Page 72 of The Dance Deception
‘Try not to worry,’ Aleksis assures me, wrapping his arms round me and kissing me. ‘Look how far you’ve come in just a few weeks. It’s not going to be the struggle it would have been back at the beginning.’
‘But it’s the Argentine,’ I fret, searching his face for reassurance.
‘And you’re a really good dancer now. You’ve just got to remember to believe in yourself,’ he says with a smile.
I close my eyes and sigh, still not fully placated.
‘Look at it as a vote of confidence,’ Aleksis says. ‘Shane won’t want the final show to look anything less thanspectacular, right? So they wouldn’t give us this dance if they didn’t think we could do it justice.’
It does make sense when he puts it like that.
‘There’s no rueda taking up our time this week, so we’ve got plenty of time to prep. And don’t forget, I pulled off a pretty decent tango on the opening show, so you’re in good hands. We can start pulling some ideas together first thing in the morning,’ he promises.
‘Thank you.’ I smile, finally comforted. ‘I needed to hear that. I’ll stop stressing about it and try to be more relaxed.’
‘For that, I already have an idea.’
He takes my hand and leads me out onto the terrace. A light breeze caresses my skin as he pulls me in for a kiss.
‘I’ve always wanted to have sex out here,’ he whispers, and a smile creeps onto my face.
When he lifts his top up over his head, the tango is suddenly the last thing on my mind.
Chapter 38
Aleksis has me holding on to the kitchen counter and working through a series of footwork drills the next morning, while he sits at the table and works on our choreography. Every now and again he comes over to correct something I’m doing and we end up kissing for a while. It makes the drills much more interesting.
Over lunch we discuss what we should do for this week’s video clip and conclude a family Skype from Auntie Irene’s house is the best option. Hopefully Sarah will be able to come up with a way to make it fun to watch. She usually does.
We also decide to go with a repeat of our bachata for our second dance in the final, with a couple of moderations to give the audience something new to see. Although this week’s cha-cha got us our highest score, we both agree it’s too soon to do it again – the audience might find it boring.
By this point, Aleksis has worked his ideas for our Argentine tango into something more concrete, so wespend the rest of the afternoon on partnerwork. He walks me through the whole routine first, so I can see what we’re working towards, then breaks it down into smaller sections to help me fully understand the mechanics of the dance. It quickly becomes apparent it’s going to take a lot of work to master the art of the leg flick without kicking him anywhere delicate.
Our plan is to get the tango locked into our memories first, then have a bachata crash course at the end of the week. We stick at it till dinner time, and it’s only then that I check my phone and discover a string of missed calls and voicemails, from a number I don’t recognise.
‘Kate, it’s Olivia fromFire on the Dance Flooragain,’ the most recent message says. ‘Can you call me back urgently please. Doesn’t matter what time, I’ll be waiting to hear from you.’
She picks up straight away when I type in the number she’s left and starts speaking before I’ve even said hello.
‘Oh Kate, thank goodness I’ve got hold of you. Can you and Aleksis be at Heathrow Airport at seven-thirty on Tuesday morning? I’ve got three tickets on hold for a flight to Toulouse, coming back at seven-fifteen in the evening – so you can go and see your family. I know it’s short notice, but as soon as Sarah suggested it, we knew it would look great on the show. She’ll go with you, of course, so she can film it.
‘We’ll have a car pick you up at the other end to take you to your sister’s, so you’ll be there in time for lunch and home in time for bed. Does that sound okay? Can I get it all booked in? Shane really wants this to happen.’
‘What is it?’ Aleksis asks, seeing my body stiffen and my eyes go wide.
‘Olivia wants us to go to France for a day,’ I explain, my mind already racing. ‘On Tuesday. To film us with my family.’
He considers this for a moment then says, ‘That sounds feasible.’
‘But what about rehearsals? That’s a whole day of practice we’ll miss.’
‘I’m sure we could squeeze a bit in – at the airport, when we get back, whenever we can find a few spare minutes.’
‘We’ll lose so much time, though.’ I can hear the rising hysteria in my voice. ‘And what about this?’ I gesture from him to me. ‘I haven’t told them.’
‘I think we should do it,’ he says decisively. ‘They should at least meet the man you’re living with, don’t you think? We can call them this evening and tell them everything. Well, maybe noteverything.’
I clearly don’t look convinced because he adds, ‘I think it’ll be a good thing, us going there. It might even stop them feeling so bad about not being here while you’re doing the show.’
