Page 42 of The Way We Dance

"My partner and I are on our way."

I hung up and turned back to her, watching her shake on the couch. I got back to her as quickly as I could and placed her back into my lap where I could make her feel safe.

"This happened before?" I asked.

"Yes, a few weeks ago. I am so sorry," she cried.

"Sorry for what? You didn't do anything."

"I brought you into this mess. I didn’t lock the door. I should have never put anyone at risk." She was rambling and I wasn't catching up quickly enough. All I knew was that we were ok, not hurt, nothing happened. We were scared and as far as I was concerned, if there was a mess she brought me into, I was glad I was here and she wasn’t alone.

Had she been alone, he may not have walked away, and that scared the shit out of me.

“I’m glad I was here. What happened last time?"

"The same thing, sort of," she bit her lip and looked up into my eyes. "He came in and paced, waited. Only last time, before he left, he got closer to me and hit me, knocking me out cold."

"Is this someone you know?"

She shook her head adamantly, telling me earnestly and without words that she had no clue who he was.

"Do you know what he looks like?"

"I saw him when he approached the first time. He got closer and I was able to see him briefly before he hit me. I woke up on the floor a few minutes later and he was gone. I called the police. They started investigating and….. oh shit."

"What?"

"I'm just so sorry," she said again.

It was official, Miss Priss was gone and in her place was a scared but strong woman that spoke using cuss words and didn't finish her thought before thinking of something else. She was no longer speaking like a robot—with a stick up its ass.

Apart from the fear, I felt like I was seeing the real Giselle for the first time.

"Tell me what this is all about…." I urged just as we heard a knock on the door.

I told Giselle to stay put and I approached the door, looking through the blinds first to make sure it was the detective.

He brandished his badge when he saw me peak and I opened the door quickly.

"Thanks for coming so quick," I said. I introduced myself again and shook their hands before leading them back to where Giselle was.

They asked her a couple of questions that I didn't understand but she stayed with the flow and gave them what they needed. Then they turned to me.

"Mr. Black. First of all, I am a huge fan. Second of all, what are you doing here?"

I did not want to tell these guys, who were obviously fans, that I was taking ballet lessons. No one but Giselle and Coach were ever going to find out. I would rather go to jail.

"I just stopped in to walk Giselle home. She’s a friend of mine." There was enough truth in that to suffice. Giselle didn't argue with me either.

"You’re walking her home, but you seem unaware this had happened before."

"Well Giselle didn't tell me, that’s for sure. But I still knew she needed a friend to walk her home."

He wrote some notes down, old school style in a little notebook with a pencil smaller than the one at the mini golf place. Both of them gave a few nods and hums before deciding they had asked all they were going to.

"Miss Metrovik, please let me know if you have any more trouble. We’ll be placing a full time patrol on this road and hopefully, this is the last time you have to face this."

She seemed happy about the patrol so I stayed quiet, but the meaner and more aggressive part of me considered slamming the guy into the wall and asking why he hadn't done that after the first time.

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