Dance, Lust And Them

 Janelle giggled at his comment. “I think they look charming on you.”

 “Do you now?”

 They’d been having such an intense and intimate conversation that Janelle had completely forgotten where she was. It took the stomping of the other dancers and the slamming of the door to bring her back to reality.

 “I guess I better get back,” she told Vance. “Wouldn’t want to be late on my first day here.”

 “And it won’t be your last. I just want you to know that I’ve already decided to take you on as a full-time dancer in my studio.”

 “Oh my God,” Janelle gushed. “Mr. Quick, thank you so much, you won’t regret it.”

 He laughed and took her hand in his. “It’s Vance. You can call me Vance. And while we’re still here, might I ask what your plans are for later this evening?”

 “Plans? Are you asking me out?”

 “You could say that,” he responded coyly.

 “I’d love to,” she said. “I’m not doing much later, besides maybe resting my feet after all this exercise.”

 Vance grinned. “Great. Meet me in the front of the studio when you’re done. We can grab a bite to eat at the diner down the street.”

 He smiled at her one last time before disappearing back into the office.

 “What was that,” Lisa crooned, walking towards Janelle. She hip-checked her, causing Janelle to giggle.

 “Vance and I were just having a conversation,” she said. “He’s a pretty nice guy. I have to admit, I was worried that we wouldn’t get along. But I’ve taken a liking to him.”

 “Yeah, he’s likable alright,” Lisa said. “Just be careful you don’t become his favorite, you might make the other girls jealous.”

 Janelle laughed and shook her head. There was no way any of the other dancers could possibly be jealous of her. She wasn’t nearly as beautiful or daring as they were. They’d probably been professionally dancing for much longer than she had. What did Janelle know about studios?

 Calm down Janelle. Remember what mother always used to say. You have to think about the positives in a situation, not the negatives. As long as you think of all the ways a situation could go right, you’ll never go wrong.

 The rest of the rehearsal went on smoothly. Vance abandoned his post for a few minutes to grab some coffee from the kitchen. On his way there, he ran into one of his backup dancers, Evelyn. Vance and Evelyn had spoken on a few occasions, and had found out that they shared similar interests. Unfortunately for Evelyn, Vance wasn’t interested in her in a romantic sense. He preferred people like Janelle, who were a bit more humble due to their upbringing, than Evelyn. The minute she saw him she made a face.

 “Saw you talking to the new girl,” she said. “It seems like you two were getting pretty intimate.”

 “I thought I’d introduce myself, if that’s what you mean by intimate,” Vance responded.

 “I think you know what I mean,” Evelyn said, taking a step towards him.

 “Ev, you know it’s not like that between us. Why don’t you find some other fine guy to whisk you away? We’re in it for business, not pleasure.”

 She frowned at him and rolled her eyes. “Now I know that’s not true. I heard that just last week you were having s*x with one of your coworkers. Why do you try and play it off like you’re one of the good guys?”

 Vance rolled his eyes at her and proceeded to put on a cup of coffee. He had no idea that Janelle was listening to them from the sidelines. She’d headed towards the kitchen to grab something to eat, as she was feeling slightly light-headed from all the dancing. Like hot yoga, the dance room was extremely warm and made her exhausted. She could barely handle hot yoga when she did it on occasion, and was prone to fainting fits when she hadn’t had enough to drink or eat. She stayed on the outskirts of the kitchen, hiding behind a large but open cabinet full of spices and vegetable stocks.

 “You know you want me,” she could hear Evelyn whispering. Janelle watched with wide eyes as Evelyn ran her fingers up and down Vance’s back. He was clearly turned on by her touch, but whether or not it was a natural response, Janelle had no clue.

 Sometimes she couldn’t believe the way women threw themselves at other men. She’d always been one to stick on the sidelines when she was playing the game of seduction. The last time she’d had s*x with another man other than Curtis, it had taken them weeks of playing and teasing to finally have s*x. They’d been hanging out at the bar almost every day for a month, him buying her drinks and she heartily smoking and indulging in his charity. Her father had warned her that drinking like that all the time would lead to a problem, but Janelle just shooed his advice away. She’d never had trouble with any addictions so to speak. Most of her problems came from her family and her complicated past.

 When at last Evelyn got the message—that Vance wasn’t going to sleep with her—she went back to the studio with a pissed off look on her face.

 “You can come out now,” Vance said to Janelle.

 “How did you know I was here?” she asked.

 He shrugged. “I’ve been working in this studio for a long time. You tend to become familiarized with every nook, cranny, and squeaky floorboard.”

 He smiled and offered her a cup of coffee, which she happily took. “You had enough?” he asked.

 “Not exactly. The choreographer told me to take a break because I was sweating more than I was taking in liquids. I’m so sorry I just shared that, you probably think I’m disgusting,” she said, wiping her brow.

 He laughed. “No, nothing of the sort,” he responded.

 “I have to make a phone call,” she said abruptly. “I’ll be right back.”

 He nodded and continued to pour himself another mug of coffee.

 She went into the other room to call Curtis up. During her conversation with Vance, she’d completely forgotten that she’d also set up a date that evening with Curtis.

 “Hey baby,” he said.

 “Curtis hi, I have some bad news. Can we potentially reschedule for tonight?”

 “Of course,” he said, blowing in her ear. He was probably smoking something as they were speaking. “When did you want to reschedule for? And what are you up to tonight? Big plans with your new friends now that you’re famous?”