Learning to Tango

by Louise Hall

  “Trent sent me the link last night,” Kian turned his back on Cate, staring out of the window at Puget Sound. “He thought I should know that my wife’s cheating on me with her fucking dance partner.”

  Cate felt as if she’d been drop-kicked in the chest. “You seriously believe that?”

  She looked at Kian’s phone again, frantically wondering why when she’d never kissed Declan; there was a photo of her doing just that?

  “Wait a second.” Cate sat down on the bed. Wow, she was seriously sleep-deprived. “You know that’s not me. It’s Ruby. I’ve only kissed one man in my entire life.”

  Kian sighed, “of course I fucking know that it’s Ruby, angel.”

  “I don’t get it. If you know that it’s not me kissing Declan in that photo, why are you so angry?”

  Before he could answer, Cate’s phone rang. “Hello?”

  “Stay the hell away from my husband, you fucking bitch.”

  “Hadley?”

  The phone line went dead.

  Cate pushed past Kian and ran to the bathroom; she climbed into the bath and brought her knees up to her chest, making herself as small as possible.

  “Talk to me.” When she opened her eyes, Kian had climbed into the bath with her.

  “That was Hadley…” Cate could still feel each and every one of Hadley’s words like lashes of a whip against her bare skin. To be painted as the “other woman” in a marriage, a family was the cruellest insult. “She told me to stay away from her husband.”

  “Enough,” Kian said, tugging Cate on to his lap. “I’m going to get my publicist to release a statement confirming that it isn’t you in that photo, it’s Ruby.”

  “We can’t…” Cate started to protest. She was still reluctant to sacrifice her half-sister.

  Kian shook his head, “we need to protect our family, angel. You, me and the children.”

  While Kian went downstairs to make the call to his publicist, Cate rested her head against the cold lip of the bath. She reached for her phone and found the photo again, ignoring the lurid headlines about her which accompanied it. Declan was wearing the same clothes that he’d worn on Saturday night. She hadn’t invited him to dinner with Annie, George and their friends and family. Instead, he must have flown back to Seattle that night and Ruby had met him at the airport.

  Cate was shocked by how cold-hearted her sister was. This wasn’t just a drunken mistake. Ruby was knowingly trying to break up a marriage.

  Her phone rang again and Cate braced herself for more vitriol and abuse. It was Sheila, one of the producers of Stepping Out. Even just on the other end of the phone line, Cate could feel the icy chill of the woman’s voice. She’d always been kind to Cate in the past, they’d chatted in the studio canteen about their young children, but presumably now she’d seen the photo, she’d consigned Cate to the other side of the deep chasm with the rest of the grubby, little homewreckers.

  “As I’m sure you know,” Cate could hear how much Sheila was struggling to remain professional. “Declan has been released from his contract with Stepping Out and has flown back to Ireland.”

  “OK,” Cate felt a huge rush of relief that she wouldn’t have to see him again. She was a little sad that her time on Stepping Out had ended in such a tawdry way but she was pleased that Annie would win the bumper cheque for her charity.

  “We’ve arranged a replacement partner for you and he’ll be at the gym where you usually train in Seattle at nine am this morning.”

  “You want me to continue on the show?” Cate asked incredulously.

  Sheila coughed, “next Saturday is the grand finale of Stepping Out.”

  OK, so they didn’t exactly want her on the show, it would be just far too messy to get rid of her now given that they were almost at the grand finale. Stepping Out might feel like a very invasive therapy session but it was actually supposed to be a dance competition and handing the bumper cheque to Annie by default wouldn’t exactly make great TV. “OK,” Cate conceded, “I’ll be there.”

  Her pride kicked in just before Sheila was about to hang up. “Wait,” Cate said. “It wasn’t me in that photo.” She wasn’t just being accused of breaking up Declan’s marriage; she was also accused of cheating on Kian. Kian and the children were absolutely everything to Cate.

  “You don’t have to defend yourself to me.”

  “I know,” Cate clenched her fists. But she wanted to. “It was my half-sister, Ruby. Unfortunately, we look very much alike. My husband and I will be releasing a statement later this morning; I’ll ask the publicist to forward you a copy.”

  Cate quickly hung up. She didn’t expect Sheila to believe her – even she had to admit that it sounded very much like the “dog ate my homework”.

  “It’s done,” Kian walked into the bathroom. “Do you want to take a look before it’s released to the media?”

  Cate shook her head. “I’ve got to go to the gym. One of the producers just called – Declan has flown back to Ireland but they’ve arranged a replacement partner for me.”

  Kian turned to walk away. “Wait,” Cate called, scrambling out of the bath. “You know that I would never cheat on you, don’t you?”

  Kian brushed his knuckles down her soft cheek, “you’re mine, angel. You always have been and you always will be. I didn’t think for even the slightest second that it was you in that photo.”

  Cate reached up and pushed her fingers through his black hair. He hadn’t tied it back yet and that combined with the blue-black stubble marking his jawline made him look wild and untamed. She felt an insidious curl of heat low in her pelvis. She brought his head down to hers and kissed him. His intimate taste was familiar and yet intoxicatingly addictive. It revved her up from zero to ninety in the briefest of seconds. As he powered her back against the bathroom wall, surrounding her with his rough masculinity, Cate wanted to laugh at anybody who thought that she would seriously risk losing kisses as heady as these for a meaningless fling with Declan. Kian’s mouth claimed hers and she felt his fierce possession right down to her toes, which curled against the warm tiles.

  CHAPTER 38

  “It’s good to see you again, Cate,” Vladimir smiled brightly, showing off his perfect teeth for the benefit of the watching camera crew.

  “What are you doing here?” Cate looked around the studio, really, seriously hoping that this was a joke? Her replacement partner couldn’t be Vladimir, it just couldn’t. Hadn’t she already been punished enough?

  “I understand that poor Declan had to return home unexpectedly.” It was clear that Vladimir was enjoying her discomfort immensely. “Fortunately, I was able to step in at the last minute.”

  “Aren’t I lucky?” Cate scowled, dropping her dance bag on the floor.

  The door swung open and Alyssa, Vladimir’s wife walked in. As if this day couldn’t get any better. “We don’t have much time,” Vladimir reached for Cate’s wrists and tugged her into the middle of the dance floor. “Alyssa has kindly volunteered to help out with the choreography.”

  Cate had no doubt that Alyssa’s motives for helping them were anything but kind; she obviously believed that Cate was a grubby little homewrecker and was determined to make sure that she didn’t make a move on her husband. As if I would! Even if they’d both been single… no, scratch that, even if they’d been the only two souls left on Earth after the apocalypse, Cate wouldn’t have made a move on Vladimir. Run as fast as she could in the opposite direction? Far more likely!

  As in the semi-final, they had two dances this week: the Tango and the Show Dance.

  “Sit down,” Vladimir commanded. Alyssa pushed a hard plastic chair against the backs of Cate’s legs. “Save your energy. Alyssa and I will show you the routine.”

  He might have had the personality of a World War Two dictator but watching Vladimir and Alyssa dance together felt like a privilege, it was like poetry.

  When they stopped, Cate clapped her hands. They both looked at her strangely. “That was so beautifu
l.”

  “It wasn’t for your enjoyment,” Alyssa frowned. “You were supposed to be concentrating on the intricacies of the choreography.”

  She might have had high scores in the past on Stepping Out but when she was with Vladimir and Alyssa, she felt so awkward it was like she was trying to dance in flippers. After she’d stomped on Vladimir’s toes for what felt like the hundredth time, she asked if they could take a quick break. If she was going to get through this training session let alone the rest of the week, she desperately needed to give herself a good talking to.

  Vladimir shook his head, “no breaks.”

  Alyssa came back into the studio; she’d left briefly to make a phone call. Of course, she’d left the door open so she’d know if Cate tried to make a sneaky move on Vladimir.

  She and Vladimir exchanged a look and then he turned to Cate, “ten minutes.”

  Cate rushed to the bathroom and locked herself in the furthest stall. She needed to stop being so intimidated by Vladimir and Alyssa. She switched on her phone and there was a message from Annie. “I’ve just heard about Declan; I genuinely hate you right now.” Cate was stunned; surely Annie didn’t believe that Cate was having an affair with Declan? She scrolled further down the message. “If I’d known Vladimir would step in, I’d have locked Mickey in that cattle shed a long time ago.”

  “Be careful what you wish for,” Cate murmured, thinking about how Vladimir resembled a fire-breathing dragon when he was disappointed, which he’d been almost constantly with Cate this morning. She looked at her watch. Ugh, her ten minutes were almost up. She reluctantly stepped out of the stall and went to wash her hands.

  She could hear sniffles from one of the other stalls. “Are you, um, okay?”

  “Go away,” Cate recognised Alyssa’s slight Russian accent.

  “Do you want me to go and get Vladimir?”

  Alyssa opened the door; her eyes were a little red. “I want you to not have forced your dance partner to flee the country, meaning that my husband has to step in as his replacement.”

  “He could have said no,” Cate reasoned.

  “He has a bad reputation,” Alyssa sniffed, “after what that whiny, little bitch Poppy said about him, the producers made it clear that if he didn’t fix his reputation, his contract wouldn’t be renewed. He looks like a hero right now, stepping in at the last minute to replace Declan.”

  “It’s only a week.”

  “A week we were supposed to spend with our daughter in Miami,” Alyssa said bitterly. “She’s been staying with her grandmother. We haven’t seen her since Stepping Out started.”

  “I’m so sorry.” As a mother, Cate felt the other woman’s pain. “Surely you could still go?”

  Alyssa looked at her with disdain, “after what you did with Declan, do you really think I’m stupid enough to leave my husband alone with you?”

  “Oh for goodness sake,” Cate fumed. “I didn’t cheat with Declan.”

  “Whatever you say,” Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Some people have a very loose definition of cheating.”

  Cate wanted to scream at the top of her lungs. “I’m very happily married, OK. I’ve never kissed Declan, not even once. It wasn’t me in that photo; it was my half-sister, Ruby. I think it was taken at Seattle airport in the early hours of Sunday morning but I didn’t fly back to Seattle until late last night because I had a meeting in L.A. yesterday morning for my charity. If you don’t believe me, you can ask Michel or Casey because we all went out for dinner after the show on Saturday night and then I went back to my hotel room alone.”

  Cate stormed back into the studio, closely trailed by Alyssa. “Where do you want me?” she snapped at Vladimir. He raised an eyebrow; he’d obviously expected her to be more difficult.

  “Again,” Vladimir demanded, making her repeat each and every step until he was satisfied that she’d done it correctly. If he was trying to break her, it had the opposite effect. The hard, physical work was invigorating.

  “Enough,” Vladimir clapped his hands, the sound was deafening in the quiet studio. “I’ll see you at nine am tomorrow morning.” Cate looked out of the windows of the gym and the sky was already pitch-black, she hadn’t realised how late it was. She’d been lost in the Tango; it was everything she needed it to be; it was everything she was feeling; dark and stormy. She could channel all of her burning anger into the sharp, staccato movements of the dance.

  It was only when she was away from Vladimir and Alyssa, in the privacy of the Tank with its blacked-out windows, that she allowed herself to switch on her phone and see what the reaction had been to their press release. The glare of the media spotlight had quickly shifted away from them and on to Declan and Ruby instead. Cate quickly scrolled past the photos of Declan being hounded by the paparazzi at Shannon airport. She couldn’t believe that she’d once been foolish enough to think that he was her friend.

  She felt a tiny sliver of guilt when she saw the photos of Ruby surrounded by photographers as she tried to reach the front door of her hotel. She looked terrified. Had Cate and Kian really done the right thing in “outing” Ruby to the press like that?

  Cate forced herself to take a deep breath. She had to think about the alternative. What would have happened if they’d let the press continue thinking that it was Cate who’d kissed Declan? Kian was right; they had to prioritise their children. When they’d lived in England, Lola had got into trouble for fighting with one of her classmates in the school playground. The boy had taunted her about Kian’s very public affair with Jenna.

  As she drove home through the dark, rainy streets of Seattle, she spotted a hot-pink neon sign advertising a tattoo parlour. She thought about the tattoos on Kian’s ribs and pectoral muscle which symbolised his commitment to their marriage and family. Those tattoos had meant that they could prove definitively that it wasn’t them on that awful sex-tape. With all the questions about her fidelity, Cate wanted something on her skin to prove that she was Kian’s.

  She knew that there was a good chance that she would later regret being so impulsive but she still parked up in front of the tattoo parlour and pulled out her phone. An internet search told her that the parlour had a really good reputation; it was clean and hygienic. She texted Kian and asked him to meet her there. As she got out of the car, she felt that same heady surge of adrenaline as when she’d climbed up on to the mechanical bull in L.A.

  “Hey, I’m Mara,” the female tattooist greeted Cate. “What are you looking for today?”

  After Cate had explained what kind of tattoo she wanted, Mara sketched something for her. “What do you think?”

  “It’s perfect,” Cate nodded. Mara led her through to one of the back rooms. She wanted the tattoo on her hip so she tugged her yoga pants and the strap of her thong down over her hip. Mara handed her a sheet of paper, not unlike at the doctor’s office, to protect her modesty.

  The leather was cold against the bare skin of her back. The radio was playing “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.

  “Cate?” Kian’s voice came from outside. Mara looked up from prepping her needle.

  “It’s my husband,” Cate said. “Would it be OK if he…?”

  “It’s OK, Todd,” Mara called, “you can let him back here.”

  “Angel,” Kian looked at his wife on the leather chair, her yoga pants and panties pulled indecently low. He could see the shadow of the start of her cleft through the thin, white paper.

  “Can you…?” Cate gulped as Mara approached with the needle. “Hold my hand?”

  Kian reached for her hand, clasping it inside his own as Mara made the first scratch. “Wow, that hurts,” Cate hissed through her teeth.

  “It gets better, I promise,” he soothed, kissing her brow.

  As his eyes drifted down his wife’s flat stomach to where Mara was working on her hip, Cate squeezed his fingers, “please don’t look, I want it to be a surprise.”

  Kian’s eyes darkened, “tell me you’re not doing this just for me
.” She didn’t have to get a tattoo to prove that she belonged to him.

  “I’m not,” Cate winced. “I promise.”

  After Mara had finished the tattoo, Cate felt dizzy. “Are you ready to see it?” Mara asked.

  “Mm,” Cate willed the contents of her stomach to stay just where they were. She sat up a little. “It’s a little red at the moment but that’s normal,” Mara explained.

  Cate looked at the Chinese symbol for courage which now marked her hip. It was almost identical to Kian’s tattoo except that it was smaller and the lines weren’t solid black, they were made up of all of the dates that were important to Cate. All of the ties that bound her and Kian and the family they’d created so tightly together; their wedding date, the children’s birthdays. “It’s perfect,” Cate marvelled at Mara’s beautiful artwork. “Thank you so much.”

  Kian helped Cate into the passenger side of the car. “Do you like it?” she asked, biting her lip.

  “I love it,” Kian reassured her. “How do you feel?”

  “Sore but a little bit giddy,” Cate admitted. “I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo. I’m sure it was on the list I made when I was pregnant with Lola. I wish I knew what had ever happened to that list? I’d love to know just how many of the things on there I’ve actually done.”

  CHAPTER 39

  “Should we try it again?” Cate asked in between large gulps of cold water. Her muscles ached, she was absolutely dripping with sweat and she was covered in bruises. She’d never worked as hard as she had the last four days with Vladimir and Alyssa but surprisingly she’d really enjoyed it. Vladimir was very clear about his role in her life; he was there to teach her the Tango and the Show Dance, nothing more. There was no blurring of the lines as there had been with Declan.

  She might have felt differently if, like Poppy, she’d been partnered with him for the whole show but after what she’d witnessed with Declan and Ruby, she appreciated Vladimir’s honesty.