The Saint of Petersburg (Dancing Dream #3)

by Leslie DuBois

  I closed my eyes for a moment and felt a shiver thinking back to that moment. When I opened my eyes again, I noticed something alarming. This wasn’t just a picture.

  “What is this?” I asked noticing the words ‘The Garrison-Karl Experience’ written across the top of it in a beautiful font. “What is The Garrison-Karl experience?”

  “That’s what they’re calling this series of shows,” Anna Marie said. “You and Damian are a household name and these ... flyers have been plastered all over the city.”

  “All over the city? What do you mean all over the city?” I asked in a panic. I hoped to God Will hadn’t seen it yet. I knew it was too late to change the way the studio had decided to promote the shows, but I at least hoped I would be able to do a little preemptive damage control with Will.

  “I mean, ALL over the city.”

  “Well, maybe Will hasn’t seen it yet.”

  “Sonya, there’s a thirty-foot banner of it hanging down the front of the performance hall. He has to drive past it to get to practice.”

  “Oh no,” I said collapsing to the floor. “This is bad. This is so so bad.”

  “I know. Will is going to flip.”

  “This is bad. This is so so bad,” I said again. I think I was in a little bit of shock. No one could fully understand what this banner could potentially do to my marriage. “We’ve been married for less than two months and now he has to see billboards of his wife kissing another man everywhere he turns. And not just any other man. A man he hates!”

  Anna Marie nodded, “Yeah and not only that, but they’re calling it Garrison-Karl. Garrison-Karl? Didn’t you refuse to take Will’s last name because of your career? How do you think he’s going to feel with you sporting Damian’s last name like this.”

  I got suddenly queasy at the thought of Will’s reaction. I felt dizzy and unstable as if I were about to fall, even though I was already sitting on the floor.

  “I gotta get out of here.” I stood and grabbed my stuff.

  “Where are you going? We have rehearsal,” Anna Marie called out after me.

  I didn’t respond. I had to find Will and try to explain things. I had to tell him I had no control over this marketing ploy the DiRisio Ballet Company had started. Though I had no control, there was one person that had lots of control and I ran right into him during my attempt to escape.

  “Where are you going in such a hurry?” Damian asked as he steadied me with his arms.

  “Damian, I can’t do this.”

  “What?” he asked innocently.

  “Have you seen this?” I asked shoving the flyer into his chest. It was a stupid question. Of course, he had seen it. He was probably the one who designed it. “Will, my husband, is not going to be happy that his wife is kissing another man in front of the whole city.”

  “And what about you? Does this make you happy?” He held up the picture.

  “Not now, Damian. I don’t have time for this. I have to go save my marriage.”

  As I turned to walk away, I heard Damian say, “You can’t run away from us forever.”

  The thought that he might be right scared me to death.

  Chapter 6

  Thirty-Three in a Row

  I found Will at the arena. His practice was over, but he was still on the court at the free throw line taking shot after shot after shot. Hiding in the shadows for a while, I stood and just stared at him. I tried to figure out his method. I knew he needed to make a certain number in a row before he’d stop; I just wasn’t sure what that number was. After each shot, a little local boy would yell out the number Will had made and then toss him another ball. I thought Will would stop when he made eighteen in a row since that was divisible by three, but he didn’t. He kept going. And when he missed shot number twenty-three, he screamed and launched the ball toward the other end of the arena.

  The ball boy froze in fear. He was probably completely confused as to why someone would be upset after making twenty-two free throws in a row.

  “You can go on home. I’ll take over,” I said in Italian as I picked up a couple of loose balls on the court. I threw one over to Will. “Want to start again?”

  He didn’t attempt to catch the ball. He just stared at it and let it bounce past him as if it was diseased. “What are you doing here? Thought you had to dance.”

  Picking up his sport’s bottle, he turned away from me. I knew he wouldn’t actually leave the court though. He would never leave without making the appropriate number of free throws. If he did, he would be agitated for the rest of the day.

  “I’m taking the day off. I kinda thought we needed to talk.”

  “What about?” he said still not looking at me.

  “You know what.”

  He didn’t respond.

  “I’m so sorry, Will. I had nothing to do with the advertisement.”

  He still didn’t respond. I dropped the other ball in my hands and went over to him. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I rested my head on his shoulder.

  “The paparazzi are loving this,” he said finally.

  “It doesn’t matter what they say. All that matters is that I love you. I married you.”

  “Maybe that was a mistake.”

  Stepping away from him, I stared into his eyes. “Getting married? You think getting married was a mistake?”

  “No, not for me. You’re the love of my life. I can’t live without you.” I saw in his eyes that he meant it. Blinking rapidly, he sat on the floor while staring at the writing on his sport’s bottle as if he didn’t understand what it meant. Actually, since it was written in Italian, he probably didn’t. “I think maybe it was a mistake for you. Maybe you don’t love me.”

  A mistake? He thought our marriage was a mistake? I kept replaying his words over and over again in my head. This was totally not the reaction I was expecting from Will. I thought there would be shouting, and anger, and perhaps a few not too empty threats against Damian’s life. This was another side of Will. A side that seemed tragically fragile. A side I had to admit made me a little nervous.

  “Will, of course I love you. I wouldn’t have married you if I didn’t. That picture has nothing to do with my love for you.” I sat down across from him so I could look into his face as I spoke. “That’s my career. It’s part of the dancing. The people promoting the show would do anything if they thought it would get people to buy tickets.”

  “Your career? Are you saying that for the rest of our lives, for as long as you are a dancer, I’m going to have to live with you kissing other men? Particularly, Damian?”

  “No, babe. That’s not what I’m saying at all.”

  “Well, what are you saying?” he said when I didn’t continue.

  I didn’t really know what I was saying, actually. I was still kind of thinking about what he had said. He thought it was a mistake for me to marry him? What if he was right? What if Damian was around during my recovery? Would I still have married Will?

  I hated all of this doubt. From both of us.

  “Oh, um, I’m saying that it means nothing.” I didn’t know if it meant nothing. “And that if we’re going to make this marriage work we have to trust each other.”

  “Trust. Right. I’ve had issues with that,” he said, giving a half grin.

  Reaching for his hand I said, “Yeah, me too.”

  He took my hand and kissed it. “I gotta finish up,” he said nodding toward the basketball goal.

  “How many are you going for?”

  “Thirty-three in a row.”

  Thirty-three in a row? We could be there all night! I sighed and stood up with him. If it took thirty-three free throw shots in a row to make him feel better then I would stay there and help him get it. No matter how long it took. Because that’s what a wife did right? She stood by her husband.

  When he finally made the thirty-three in a row, it was well after midnight.

  “Okay, we can go,” he said after taking a deep, cleansing breath. “I feel so much better now
.”

  Truth be told, I would never understand how putting a ball in a basket could make anyone feel better. But then again, he’d probably never understand how nothing quite picked me up like a piqué turn. I kind of felt like doing a couple of celebratory turns right there.

  “You know what will make me feel the best though?” he asked, picking up his Lottomatica duffle bag. I was happy to see that he was able to eek out a smile. He really was feeling better. But I wasn’t prepared for what he said. “Having Damian Karl out of our lives forever. That would be the best thing for us.”

  Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure if I agreed.

  Chapter 7

  The Show

  Damian’s ballet was basically a musical rendition of our story. At the beginning I was, of course, a rigid ballerina until he came along and awakened my passion through dance. All week long I had done my best not to give in completely to him when dancing our duets to songs like “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge, “I Can’t Stop Loving You” by Ray Charles, or “I Want Someone Badly” by Jeff Buckley. But something about dancing on stage in front of a sold out audience really just brought everything alive in me. I couldn’t hold anything back. And the passion I had dancing with Damian that night and every night wasn’t acting. No matter how much I tried to convince myself or Will that it wasn’t real, I knew it was.

  “Are you okay?” I asked Anna Marie backstage. Damian and I finished dancing one of our duets and she was waiting for her cue to join Sebastien on stage.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, why?” she said turning her back to me.

  I grabbed a tissue and blotted the sweat off of my face. “Are you crying?”

  “No.”

  I stepped around her and looked into her eyes. “Yes, you are. You’re crying. Why are you crying?”

  “Fine, I’m crying.” Anna Marie grabbed a tissue and started dabbing her eyes. “You have no idea what you do out there do you? I mean, to see you and Damian dance … “ She got a little choked up and had to take a few deep breaths. “It’s just that, when you two dance together … it’s just that the two of you dance your emotion and you make everyone in the audience feel everything you’re feeling and … “

  I sighed. Yeah, I knew what she was seeing. Dancing with Damian was like what I imagined skydiving to be. It was thrilling and terrifying yet incredibly freeing at the same time.

  “Anna Marie, you’re gonna miss your cue.”

  “Right.” She tossed her tissue in the trash and got into position.

  The entire ballet wasn’t completely filled with pining love songs. Damian had managed to incorporate sweeping grandiose ensemble pieces as well and some smaller numbers to upbeat music.

  Somehow Damian had created a duet between Anna Marie and I that showcased her jumping ability as well as my musicality at the same time. He thought of everything and everyone when he created this ballet. I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of dancers in it got offers to dance at different companies around the world.

  Thankfully, the ballet didn’t end with a kiss. I didn’t want to have to explain that to Will. Since the theme of the ballet was an unfulfilled longing, it didn’t end happily. It ended with everyone wanting more, including Damian and myself I think. He hoped in this way people would want to come to more than one show, just to have the Garrison-Karl experience again.

  When the curtain closed after that first performance, we both retreated to separate sides of the stage without saying a word to each other. There was no need for words. Our bodies had just said everything there was to say between us.

  I changed as quickly as I could and didn’t even bother to take my stage make-up off. After tossing my bag over my shoulder, I ran out of my dressing room and toward the exit as fast as I could before I had to see more of Anna Marie’s crying or look into Damian’s tortured eyes again.

  “Done already?” Will asked when he saw me approaching the car. He was sitting on the hood flipping through a Sports Illustrated magazine. When I first started dancing with DiRisio, he would always meet me backstage with flowers. But one time when we were fighting, the company actually had to call the police to get him out of the backstage area.

  “Yep, I’m done. Let’s go.”

  Will jumped up to open my door for me. Of course, on the seat were three dozen white roses. He picked them up and then gave me a kiss. “You were amazing,” he said handing me the flowers.

  “Really?” Honestly, I was a little shocked that he was able to compliment me on the show. I was afraid he’d be completely jealous. If our dancing made Anna Marie cry, I thought surely it would make Will crazy.

  “Yes, of course. You’re always amazing. You could have gotten on stage and done the chicken dance and you still would be mesmerizing.”

  I smiled and kissed him sweetly. As Will opened my door, I heard footsteps running toward us. I prayed that the steps belonged to Anna Marie, but deep down I knew otherwise. I had no such luck.

  “Running away so quickly?” Damian asked standing in front of Will’s car.

  “I’m really tired.” I placed my flowers in the car and intended to sit down next to them, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  “There are reporters and company directors that wish to talk to us.”

  “She said she’s tired. Not tonight,” Will answered for me.

  “I wasn’t speaking to you. I was speaking to my … partner.”

  I could almost see the hairs standing up on the back of Will’s neck at the way Damian said the word ‘partner.’

  Will pushed me aside and took a threatening step toward Damian. Damian, not wanting to back down, stepped toward Will as well and a testosterone laden staring match began.

  Damian’s head barely reached Will’s shoulder. It wasn’t that Damian was short or anything. It was just that Will was so big. He had grown three inches in the few months we’d lived in Rome alone. And due to his trainer and nutritionist he’d also packed on an extra seventy-five pounds of solid muscle. I kind of felt sorry for Damian in this situation. Sure, technically they were both athletes, but Will was a basketball player and Damian was a dancer. Plus, Will was used to three hundred pound men knocking him around a basketball court every night. Damian didn’t stand a chance against my husband in a fight if it ever came to that.

  Of course, Will knew this and used his size to his advantage. Towering over Damian, Will said, “She’s my wife before she’s your partner.”

  “And she’ll be my partner long after she’s finished being your wife.”

  I grabbed Will’s arm just before he landed a punch to Damian’s right eye. The last thing I needed was for Damian to get so severely injured he couldn’t perform.

  “Will, baby, let’s go home. Please.”

  Will looked into my eyes. Slowly he came to his senses and said, “Okay.”

  After holding my door open for me, he glared at Damian then went to his side of the car.

  ~***~

  I was still in somewhat of a bad mood when we got home. I couldn’t believe how close Will had come to hitting Damian. Sure, they had actually been in a fight before but this was different. Will and I were married now. I thought Will would be a little more secure about our relationship. I guess I thought wrong.

  “I’m really sorry about the way I acted tonight,” Will said as he rubbed my ankle. “Something about that guy just makes me so crazy.”

  “I know,” I said, taking a sip of my wine. “But you have to get used to us dancing together. He’s right. We are partners.”

  “But for how long? I’m doing my best to deal with it, but every time I see him touch you … it just makes me crazy.”

  “Is it just Damian that makes you crazy? Or would you feel that way about any man I danced with?”

  A sly smile spread across Will’s face. “Well I do know of one guy I wouldn’t mind you dancing with.”

  “Really? Who?”

  “Hold on. I’ll show you.”

  Will hopped up and ran to the b
edroom. A minute later, a Chopin nocturne started playing over his house wide sound system. I nearly choked on a sip of wine when I turned to see Will shirtless with a pair of black tights prance into the living room.

  “What are you doing?” I said, holding back tears of laughter.

  “I’m auditioning to be your next dance partner.”

  “Audition over. You fail. You look like a giraffe in spandex.”

  “Hey, that hurts my feelings,” he said, feigning offense. “Raffaele said I would look great in these.”

  I burst out laughing at the thought of Raffaele taking my husband shopping for tights. “He lied. He so lied.”

  Will picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder. “Put me down!”

  “Not until you tell me I look good in tights.”

  “Never!”

  “Have it your way, Mrs. Maddox,” he said, leading me to the bedroom where he proceeded to tickle me to exhaustion.

  It was nice having a fun married moment with Will. I actually started thinking that with a little love and laughter we might be able to get through this summer with Damian. Oh, how wrong I was.

  Chapter 8

  Half Way Home

  Damian and I were contracted for six shows over two weekends. The first weekend went so well, I kind of felt the DiRisio Company might invite us back for more. Our names floated in the air all around Rome like a cloud. We had made quite an impression on the city. A day didn’t go by when I didn’t get an offer from dance companies all over the world trying to get a piece of the “Garrison-Karl Experience.” I should have been so excited that I was such a success. But what to do next plagued me. I was so used to dancing with Damian, I didn’t know if I could have as much success without him. But how could I continue dancing with him with all the history and emotion we shared? What would that do to my marriage? Could Will and I survive having Damian in our lives as my permanent partner? What happened next showed that Will definitely didn’t think so.