unzipped my black hoodie, peeled it off, and tossed it onto the round table in the center of the room. Since I’d been sitting by Will’s side for the past two weeks, I opted for comfort, living in either yoga pants or leggings, a T-shirt, hoodie, and sneakers.

  With my position shifted, I bent my knees slightly, lifting my ass in the air. I wiggled my body in an attempt to inch as close to the machine as possible. Scissoring my fingers, I reached up until the tips of my fingers barely made contact with the corner of the bag. One good shove and I should have the object of my desire. Feeling the smooth glossy bag between my fingers, I tugged hard, causing me to lose my balance and stumble back. But I had my candy! I also had two large strong hands gripping either side of my hips. I looked down and saw a wheel. A small wheel like the kind attached to the front of a wheelchair.

  “Hello, Bryson,” the deep raspy voice said.

  Once I regained my balance I stepped away from Hart.

  “Hey. Um . . . sorry about that.” My thumb shot over my shoulder aimed at the vending machine. “The candy was stuck.”

  “No problem. It was the highlight of my day.”

  “You must be having a pretty crappy day.”

  “Things are looking up now.” He winked.

  I smiled and swallowed the stupid giggle tickling my throat. Excitement buzzed through my body as my gaze roamed over him. He was wearing a pair of charcoal gray dress pants, a crisp white long sleeve shirt, and solid turquois tie that made the gray in his eyes pop more than the blue.

  “You look really nice.” The words flew out of mouth before my brain had a chance to filter.

  “Thank you. I met with corporate earlier today. Had to look the part.”

  Suddenly, the door swung open and a cute young brunette dressed in a very tight V-neck purple dress came strolling in carrying a file.

  She walked toward Hart completely ignoring me. “I finally found you. You’re such a hard guy to track down.”

  “Well, if I knew you’d been looking for me, I would have stayed put.” Hart threw her a flirty wink.

  Give me a break.

  “What ya need, Erica?” he said.

  “I need you . . .” She paused in a lame attempt to be flirty and cute. “. . . To sign a few forms.”

  Erica gazed at Hart like a lovesick puppy still oblivious to my existence. She opened the file on the round table and indicated where she needed Hart’s signature. As she flipped through each form, she leaned in closer until her perky breasts were directly in his line of vision. At one point I thought the back of his hand grazed one of her nipples. The air got thick, hot, and suffocating. Someone needed to teach young Erica proper work etiquette.

  The crinkling of the wrapper as I tore into my bag of candy disturbed the little flirt fest going on in front of me. Erica glanced toward me, finally noticing other people did, in fact, roam the earth. Pursing her lips, she surveyed me up and down before returning to the object of her affection.

  “Last one.” She gathered up the file and clutched it to her chest. “Hey, Hart, did I tell you I’m going to Cabo over Christmas?”

  “No. That’s awesome. Best scuba diving in the world.”

  “I’ve never been scuba diving. I’d be completely lost. I wish I knew someone who could teach me.” She dipped her head slightly and looked through her long dark lashes.

  “C of C offers beginner classes. I think I have a catalogue in my office. I’ll drop it at the front desk for you.”

  “I’ll look into that for sure. Oh, I got the cutest bikini the other day. It’s black and the top has these thin white stripes that go from here . . .” She ran her fingers from her collarbone down to her nipple. “. . . To here and the bottom half has white polka dots. I can’t wait to wear it.”

  A cough burst out of me, causing all eyes to shoot in my direction.

  Hart’s gaze locked with mine. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Just enjoying this riveting conversation,” I said, tossing a candy in my mouth.

  Erica made this sound that I’m sure if translated into speech would have the words ‘fuck’ and ‘you’ in it.

  With the flip of her dark waves, she gave a dazzling snowy white smile to Hart. “Well, I better be getting back to my desk. I’ll let you know about the scuba. Maybe you could give me some private lessons. I get kind of embarrassed learning new things around a group of people.”

  Hart didn’t give a verbal response, he simply flashed his pearly whites at Erica that had her floating all the way out of the room.

  “Unbelievable,” I mumbled, tossing another candy in my mouth.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Not that it’s any of my business.”

  “No, it’s not.”

  “But don’t you think that was a bit inappropriate?”

  Tilting his head to the side, his eyebrows scrunched together. “There’s nothing wrong with a little innocent flirting. You of all people should know that.”

  “That wasn’t just innocent flirting. That was giving hope to a clearly delusional child who thought what she was doing in here was sexy. And what exactly do you mean, me of all people?”

  “Why do you care?”

  “Who says I care?”

  “Do you always answer a question with another question?”

  “Do I do that? I don’t do that.” Both his eyebrows un-scrunched. “Not all the time, anyway. You are her superior. I just thought it bordered on the inappropriate.”

  “No more inappropriate than entering a room clearly marked staff only and molesting a vending machine.”

  “I needed something sweet.”

  A dimple-popping smile slowly formed across his face as he extended both arms out to the side.

  Laughter flew out of me. God he was fun. Maybe walking by his office a couple of times a week wouldn’t appear too pathetic or send the wrong signals. Besides, at the rate Will was progressing he might be discharged sooner than the doctor anticipated. In the meantime, there was nothing wrong with having an occasional moment with Hart and enjoying his friendship.

  It had become very apparent to me that time was my arch-nemesis. Any encounter I had with Hart, whether for fifteen, ten, or five minutes seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye. Whereas, the rest of the day dragged, especially when I was sitting in Will’s room twiddling my thumbs.

  Today was moving even slower than usual. It was early evening and I’d been with Will since early morning. To kick off the weekend only morning therapy sessions were scheduled, leaving Friday afternoon wide open. Will wasn’t interested in any of the social activities the rehab offered, preferring the company of his true love, the laptop, instead. In order not to go completely bonkers, I walked around the building a couples of times for fresh air and to stretch my legs. Unfortunately, there had been no Hart sighting. Other than my brief stroll I’d been stuck in the room playing my role as one-half of the perfect couple.

  I made several attempts to discuss the separation with Will so we could iron out details and make plans for when he was discharged. There wasn’t much movement on the topic. I wasn’t entirely sure why he was hanging on to this idea that we could still make the marriage work. He never loved me and he was well aware that I’d figured out the game he and his parents were running. I’d been clear that I had no intention of staying in this marriage just to keep up appearances.

  We were at a standstill, once again floating in limbo like we’d been doing for a year. But I needed to be patient. Will had been the breadwinner for our entire marriage. If I were going to survive on my own I needed time to find a job and become financially stable. Right now Will was taking up all of my time. I hoped once we got down to the nitty-gritty of the legal separation he’d remember I was here for him and the divorce would go smoothly.

  I shoved the cookbook I’d been looking through into my bag, scooted to the edge of the chair, and waited f
or Will to look in my direction. He didn’t. As usual the cyber world held more interest than the real one.

  Placing my hands on the arms of the chair, I pushed up. “It’s getting dark so I’m going to head out. Do you need anything before I go?”

  “No,” he said, never taking his eyes off of the screen.

  I slung my bag over my shoulder. “Tomorrow I won’t be here until later.”

  He looked up with glazed eyes. “Why?”

  “I have some errands to run in the morning and Sophie is coming over for breakfast.”

  “What about my breakfast?”

  “I brought an extra blueberry pastry today and there are apples, oranges, and bananas left in the basket.”

  Will huffed and shook his head. “It’s nice to know you’re out having fun while I’m stuck in here.”

  “Will . . . I’ll be here with your lunch by 12:30.”

  “I realize things between us aren’t great. But is it too much to ask for a little sympathy and caring? After all, it was you asking for a divorce that sent me over the edge.”

  I bit down on the inside of my cheek and focused on the stinging pain instead of his words.

  “Why don’t you see if your mom will come in the morning and keep you company?”

  “Because I want you here.”

  “I’ll be here as soon as I can.” I walked toward the door.

  “Well, don’t rush on my account. I’m certainly not going anywhere.” Sarcasm oozed from each word.

  Heading down the hallway I tried to clear my thoughts of all things Will related. It was almost 9 p.m. and the overnight staff was quietly going through their routine. For a place so full of life and activity during the day, there was an eerie stillness as the sun set. This was when I felt the saddest for the patients. People should be in the comfort and security of their own homes and beds at night.

  I dug in my purse for my keys as I crossed the parking lot. I was almost at my car when I glanced up and saw Hart sitting in his silver and black Honda Element. He revved the engine a couple of times before it went dead. I walked over and tapped on the window. It may have been my imagination but I swear as the glass rolled down his face lit up on seeing me.