Page 27 of Master of My Heart

Jayson stopped and looked around. “Yeah, I guess it does.” He shrugged, then unlocked the door.

They took an elevator up to the fifth floor and walked down a long hallway. Jayson unlocked a blue door and stepped aside for her and Liz to enter.

Sabrina was surprised by the modern feel of the apartment, considering the outside of the building looked so old. Just inside the door was a dining room with a rectangular black table surrounded by six white-linen chairs. The galley kitchen sat adjacent to the dining room. Beyond that was a living room with windows on two sides. A long blue couch and a matching chair sat in the corner, a coffee table in front of the couch, and panel TV on the opposite wall.

Liz opened a door off the dining area. “This is your room. It’s not huge, but it has a comfortable bed.”

The room had a queen-sized bed, a dresser, and a nightstand with a lamp on it. The floor was wood, and white curtains framed the two rectangular windows. The blue-and-white quilt on the bed looked homemade.

Sabrina’s heart filled with warmth. “Thank you, Liz. You and Jayson are so kind.”

Liz put a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know what happened to you, but Martin said you could use a friend.” She smiled. “We’d love to be that for you.”

Sabrina walked into the room and sat down on the bed for a few minutes, sinking into the softness. A sigh escaped her lips.

“Hey, you hungry?”

Sabrina turned to see Jayson standing in the doorway. She nodded and followed him out of her room. Liz was already sitting at the table, unwrapping her food. Next to her sat a guy about Jayson’s age, his long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. He looked up, smiling, as she approached.

“Sabrina, this is Jon, Liz’s fiancé,” Jayson said, sitting at the end of the table. He motioned toward a chair. Sabrina gave a shy smile to Jon as she sat down.

“Ah, the audie everyone’s talking about,” Jon said in a friendly tone.

“The what?” she asked, confused. “Audie?” She glanced at Jayson.

“It’s what we call dancers who are auditioning,” Jayson explained.

“Oh.” She remembered Martin calling her that earlier today. She looked at Jon. “You’re a dancer, too?”

He nodded. “Principal. And Liz was recently promoted to soloist,” he said, looking at his fiancée proudly.

Liz’s cheeks turned pink. “Well, I didn’t think you could stoop down from being a principal to marry someone who was only a corps dancer.”

Jon shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You know I don’t care about that.” He leaned over and kissed Liz on the cheek, making her beam.

“Wow,” Sabrina murmured under her breath. Being in a room full of professional dancers made her feel so insignificant.

Sabrina quietly ate her lunch, trying to follow their banter in an effort to stay awake. They had been so kind to her, she didn’t think it would be polite to interrupt them just to say she wanted to go to sleep. That would be rude, wouldn’t it? But she was so tired...

Someone called her name and she jumped. Jayson smiled at her as Liz and Jon started walking away from the table. “What?”

He chuckled. “You look like you’re going to fall asleep in your lunch.”

She looked down and realized she’d only eaten half her salad. “Sorry,” she whispered.

Jayson put his hand on hers. “Nothing to apologize for. You’ve had a tough couple of days. Do you want to take a shower and sleep for a while?”

She nodded, grateful that he seemed to understand.

He showed her the hall bathroom, which would be hers since his and Liz’s rooms both had bathrooms attached.

“Do you need anything else?” he asked as he handed her a fluffy red towel.

She glanced into the shower, seeing soap and shampoo already in there, and shook her head. “I think I have everything. Thank you,” she added sincerely.

His eyes widened for a second, then softened into a warm smile, sending shivers through her body. Something about his smile made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. He nodded and left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

Chapter Eleven

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