by Kayla Perrin
Everyone could see the social worker was using her skills to avert a meltdown and it was working. Naderia took her position and arched her back like a swan. There was no denying her obvious beauty.
She favored a younger Vanessa Williams without the sophistication. She had the pretty skin, flowing hair, a killer smile and a smoking body. But her personality was like one of those women on the Bad Girls TV show, and Jay didn’t appear too interested. Who could blame him?
Dance class was concluded, and they’d gone over their time, but Jay signaled Vivian that he would take care of the additional fees, and she started the music. Naderia who had been lazy during practice, suddenly had perfect lines. She and Jay looked like couple of the year.
There was a seductive quality about them that teetered on the edge of legal, but the dance moves changed so quickly they didn’t allow for the law to be broken. Jay’s facial expressions helped. He was a comical crowd-pleaser. He played to his audience and, when Naderia tried to take things a little too far, he knew how to back things off and not lose his balance.
The other two couples joined in, and afterward Elliott and Idalia showed them an ending they’d been working on at home. It was quite a show.
Naderia shocked everyone by caressing Jay’s jaw and kissing him tenderly on the lips.
Idalia softly gasped while Beth grinned. “I knew there was something there.”
Jay shook his head. “There isn’t.”
Cooled by the gentle rejection, Naderia sucked in her lips. “Don’t get it twisted. I always get my man.”
Vivian backed away from the friends to give them some privacy.
“Hey, dancer.”
The hair on the back of Vivian’s neck stood up at the warning in Naderia’s voice.
She didn’t even bother to turn around. “I thought you’d had enough for the night, Naderia.”
“While Jay and I are working on our relationship, you need to stay out of my way.”
“What?” Vivian said, turning around with confusion across her face.
“Naderia,” Jay and Elliott warned.
“You’ll regret it. I promise you. I’ve got friends in every state in the union. All over New York.”
Vivian laughed and waved her hand. How many times had she heard that? “Good night, Naderia.”
The woman was ridiculous. Besides there was nothing going on between her and Jay.
Chapter 4
By the third night of practice, Jay wanted to strangle Naderia. She was making life unnecessarily difficult for everyone, even for her girl Beth who was always in her corner. All week she’d called his office, to the irritation of his admin assistant. She’d even phoned Ashton who’d put her on hold until she had dialed him back and cursed him out.
The woman was coming unhinged for no reason. Their relationship hadn’t even been a relationship. Earlier, she’d been blowing up his cell phone, and when he’d finally spoken to her, she’d said she just wanted to say hi.
Driven to distraction, Jay had arrived early to practice to find Vivian alone and dancing. “At Last” by Etta James was throbbing through the speakers, filling his chest. So as to not disturb her, he watched from the doorway and witnessed magic again. She leaped and spun, sweeping the floor with her body, and swinging through the air. When he could no longer see her, he snuck through the door, onto the floor and into a corner against the wall, huddling like a recalcitrant child, too afraid to breathe. He had to watch her closer and witness the glory that was Vivian.
She was the personification of RAP. Rhythm and poetry. Rappers might disagree, but Vivian was rap in motion. The song was so simple, but it was an endearing love song. He wondered why she’d chosen today to dance to it.
As the music faded, her body slowed. Deep breaths made her chest rise and fall. Then he saw a single tear streak her cheek before she turned away from the mirror. He wasn’t sure she was aware he was even in the room.
“Silly girl,” she chastised herself aloud. Turning away she swiped her face and hurried to the music stand and cut the music.
Why was she crying?
His phone blared an NFL-themed ring tone, and her head jerked up. “Jay!”
Embarrassed, he answered. “What? You’re going to be late, Naderia? Okay. Fine.” He hung up. “Sorry about that.” Jay took off his shoes and stood. “I hope I wasn’t intruding. You dance beautifully. Like an angel. Why aren’t you in New York?”
“I’m too old to dance professionally.”
“That’s crap. Not after what I just saw. Try again.”
“I’m twenty-five. I could get a few parts, but do I want to hustle for the rest of my twenties or build a life doing something else? Something else is making me money. I refer people to Broadway and they’re getting parts. I’m building a niche. But—”
Jay took in the stray hairs that had escaped from her bun. Those were the ones he concentrated on. “But what?”
“I got an email that there’s a part in Porgy and Bess. I can try out for it.”
“Can you sing?”
She nodded.
“Then money isn’t what you need. You didn’t come all this way to be a facilitator for others. You didn’t go to all those classes all those years, endure all that pain and deal with all the rejection just to make other people’s dreams come true.”
“What do you know about me?”
“You’re a competitor,” Jay told her, stepping closer. “You want to win. You want to hear the crowd cheer for you.”
“I don’t need that type of adulation. I know who I am.”
“Do you?”
Vivian smiled up at him and picked up a nearby chair. “Yes, I do.” She walked past him. “Come on. We still have forty minutes. Let’s rehearse your part.”
Jay had been all set to challenge why she wasn’t trying to be more than she was, but now he was getting a private lesson? He’d take her up on that offer any day of the week!
“Okay.” He ripped off his workout jacket and changed into his dance shoes. He met Vivian in the center of the floor.
“Put your hands on your thighs and bounce.”
Jay did as instructed. “How’s that gonna look in a tuxedo jacket?”
Vivian stood up straight and finished the movement in front of the mirror and then did the arms. He watched her from behind and admired the view. Her body was firm from so much training, but she was supple the way a woman was supposed to be.
“Jay? Jay!”
“Yes?”
“Eyes up here,” she said, gesturing toward her face. She was smiling at him. “Come on. Stay with me. Can you guys take off your jackets before you hit the dance floor?”
“Can you add in Mary J. Blige’s ‘Family Affair’ to the mix tape? Give a little intro?”
Vivian nodded and added a sideways Step Ball Chain shoulder shrug that Harv liked and would get them onto the floor fast and into the chairs.
“I like that.”
Jay tried it again, adding his own swagger.
“That’s it, Jay,” Vivian encouraged. “Now sit. Count, one, two, three and up, and go right into the Atomic Dog stomp. That’s a shout-out to the groom who’s a Que. Then the music changes fast into the waltz.”
Jay grasped Vivian’s palms and froze. “Hold it,” he said.
“What?”
She was gazing up at him.
“I feel like I’m about to crush your toes.”
Her smile was quick and reassuring. “We’re going to practice this tonight. You’re the leader, so I’m trusting you to lead me. Put your right hand on my back. Your left goes with my right. Then you step forward on your right foot and I’ll step back.”
He looked down at her.
“Look forward, Jay.”
“I like
looking at you.”
Her eyelashes fluttered. “But that isn’t proper. You have to return to the promenade position.” She adjusted his chin then put her hand back in his.
“But there’s nothing pretty over there. It’s just a wall.”
A giggle that never made it out of her body trickled up her back. That was the advantage of touching Vivian. He could feel her emotions.
“I think you’ll live. Now back, and side, up and stop.” She gave instructions and Jay followed. He soon realized the shift in power of the waltz.
Really, the man was leading, and the woman was following. When they stopped, her body was a little behind his as if he was protecting her. He suddenly liked it very much.
“Let’s try it again,” he said. Looking at his feet, he noticed their position and straightened his legs. Vivian adjusted his face.
“Remember to look that way. Promenade.”
“Just say ugly and I’ll remember.”
This time she chuckled. “Five, six, seven, eight. Right, front, left. Very good. Ow!”
Jay knew when he stepped forward he was wrong, but his body was in motion. He couldn’t jerk back fast enough. Their knees knocked together and Vivian cringed.
She grabbed her knee, but reached for his, too. “You okay?”
His hand was still around her waist but he removed it because he knew once she realized, she would probably have a problem with it. “Yeah.” Kicking his leg out, his knee creaked and popped. “It’s all better. Maybe we should move on. You good?”
“I’ve had two-hundred-pound men fall on me. I’m fine. Come on. I think it’ll be fun to have the women spin you guys.”
Jay laughed and gazed at her skeptically. “Funny, yeah. But realistic?”
Vivian turned to the mirror and tested her knee by executing a few turns. “It’s good. Watch this. Once you guys come off the chairs, the women can brush off their shoulders. Then the waltz, then the hip-hop moves, spin, spin, Dougie, lift one, then the Charleston. Lift two. The crowd will love this. Then we slow it down a bit. Bend here, tick your arms. Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick. Good. We shimmy here. Do a slow Snake, then really slow it way down and do an exaggerated Grind. The men spin the women, and we come back together here. ‘At Last’ will be playing at this time.”
Jay tried to keep up. He wasn’t a dancer by nature. He was the side-to-side brother.
“That Dougie and spin into the Charleston almost killed me. We need a break in there. Can we shimmy in between?”
Vivian closed her eyes and moved her hips, replaying the dance in her head. She re-choreographed the steps and added the part he’d just requested. “That works.” She waved him up. “Come on. We have ten minutes to try this before everyone gets here. Let’s give it a go.” Using the remote, she started the music and guided Jay to the chair.
Once he sat, she bumped up his chin. “When you lift me, put your hands here.” Her hands circled her slender waist, but his huge paws didn’t ever stay put.
Jay could see what was going to happen. She was built like the beautiful, slender actress, Zoe Saldana. If he missed Vivian’s rib cage, he’d have a palm full of boob.
“Uh, okay.” He tried the lift.
“Too tight.” She slid down his body. “Again.”
They waltzed and then went into the lift. He caught her ribs on one side and her full breast on the other. Then he lowered her and her feet smacked the floor.
She patted his shoulder. “That was better. Try it again.”
“No.” Jay shook his head to release the tension and frustration.
“What’s the matter?” Vivian walked over to Jay who’d drifted away. She stood in front of him. He backed up and she slowly approached.
“I’m not getting it right, and I keep—”
“What?”
He backed up and she followed. Jay stopped.
“You scared of some breasts?” she argued.
Her directness confronted his embarrassment. If they hadn’t been in the dance studio, if they’d been at home, if the situation had been totally different, he’d have made a meal of her breasts. “No, breasts don’t scare me. It’s the woman the breasts are attached to.... I want her respect. So I don’t want to do anything that she might think is inappropriate, no matter where my thoughts and my hands might take me.”
She picked up his hands and cupped her waist. “You have to hold me here to do the move right.” She moved his hands to her neck, standing really close to him. “And here, when we dance to Tyrese. Hug me,” she told him.
Jay watched her. “Okay,” he said, going along with the demonstration.
In very slow motion, her body molded to his. Her face was in his neck, her lips touching his collarbone. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and their sex met through their clothes. “When we Grind dance, we’ll be this close. You can’t be afraid to touch me.”
Vivian slowly released him.
“Lady, you’re crazy if you think you can do that to me and not expect me to want to end the night with you.”
There. He’d told her what he’d wanted to say since he’d met her. He was attracted to her like crazy.
She seemed suddenly self-conscious. “A long time ago I decided I wanted a man in my life, not just in my bed. I’m still waiting for the right man.”
He’d heard that before from so many women, but many didn’t really know what they wanted. “How’s that working for you?”
“I’m happy. Nobody is running through my life and taking the best of me. I’m not ashamed of myself at the end of the day. Come on. You’re not paying for therapy sessions. Lift me, quarter turn, put me down.”
Blown away by the revelation, Jay did as instructed.
Vivian kept both hands on his shoulders. “That was good. Not as much pressure on your thumbs. I feel like you’re going to break my ribs.”
Jay lifted her again, and again, and again. They finally got it right on the fourth try.
They high-fived and were moving back into first position when Naderia walked in.
“What’s going on here? I didn’t know we were having private lessons.” Naderia tracked in rainwater with her four-inch boots. Her tart tone broke the mood, forcing them to make room for her disrespectfulness.
She’d been off the chain all day, and tonight her mood didn’t seem to have improved. Jay wondered what he’d ever seen in Naderia. She was plain evil. Though they’d broken off their two-week affair two months ago, she’d been wanting to get back together ever since. And now they were keeping up appearances for the wedding. What a crock of crap.
He could do high maintenance. But high maintenance and crazy? No way.
Thunder shook the building and Jay noticed for the first time that it was raining hard.
“We just got in a little practice, Naderia. I thought you were going to be late.” Vivian’s hands rested comfortably on her hips.
“Sorry to disappoint you.”
“I’m not.”
Naderia’s slit eyes and the suspicion in her pouty lips were headed right for Jay. She walked up and planted a kiss on the corner of his mouth, missing his lips. He shook her off, giving her a disgusted look.
“You need to quit playing before you get your feelings hurt.”
She had wrapped her arms around his waist and was looking possessively at Vivian, who wasn’t giving her the time of day. “Jay, you know you want me.”
“Stop,” he said calmly but sternly.
“Naderia, that’s a two-hundred-dollar fine for walking on the floor.” Vivian pointed to the Rules posted midway atop each wall of mirrors, as she moved the chair from the center of the floor back to the corner. She threw a towel onto the floor for the water.
“Like hell. I’m not paying!” Her curls bounced in defiance.
/> Vivian walked over to the stereo system and cut off the music.
Jay took Naderia by the wrist and pulled her off the floor. “You’re paying. Where’s your credit card?”
“Why!”
“You know why,” Jay started, when Vivian walked up, her dance bag on her shoulder, her street shoes in her hand.
“Jay, I said I would do this as a favor, but I refuse to work with immature people. I have to pay if the place is destroyed. Everything is on camera. The owner fines me every time someone walks on the floor. Either she pays, or the deal is off.”
Chapter 5
Vivian rarely got angry, but Naderia was a woman who took her to that level.
It was obvious Naderia was spoiled, and she was accustomed to getting her way, but not when it came to destroying other people’s property.
Fuming, Vivian walked down the strip mall to the Mexican restaurant and stepped inside, wondering if she’d done the right thing.
She’d never walked out of her own studio before.
Flicking open the menu, she quickly ordered. “Chicken burrito, extra peppers, hold the tortilla. Top-shelf margarita.”
“You don’t want to hold the liquor, too?” Lupe asked, being facetious.
“You want a tip?” Vivian countered.
The waitress walked off, and didn’t bother to bring back any chips. Instead, she brought celery sticks and salsa along with Vivian’s drink.
Vivian passed the time sipping from the wide-rimmed glass and eating her sizzling vegetables and chicken.
This was the first time she’d eaten out in a while, and she wasn’t even enjoying herself. The disagreement kept playing in her mind. How could she have done things differently? Sure, Naderia had been a pain, but Vivian wondered if she should have idly stood by and let her walk all over the floor and kept quiet?
She never got mad. She was a black dancer in a predominantly white business. She’d faced her share of disappointment. So why today was she so short-tempered? Was it just Naderia?
Or was it the idea of Jay and Naderia?
A tiny shot of pain stabbed through her head as the tequila helped her relax.
