Page 96 of Two to Tango

Chapter thirty-two

Logan

Maybe San Diego isjust fucking cursed.

Maybe I only have myself to blame. For saying yes to private lessons, for saying yes to what she’d asked. For going back to teaching in the first place.

Come tomorrow morning, I’m going to call the dance studio and tell them I’m done. But in the meantime, I send some texts to other contacts. I get everything ready for the next step, because it sure as shit won’t be dancing.

This time I’m done.

“Hey, can you talk?” I ask Tara when she picks up the phone.

“Yeah, what’s up?” she says on the other line.

“You think San Diego is cursed?”

She huffs out a laugh. “What? What happened?”

“She bailed.”

I can hear her sit up on the other line. “Who?”

“Julie, who else?” My anger is starting to show in my voice.

“What do you mean she bailed?” she asks, confused.

“Stop asking so many fucking questions.” I don’t mean it to come out so harsh, and I can’t help but wince after the words are out of my mouth.

“Chill out for a second. I’m trying to figure out what happened.”

“Sorry,” I mutter. I huff out a breath, exasperated. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does,” she says softly.

I stay silent on the line. I don’t know what else to say, not sure why I even called. But with Tara on the other line, I feel less lonely.

“Logan, talk to me,” she pleads.

“What do you want me to say? She let the fear eat her up. She let them guilt trip her.” I can’t keep the bitterness out of my voice. She let them win. She didn’t even fight.

“That’s hard.”

“Is it though? Or could she just … tell them to fuck off?”

“It’s so much easier when you’re on the other side of it. When you’re not deep in that guilt.”

“Yeah, I don’t know anything about that.”

“You’re not mad at me, Logan. I don’t need the sarcasm,” she warns.

“She said she messed up at work.”

“Oh God, I can’t imagine how she must be feeling. Like she really fucked it up. Can you imagine how terrible she must be feeling to quit everything?”

“She’s an adult. She can make her own decisions.” She told me about how she quit so many other things in her life, why did I think this would be any different?

“I think she was definitely trying, but it was years of living like that. People can’t change overnight.” Tara's words are full of kindness, like they always are.