Page 88 of The Dance Deception
After Mum has wrapped her arms round me, followed by Dad, then Dee then Pete, I tell them I’d better get back to rehearsals and that I can’t wait to catch up with them properly later. I keep my Merle dilemma to myself – I don’t want to drag them into it – but more than ever I don’t want to have to mess up my performance on the show tonight. Not now my whole family has flown all the way here to watch it.
As I back out of the door to a chorus of ‘good luck’s and ‘love you’s, it strikes me that the only way I can make my problem go away is if I can get hold of Merle’s phone. If he hasn’t got the video, he can’t use it. But it’s not like I can just bowl into his dressing room and he’ll hand it over.
If he isn’t in there, though…
I race towards the costumes room and get there just in time to see Emilia emerging in her latest ensemble – a gold swimming costume with some tassels hanging down to create a very mini miniskirt. She looks amazing. Merle really doesn’t deserve her.
I falter for the briefest moment, my mind flashing back to that day when Ed’s new lover devastated me with the news that my boyfriend was a snake. I hate the idea of inflicting that kind of pain on anyone else. But Emilia hasa right to know what Merle’s really like. The question is, will she believe me?
She eyes me suspiciously as I take a deep breath and ask for a quick word.
‘I really need your help,’ I tell her.
‘It’s a bit late now,’ she says, presumably thinking I mean with my dancing.
My palms prickle with sweat as I confess the real reason, all the while silently praying I’ve judged this correctly. I’d want to be told if I were her, wouldn’t I? I’d want to know what my partner was capable of.
She looks away and shakes her head when I finish talking. I don’t know what she means by it and I can feel my heart pounding. Is she angry with him? With me? Does she think I’m winding her up? The seconds drag on as I wait for her to respond.
Eventually she turns back to me with a look of resignation in her eyes. My heart jolts when she says, ‘What do you need me to do?’
Chapter 45
Iwait at the end of the corridor while she’s in the dressing room with Merle, peering anxiously round the corner and desperately hoping she can lure him out of there. The plan is for her to persuade him to go back to the studio for one last rehearsal, after she saw me and Aleksis return to the reception room and realised the studio would be empty. She promised to lay it on thick.
It feels like she’s in there for hours and it’s torture not knowing what’s going on. If she doesn’t manage to get Merle out of the dressing room, I’ll have only moments left to decide whether to ignore his threat, give the show my best shot and let him release the video, or whether to let Aleksis down and let Merle win. I change my mind every few seconds – I can’t bear more humiliation, I’ll go along with his scheme; Merle can do his worst, I won’t be beaten like this.
I jump out of my skin when the dressing room door finally opens and I hear Emilia telling Merle to hurry up. I pull my head back out of sight as she tells him, ‘We’llhave just enough time to run through them both one more time, if we’re quick.’
As soon as the coast is clear, I sprint towards the dressing room, pulling the door closed behind me the second I’m inside. With shaking hands, I call Merle’s number from my own phone, praying he hasn’t taken it with him without Emilia noticing. I’m screwed if he has – I haven’t got a plan B.
When I hear it ring, I don’t think I’ve ever felt more relieved in my life. I fight back tears as I quickly locate it and send a silent thank you to Emilia as I pull it from his bag. When I have it in my hands, such a surge of happiness washes over me that I have to steady myself on the dressing table. I’ve got it. My nightmare is over. I switch it to silent, bundle it into a wodge of tissues to disguise it and slip quickly back out into the corridor.
Aleksis finds me in the reception room less than a minute later, his brow furrowed with worry and confusion. ‘Emilia practically chased me out of the studio. She said you needed me back here.’
He sounds upset, but his eyes light up when I discreetly show him the phone in among the tissue and realisation dawns.
‘Nice work,’ he says, a smile breaking out on his face.
‘I’m going to take it outside now and get rid of it for good,’ I tell him.
He asks if he can do the honours – and once we’ve found a sheltered spot seems to take great pleasure in crushing it under his heel before dropping the pieces in the trash.
‘No more video,’ he says defiantly, and I don’t think three words have ever made me happier.
He reaches for my hand and gives it a squeeze. ‘Nothing can stop us now.’
‘Let’s go out there and smash it,’ I agree, suddenly raring to go.
It’s not long before Olivia is leading us back to the studio for the very last time and Kimberley is getting the show underway.
‘Ladies and gentlemen! The judges are ready, the contestants are poised, the dance floor is waiting, and I think we all know what that means … Yes, that’s right! It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the electrifying final ofFire on the Dance Floor!’
Beth and Liam are sitting at a table next to the judges’ desk with Gabriel and Valentina. Theo and Dean are at the table beside that with Jessica and Daniele. There’s a glass of wine in front of each of them. I wish I could run over and glug some down to calm my nerves.
‘We’ve got an exciting night ahead of us, with just three couples left in the competition, dancing for the chance to win twenty-five thousand pounds,’ Kimberley says. ‘Tonight they’ll each be performing two dances – one that was allocated to them at random and another that they’ve chosen for themselves – but it’ll be up to you, the audience, to decide who wins the prize money and who goes home with nothing.
‘There will be no elimination after the first round of dances, meaning all three couples will be battling it out right to the very end. Will Emilia and Merle seduce us with their stylishsalsa? Will Tammy and Elijah make our hearts race with their ravishing rumba? Or will Kate and Aleksis break theFire on the Dance Floorcurse and tango all the way to the top? I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to find out!’
