An Encore for Love

by Alexandra Warren

  Knox nodded with a grin. “That’s real sweet of you, Ri. I’m surprised he didn’t ask me to do the same.”

  “He… didn’t ask me. I offered. Because that’s what friends do.”

  It wasn’t that I was purposely trying to one-up Knox, but I definitely understood why his eyebrow piqued the second the words left my mouth. And it wasn’t as if he let me hang out at the top of the totem pole for long anyway, quickly outdoing me when he asked, “Well if that’s what friends do, do you need a hand? I mean, I was just gonna chill out around here with baby girl, take her down to the pool or something. But we can come hang out at the studio instead. Maybe take turns teaching so you don’t burn out. I know those kids can be a handful.”

  There was a lot of truth to his words. A truth that had been lingering in my head since I offered to do it, especially since it had been months since I taught an adolescent dance class. And even then, I had plenty of assistants to do the organizing and managing while I solely focused on the choreography; that memory making Knox’s offer even more tempting.

  But since I wasn’t exactly interested in spending more time around him than I had to, I went against my own will when I told him, “I got it, Knox. It’ll be fine.”

  “Come on, Amerie. I’m just tryna help,” he insisted with the same innocence, the same softness as the day before when he was in my office trying to convince me that I should no longer be mad at him about the past.

  And… damnit, it was working like a charm. Especially considering the load I knew he’d be taking off of my shoulders by coming along to assist me.

  So with a heavy sigh, I told him, “You know what? Fine. You can come. But we have to hurry up.”

  “I’m ready now. Let’s go,” he said, reaching back down to his seat to grab his phone and shoving it in his pocket before taking off towards the revolving doors with Mackenize still asleep in his arms.

  And while he was already on the go, I was still frozen in place when I called after him, “Uh… don’t you need to go change clothes? Change shoes? Grab a towel or something?”

  Even though Knox was dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt, I still didn’t imagine him wanting to teach that way. But he didn’t seem to mind as he tossed over his shoulder, “Nah, I’ll be fine. And besides, Blaise has all of that shit already there. I’ll just use his stuff if I have to.”

  “I guess that works,” I said more to myself than him since he was a solid few feet ahead of me.

  By the time I made it outside, he was already busy putting Mackenzie in her car seat. And it wasn’t until I climbed into the driver’s seat and him in the passenger’s that he asked, “How’d she do last night? Was she aight?”

  “It was a struggle, but we got the job done one way or another,” I answered, thinking about all of the singing, and reading, and rocking I had to do to get her to sleep.

  Though it was clear Knox wasn’t as trusting of my skills when he followed up by asking, “What’d you do? Give her some Benadryl or somethin’?”

  “What? No. I didn’t... drug her. I just waited it out.”

  “Well next time you should put on some white noise. I don’t know why she likes it so much, but it gets her every time.”

  Once again, I found myself jealous of how well Knox knew how to handle our Goddaughter as if I didn’t spend almost twice as much time with her as he did. I mean, I was the one who was actually local more often than not while he lived clear across the country. But since I wasn’t in the mood to start yet another petty argument, I simply replied, “Will do.”

  The silence throughout the car that followed my words quickly became consuming as I tried to focus on the destination instead of Knox’s heavy gaze sitting right against my cheek. Naturally, I wondered what he was thinking, wondered why he seemed so transfixed. But before I could come up with an answer on my own, he said, “So… about what you said yesterday…”

  I cut him off right away, shaking my head as I told him, “No. I don’t want to go there. Don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Will you ever want to, babe? Or we just gonna let it be the pink elephant in the room?” he asked, his eyes still on me as I kept mine trained on the road.

  And while I wanted to correct him about the “babe” thing for the hundredth time, instead I chose to toss out a sarcastic, “I don’t see a pink elephant. Do you?”

  He chuckled, shaking his head as he pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. “If the pink elephant doesn’t exist then why you been actin’ so hostile towards me?”

  He and I both knew the obvious ass answer to his question. But since he wanted to play dumb, I was sure to remind him, “Knox, I told you I don’t want to talk about it. Revisiting the past is so unnecessary. And it’s certainly not on today’s menu.” Even if I had already done it in my own head and with Miranda, that didn’t mean I was going to take it there with him.

  “So what is then? Getting to know each other again? Catching up on life?” he asked with a hopeful tone as he leaned against the center console, completely invading my personal space. And it wasn’t until then that I realized he was wearing my favorite cologne of his; the one he’d put on after his post-performance shower right before we’d… ugh.

  “Today’s menu consists of making sure Mackenzie is good, giving our friends all of the support they need during this trying time, and dancing. That’s it.”

  I watched him sit back and nod out of my peripheral, giving me a chance to breathe as he agreed, “I can rock with that for now. But eventually we’re gonna have to talk, babe. You do know that, right?”

  “The only things I know are the current mutual obligation sitting in the backseat and the fact that we’ll be working together soon. Neither require this conversation you, for whatever reason, find oh-so-important,” I replied, trying my best to sound as nonchalant as possible. The last thing I needed was Knox believing I still had feelings for him even if it was the truth.

  But while I found myself intentionally treading the situation lightly, Knox knew exactly how to get under my skin when he tossed out, “Well act like it then.”

  “Act like it? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He leaned back in and I found myself staggering my breathing the same way I had to do during performances to insure I wouldn’t pass out when he answered, “If you don’t need an explanation, if you don’t wanna… chew me out, let me hear it, release whatever you’re obviously holdin’ onto then act like it’s not important. Be normal.”

  I rolled my eyes at his attempt to pull the past out of me as if I wasn’t holding onto it for dear life.

  Of course I wanted an explanation.

  Of course I wanted to chew him out for that shit he pulled way back when.

  But what would truly be the purpose?

  At this point, real closure seemed impossible considering how much we’d be around each other in the next few months. So if I chewed him out now, then what? What would truly moving past it even look like?

  I had way too many questions for myself before I could give him the wrath that he was practically begging for. So instead, I decided to hold strong on my stance when I insisted, “I am being normal, Knox. I’ve been incredibly cordial today. And I even let you ride along. So it sounds to me like you may need to be checking in with your guilty conscience instead of trying to put whatever this is all on me.”

  Knox

  I was grateful for the opportunity to distract myself with teaching and dancing after the egg Amerie had dropped on me in the car, though I knew she was absolutely right. I wasn’t sure what I expected her to do, what I expected her to say, what it was that I even wanted to hear. But instead of taking responsibility for what I already knew and being clear about my wrongdoing, I was steadily trying to pull it out of her.

  And that just wasn’t going to work.

  So instead of trying to address whatever it was, I decided to do what I advised her to do; be normal. And for me, being normal meant dancing with the prettiest girl in the room w
ho just so happened to be Amerie.

  “Yo, you gotta come play this game with us, Ri,” I shouted once she stepped back into the studio after going upstairs to grab a new round of toys for Mackenzie to play with.

  We had been switching the responsibility back and forth, one of us tending to baby girl while the other taught a class. And even though it was technically her turn to take a break, I couldn’t help myself in pulling her back in now that we had moved onto the oldest group of students - a bunch of high teens and twenties still trying to find their way in the dance world, and the only group I knew I didn’t have to dance with a filter on around.

  But to no surprise, Amerie was quick to brush me off as she said, “You got it. I’m just peeking in.”

  I shook my head with a smile at her apprehension, redirecting my attention to the class of twelve when I asked, “Do y’all know who this is? Amerie is the hottest choreographer in the game right now. You gotta come show us why they’re payin’ you the big bucks, superstar.”

  If nothing else, I knew a little stroke of her ego in front of an audience would do the trick. But she still made another attempt at avoiding me when she suggested, “Or… I could save my moves for those big bucks you speak of.”

  I smacked my teeth, turning my attention back to the students as I told them, “I think she’s scared, y’all. What y’all think?”

  There was a wave of cheers, hollers, and laughs from them all agreeing with me, though Amerie made another weak attempt when she whined, “But I have to watch Mackenzie.”

  This time, it was me brushing her off as I told her, “You know good and well baby girl is a studio baby. Hand her over to one of her play cousins and get your ass on up here.”

  “I got her!” one of the girls shouted, walking back towards Amerie with her hands extended. And now that her back was against the wall, she had no choice but to take the challenge.

  “Alright, alright. Fine. What are the rules?” she asked as she finally made her way to the front of the room.

  “Press shuffle, and whatever song comes up we have to freestyle to it,” I answered, making a small tweak to the guidelines considering everyone else who had already taken a turn had danced solo.

  Amerie’s eyes went wide as she turned my way with her hands on her hips and asked, “We? As in me and you?”

  “Is that a problem? Don’t think you’ll be able to keep up?” I asked teasingly, licking my lips as I challenged her with my eyes.

  But instead of succumbing to the pressure of my gaze, she threw shots of her own when she replied, “Actually, I was more concerned about you being able to keep up.”

  The whole class erupted in laughs and cheers again, this time at my expense. But I wasn’t embarrassed, instead excited about the opportunity to see Amerie back in her element, even when I told her, “You talkin’ big shit, babe. I hope you can back it up.”

  “Haven’t I always been able to back it up, Knox?” she tossed over her shoulder, earning another round of Ooo’s from the class.

  And since I knew the answer to her question was nothing short of a hell yes, I silently watched as she walked over to the sound system, peeking back at me before pressing shuffle on the playlist of snippets from my phone.

  Once the beat dropped, I immediately recognized the song as Maybe by Teyana Taylor; a song with just enough bass and a rap feature to give it a hip-hop feel, but also incredibly sexy.

  “Oh, this should be good…” I thought to myself, stepping back and giving Amerie the floor to catch her groove before I jumped in. And being the professional that she was, it didn’t take long for her to catch the beat. In fact, you would’ve thought she had danced to the song a million times the way she hit each word with a different move while also keeping her rhythm against the melody.

  I almost forgot I was supposed to be freestyling with her until she invited me with a wiggle of her pointer finger just as Teyana began to sing her first verse, though I probably shouldn’t have taken the bait considering the way she immediately tried to use me as a damn prop. And I could only stand there completely shook as she slowly grinded her way down my body, dragging the palms of her hands from my chest to my waist before using my thighs to steady her as she bounced her ass in a squat.

  The ladies in the class were already cheering her on while the guys were thankfully on my side, trying to coach me up on what to do in response. But the truth was, the same way I knew exactly how to get under Amerie’s skin with my words, she knew how to get under mine with the fluidity in the sway of her hips. It seemed so effortless the way she flipped around, watching herself with a determined look in the mirror as she dropped down to the ground onto her knees just as the pacing of the beat changed, then popped her ass to the bass near my shins before hopping back onto her feet.

  And it took one of the students shouting, “Knox, do something!” for me to really snap out of it, reminding me that I wasn’t just some everyday Joe no matter how much Amerie made it seem that way. But the studio was my territory - my stomping grounds - just as much as it was hers. I did this shit for a living just as much as she did, if not more. Hell, I was technically her senior when it came to the dance world.

  So by the time the chorus came around, I had finally gained my footing enough to shadow her every move with one of my own. Though when I peeked at her eyes through the mirror, it was clear she felt completely in control and was enjoying that fact immensely.

  It was a treat to see Amerie so happy, see her having fun, see her being sexy as hell, even if it was costing me my damn freestyle card when it came to these particular students. But that was a price I was willing to pay if it allowed me to grab Amerie by the hips without her slapping the shit out of me, grinding against her ass and eliciting a roar of cheers from the guys now that I was taking charge.

  At least I thought I was until the second verse came on and I lost all control.

  “In the club, twisted, ooo reminiscing...

  Boy, I can vision round two.

  It's me and you and I'm winning…

  There's no competition…

  Boy, you about to… mmm…”

  I had never heard truer lyrics in my life as Amerie took my hands, running them down her body slowly and seductively while also giving me a provocative look through the mirror that almost made me forget we had an audience. Her eyes were soft and sexy, her lip was pulled between her teeth, and shit… I was turned the hell on as she left my hands to linger against her soft curves before she pulled away just as the beat switched once again. And even though I was sure to at least go through the motions to survive the rest of the song, there was no doubt in my mind that if we were alone, I would’ve already had Amerie hemmed up against the wall with her legs wrapped around my waist by now, making good on everything she knew she was doing to me.

  But that was the thing.

  I was pretty sure the fact that we had an audience was exactly why she was doing what she was doing, kind of like a student starting a fight right in front of the principal. Even if the song was chosen at random, there were plenty of other ways we could’ve made our way through it. But instead of keeping things PG, instead of staying away from me so that we were forced to freestyle separately with innocent dance moves, she had intentionally brought me in, intentionally invited me to touch her while also giving me hints of the Amerie I knew oh so well. The Amerie who had a sex appeal like no other with the skills to match, whether it was on the dance floor or the bedroom.

  As the song faded out with the second rap verse, I couldn’t help but wonder if I was reading into things too much, couldn’t help but wonder if I was simply imagining everything Amerie was throwing my way no matter how expressive dance was known to be. But before I could come up with an answer, the class erupted with cheers and compliments, though there were definitely more directed towards Amerie than me. And I couldn’t help but join in on their applause, taking my loss like a man as I bowed down and gave her praises of my own.

  “You’re the shit, ba
be. Always have been,” I told her with a smile, wrapping an arm around her shoulder in a friendly embrace.

  But she was quick to remind me that we no longer had that kind of relationship when she pulled away and quietly snarled, “Yet somehow I still wasn’t enough for you.”

  I was immediately taken aback by her words, immediately consumed by the history between us she had pretended didn’t exist just earlier. But before I could call her out on it, a familiar voice announced, “Alright, who’s got next? I’m tryna run one too.”

  The impact Blaise had already made on his students was clear as day as they all dashed over to him to show him some love. And it wasn’t only the students who were happy to see him as Amerie’s face changed from a scowl to a smile when she shouted, “Blaise! You’re here. Is everything alright?”

  He nodded, pulling her into a hug with a half-hearted smile as he replied, “Everything is fine. Malia bee-lined upstairs to relax so I told her I’d come see what was going on and snag Mackenzie. But before I do that, I’m trying to get in on this next freestyle. So what’s up? Y’all tryna run one together for old times’ sake?”

  Now that Amerie’s words had completely contradicted what she had done on the dance floor, I honestly didn’t have an answer. And I wasn’t really surprised when I heard her respond, “Uh… how about you and Knox show them how it’s done? I’m gonna go check on Malia.” Before heading towards the door, stopping by to snag Mackenzie on her way out.

  Blaise shrugged it off, leaning into me to ask, “How’d you pull that off without her killing you?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine, bruh,” I told him, still trying to make sense of it all as I continued, “We can talk about it after this next run though. You look like you need it.”