Page 28 of Becoming His Muse
They’d been driving for fifteen minutes when Elion turned down the radio and glanced at Olani as she opened the fruit bowl.
“I’ve decided to make this a thing,” he started. “So, tell me something else I don’t know about you.”
“I took ballet when I was younger. I wanted to be a dancer for a while until my junior year of high school.”
“What changed?”
Olani sighed. “It was the realization that my entire life would revolve around it, practicing and competing for jobs. Every aspect would be a competition, and I didn’t want that to be my life. I just hate that I had to learn that lesson the painful way.”
“How so?” he inquired, glancing at her again to find her taking a bite of a strawberry.
“When I was sixteen, I was cast in the lead role for a production. The ballet company I trained at put it on every year,” she started after swallowing. “I was extremely excited and proud of myself because it was the first time anyone of color was the lead in that production.” Olani paused for a moment.
“It came down to another girl who was a few years older than me, and in our head-to-head audition dances, I was the better of the two. I went after practice to tell her how great she did and maybe apologize for her not getting the spot or something. Her sister had been the lead a few years prior, and I knew how bad she wanted it.” Another sigh, and Elion glanced at her again.
“So, I go, and before I can say anything to her, she tells me she’s fine and she’ll try again next year. We leave it at that. Well, something happened between then and our next practice. She’s throwing glares at me, mumbling under her breath when I’mlearning the steps; she even tried tripping me a few times when our instructor wasn’t looking.”
Elion shook his head. It was terrible, but he could imagine it happening. There were several career paths people didn’t realize were as cutthroat and competitive as they were, and ballet was one of them.
“This goes on for several weeks,” she continued. “Then we’re leaving one evening. I’m headed down the stairs, and I feel myself falling forward, and it’s only when I crash to the bottom that I realize I was pushed.”
“She pushed you down the stairs?” he questioned in disbelief.
“She did, but she maintained when later confronted by our instructor that she didn’t. That she was exiting the classroom when she saw me trip. The fall caused me to break my ankle and two fingers, and I fractured a wrist. I couldn’t practice, and if I couldn’t, I had no leading role. We were three weeks into practice, and the production was in another three weeks. I wouldn’t be healed in time to continue.”
“Are you telling me she pushed you down the stairs and still ended up with the role?”
“Not quite. She was my understudy, and she started practicing right away. Perfecting every move, making sure she had it down to a beautiful science. But I have a protective, petty older cousin, and the day before opening, Xola beat the brakes off that girl,” Olani laughed lightly, and Elion chuckled.
“She let her do all that practicing. Allowed her to be excited about it and snatched it from her as she walked out of dress rehearsal the night before. I won’t lie; it was bad. Xola cracked two of her ribs, and her parents called the police. It was a whole ordeal.”
“Remind me not to get on Xola’s bad side,” Elion stated, and she laughed.
“But that taught me I didn’t want my life to be a never-ending competition because if a nineteen-year-old girl would push me down the stairs for a leading role, what would a grown woman do? And yeah, I compete in my career now but on my terms. Only when I want that business, and you don’t always have that luxury in dance.”
He reached over and grabbed her hand, kissing the back of it, then her palm. “I hate that something you enjoyed was tainted, but I also got something else from that story.”
“What?”
“That you’re flexible.” He glanced at her with a smirk, and she laughed, pulling her hand from his and swatting him on the chest.
“Alright, your turn,” she told him after she sobered.
Olani watched Elion drum his fingers on the steering wheel as he thought. Reaching into the fruit bowl, she grabbed another strawberry, held it out to him, and watched him take a bite. It was innocent. She knew it was, but Olani found something enticing about it. She watched him lick his lower lip a few seconds later, and she bit her tongue to keep from saying anything or making a noise.
“I’m discovering that my childhood compared to yours was boring,” he told her.
“Was it boring or are you just too embarrassed to tell me?” she questioned teasingly. “Besides, I didn’t say it had to be about your childhood.”
Elion chuckled. “Oh, you want embarrassing? I got you.”
Olani turned towards him, propping her elbow beside the headrest. “I’m all ears.”
“You know that sculpting has been my career path since I was young, even with the tagging. So, I was confident in my ability to create and sell, and I just knew it would work out from the jump, especially since I’d been able to sell the small pieces I made here and there.” He paused for a moment. “I conducted my first show through a broker, and I rushed to make pieces for it. I didn’t have a team; knew nothing about marketing, but every piece sold. The pieces were small, so I only made a few hundred dollars, but you couldn’t tell me anything.”
“You were feeling yourself, had a big head,” Olani stated, before popping a grape into her mouth.
“Most definitely,” Elion agreed with a nod. “Naturally, I set up another quick sell, more small pieces, again everything sold, and I made a few hundred dollars.”
