Page 32 of How to Dance

She liked the twinkle in his eyes.

“All my friends are in Indiana,” she told him. “And I think you’re a really good guy, Nick. Definitely the best I’ve met in Ohio.”

“Out of how many?”

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly as he fought to keep a straight face. “I think we could be good for each other,” she said. “Want to see if I’m right?”

Finally, she got to see what Nick Freeman’s smile looked like with actual light behind it.

9

It was tech week at Vivez Dance.

The company’s summer show was premiering Friday night, and that meant every moment from this Monday morning through Friday afternoon would be spent perfecting the technical details of the show on stage, from lighting cues to costume changes, sound levels, prop placement, and everything in between. The cast and crew would be essentially living in the theater from early in the morning until late at night. At the very back of the floor section, sitting behind a long folding table with stacks of VHS tapes and a computer, Nick Freeman was having a blast.

It was the energy of the place. It had been a little weird to be introduced to the company the week before as a new addition to the family, but a family it was. Linda treated every member of the company like she was grateful they’d chosen to be there, and that sort of leadership inspired her employees to be worthy of her gratitude. Even Nick, who still thought of himself as a glorified button pusher, had started bringing in doughnuts every morning. It wasa small gesture (and an inexpensive one, since a lot of the dancers were too health conscious for a daily step closer to diabetes), but it allowed him to contribute to the team beyond just helping Linda transfer video. Then there was Nick’s ulterior motive: He kept the doughnuts at his table in the back, which meant he could introduce himself to anybody who came looking for a tasty treat. It took him two days to build a fairly comprehensive mental roster of the Vivez Dance team. Just like at the Squeaky Lion, the more Nick knew about the people around him, the easier it was to find where he fit in—and cerebral palsy had trained him to always be aware of people willing to help him. Like the tall Black guy in his mid-twenties who was now approaching Nick’s table, with a toothy grin and a mug of hot coffee.

“Happy Monday to the music man!” Calvin Tunney set the mug down next to Nick and came around the table to drum on his shoulders with his hands. “We’ve gotta keep you loose, brother. Can’t have you pulling a muscle changing those tapes.”

“How’s my favorite person today, Cal?” Nick asked.

“Pretty sure Mimi’s in the dressing room.”

Nick laughed. “You beat me to the joke.”

“I know, I know. I was supposed to say, ‘I’m doing fine, Nick!’ like I don’t know you like her more than me.”

Nick tapped the box of doughnuts next to him. “I don’t get apple fritters for Mimi.”

Cal gave him a fist bump as a young woman with a backpack came jogging up to them. She wore a bright yellow baseball cap, with a daisy on the front, over her long, champagne-blond hair, and there was a look of serene contentment on her face. Nick and Cal waited expectantly.

“Ranier,” she said triumphantly.

“Mimi Ranier,” Nick said slowly, testing it out. He glanced at Cal.

“I like it,” Cal said.

“Me too,” Nick decided. “Sounds like you’d be headlining a classy stage show in the 1940s.”

Mimi gasped, and brought her hands together in an excited clap. “That’s the best answer ever.”

“Hear that?” Nick asked Cal. “Best answer ever. Like, better than any answer you could give her.”

Cal snorted. “I could give a better one. If I wanted to.”

This was their routine: coffee, doughnuts, and banter. He’d quickly become “the music man” to Cal thanks to the same knowledge and recall that dazzled at the bar, and Mimi had involved him in her tireless search for a proper stage name. It was as if they had adopted him or volunteered to be adopted, and either way Nick was fine with it. They reminded him of his students, in all the best ways.

“So, tech week,” he said. “How rough is this going to be for you guys?”

Cal shrugged. “We get really good dinners. I’m down with it.”

“The hard part’s the boredom,” Mimi told him. “There’s going to be at least one hookup.”

“Really?” Nick asked. “Love is in the air?”

She shook her head at him with a smile. It was a look that said he was awfully cute for being so naive, and Mimi made it look adorable. She had grown up in this theater doing summer programs and internships before she was employed full-time, and Nick figured she’d earned the right to remind him she knew more than he did, even if he guessed she was barely old enough to drink.

“Not love, mon chéri,” she said patiently. “Put a bunch of beautiful people close together for long enough and at least two of them are going to find a way to pass the time.”

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