Page 21 of Teach Me to Fly

“Alfie,” Lando warns, half-laughing, half-scolding.

“What?” Alfie grins. “I’m just saying. That was some top-tier dramatics.”

We all laugh, and for a moment, it’s easy to get swept up in the energy, the camaraderie, the weird comfort ofbeing seen and not judged. The minute I became a principal dancer in New York, the other dancers kept their distance, gossiping behind my back and sometimes in front of me. They all thought I had got there with the help of my mom.

But something itches at the edge of my mind, and before I can second-guess it, I ask, “So… how long have Reign and Wendy been dating?”

The conversation stutters and Willow blinks at me. “Who said they’re dating?”

I try to keep my voice light. “I don’t know. They came in together and she was hanging on him, so I just assumed.”

“They’re not,” Willow says, shaking her head. “They’ve been cast opposite each other a lot in the past. There’s chemistry, sure. But it’s not like… sexual…at least not for Reign from what I’ve seen.”

“They probably do fuck though,” Alfie mutters around his straw.

Lando smacks his arm. “Alfie, shut up.” Then he turns to me with a wince. “Ignore him. He has the emotional depth of a teaspoon.”

“Wait a minute,” Willow says slowly, her voice curling with disbelief. “Do you have a thing for Reign?”

My head snaps up. “What? No. Absolutely not.”

“Ouuu, the blush is blushing,” Alfie teases, pointing a straw-stirrer in my direction before putting it back in his mouth, biting down on it as he grins.

“I do not—he’s not—Reign isn’t…” I throw up a hand. “He’s no one to me.”

“Is that so?” a deep voice says from behind me.

The silence that follows is too sudden and I feel my stomach drop as I realize who that voice belongs to. I twist slowly in my spot, and sure enough, there he is, standing afew feet behind me, hands in his pockets, his icy blue eyes locked on mine.

My face explodes with heat and my skin prickles with awareness, mortification flooding through me in waves. As serious as he looks, I catch the faintest twitch of his cheek—a half smile that sends my stomach into free fall.

“Holy shit,” Alfie whispers to the others behind me. “Is he smiling? Like... actually smiling?”

He falls silent again as Reign lifts his chin, breaking eye contact with me long enough to look at Lando and give him a short, respectful nod.

“I just came by to congratulate you on landing my understudy,” he says, as if he wasn’t the one who decided.

Lando straightens in his seat, his face lighting up before he quickly clears his throat, voice a little deeper than usual. “Thanks.”

Reign nods again, then looks back at me. “I’m leaving early today,” he pauses. “See you both at home.”

Home.

He says it like it belongs to me too and something inside me stirs, wild and electric. Reign walks down the rest of the stairs and toward his parked car. Once he’s out of earshot, it’s like the group finally takes a breath of air.

“I know I’m taken,” Alfie says, slowly, “but holy shit, your brother is so hot, Lando.”

Willow snorts into her drink and Max leans in slightly, brow raised. “He was giving Angeliquefuck meeyes.”

Lando groans in disgust, but I barely register it because my heart is still pounding, my skin buzzing, and I can’t stop hearing his voice in my head.

See you both at home.

Chapter 7

Angelique

“I’m so embarrassed,” I groan, tugging the drawstrings of my hoodie until the fabric bunches around my face like a makeshift mask. Slumping into the passenger seat of Lando’s Audi, I curl toward the window, wishing I could disappear into the doorframe.

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