Page 64 of Dance With Me
“What are your plans for today?” Nat asked.
“I’m going to meet Dom for a coffee and drop into the studio. I need to call up my private clients to let them know I’m back.” He carried on eating, scrolling through his phone. “I’ll see what else there is to do after that. I can take over your lessons later if you want. I would imagine you have loads to do before you go.”
“Yeah, we have some packing up to do at Louis’s place. I can’t believe we’ll be going so soon. I’m going to miss you guys so much.” She pinched his cheek, and he swatted her hand away. It was good to be home.
“Hey, it’s not forever. We can Skype all the time when you can, and we can come to visit. It’d be great to be in London again. It’s been a while.” Seb looked up from his phone and smiled.
He finished his breakfast and made his excuses, still needing to empty his car as he’d only brought in the bare necessities last night. He got his keys and stepped out of the apartment. It was such a beautiful day. He was glad to be back. He’d missed his friends and his home, and he couldn’t wait to get back to the studio and start dancing again.
As he walked towards his car, his stomach dropped. A note fluttered in the breeze underneath his wiper blade. He looked around to see if he could see anyone, but the car park was empty.
Using his fingertips, he carefully removed the note from his windscreen and read it.
Welcome back, baby. Did you think I’d forget about you? I could never do that. I’ll be seeing you soon. We were always fated, Seb, you and me together in life and death.
“Fuck, just leave me alone!” Seb shouted in frustration. He looked around him. There was no one.
He ran back inside and slammed the door behind him. Fuck, he didn’t know what to do now. It was clear that they’d just waited for him to come back. They’d never gone away. This needed to end once and for all, but he didn’t know how.
Natalia and Louis rushed to him as he came through the door, and he gave them the note.
“I am so sick and tired of this. What does he mean? Together in life or death. What do I do?” The words tumbled from his mouth as he looked at his friends, tears flowing from his eyes. He was so sick of crying.
His heart raced and his breathing became shallow. A darkness began to cloud his vision. His hands and feet tingled, and he was vaguely aware of other hands rubbing his back and his head being forced down between his knees.
“Breathe, Seb. Just breathe. It’ll be alright.” Louis’s calm words tried to break through his panic attack, to no avail. He could feel himself slipping away, falling to the floor, then it all faded to black.
When he finally woke, he was lying on the sofa, a cool cloth on his head and a blanket covering his body. He heard whispers and wondered for a moment how he’d got there, then he remembered. He sat up quickly, and Dom was immediately at this side.
“Hey, you’re OK. You’re safe here with us,” Dom said, stroking his hair. “Everything’s going to be all right. We’ve called the police again. They’ll be here soon.”
“No,” Seb answered, “I don’t want them here. There’s nothing they can do. They can get to me anytime and anywhere. What’s the point? I’m done with it, Dom. If he wants me, then he can come and get me. I’m tired of fighting this. I’m tired of hiding. This will end, one way or the other.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Joe
Saturday July 17th. His wedding day. Except it wasn’t, not now anyway.
He’d been bullied into having his family around by Hazel who’d said, “he needed to pull his head out of his arse and talk to some real people and not just about work.” So he’d bought a shitload of booze and food and was waiting for everyone to arrive.
Initially, they were going to have a barbecue, but in typical British style, the heavens had opened and it was absolutely pissing down. Good job they weren’t getting married. Clare would have been livid, even though the weather wasn’t something she could control.
Not to worry, though, the day would be fine. He was going to make sure he was well and truly arseholed tonight, and not in a good way. He snorted at the thought, which garnered him a dirty look from Hazel. She’d turned up early to help make a start on the food with him.
“What’s got you laughing?” she asked.
“Not much to laugh about, is there? The wedding’s off and Seb wants nothing to do with me. I was just wondering how drunk I could actually get tonight. At least there’s no one to tell me off for having just one more.”
“OK, I’ll give you that Seb is nothing to laugh about, but you dodged a bullet there with the wedding.”
Joe glared at her.
“I know, I know, you still love her, but you can’t deny that she’s been a total bitch this past month. I just hope you’re going to get a DNA test when that baby’s born. Not saying I don’t trust her, but I don’t trust her.”
“Yeah, well, not a lot we can do about that little problem at the moment. I just hope it hasn’t blown my chances with Seb. He wouldn’t even kiss me until I’d told her the wedding was off. God knows what he’s thinking now she’s dropped that little grenade.”
Hazel took a sip of her beer. “Have you seen or heard from him? Is he back yet?”
